Serving Sizes

I saw an infographic earlier this week stating that to prepare for Thanksgiving you would need a pound of turkey for each person, a half pound of potatoes, and one slice of pie.

Clearly that graphic was supported by the turkey farmers and not the pie bakers.

We get a 5 pound turkey breast, or as close to that as possible because they don’t come any smaller, and call it good for our family. I remember learning that a serving size of meat should be roughly the size of a deck of cards. I think if you were to weigh it the serving should be a quarter pound. So why would I need four times that much for each person? No wonder everyone always has so many turkey leftovers they can’t figure out what to do with.

My grandma’s rule for mashed potatoes was one per person and one for the table. But we love mashed potatoes at our house. Well, some of us do. Others gag on them, so more for the rest of us! So we do our 5 pound turkey in the slow cooker and then do roughly 5 pounds of potatoes in the pressure cooker. Mashed potatoes!!

I’m pretty sure a serving size of pie is just one slice, probably less depending on the pie. But who really eats just one slice of pie? Especially if you happen to have a variety of pies around? You have to sample them all. We actually do a cheese cake and top it with homemade cranberry sauce. But in March we celebrate Pi day and everyone eats a lot more pie than just one slice.

If I’m going to over indulge in food and be a glutton for one day, it’s going to be on pie, not turkey. Maybe we should reverse that infographic and make it a pound of pie for each person but just one slice of turkey?