Homemade handy portion measure for rice and pasta.

Homemade dry rice and pasta portion measure. Ideal for new students.

Following last week’s A level results, we now have another teen to get ready for University. Lists are being made, wristbands are being bought and some panic is setting in when I realise my nest will suddenly be empty!

It’s fun and exciting to collect together all the bits and pieces she needs to take with her. She is able to cook, so that’s one less worry but she’s casting her eye around my kitchen for familiar things she could “borrow”. I have an old and battered cup that I use to measure out dry pasta and rice as it shows a dry portion by volume.

“Can I take the pasta cup Mum?”

Errr, well, no. I use it often. Then I thought, if pasta and rice are tricky for me to get the portions right, it will certainly be hard for an inexperienced cook. Students especially need to get the portions correct, either because they can’t afford to throw away cooked pasta or they must eat enough to fuel an often hectic lifestyle.

I know they could make a pasta salad with the leftovers, (we are talking students here guys….) and I’m not going to encourage her to use up leftover rice, it can make you very ill. So I needed a new measuring cup for her to take. Volume is easier as not many students have a set of scales.

You could mark the volumes on a plastic measuring jug, but the volume of rice is quite small so this is what I did.

You need.

• An empty plastic soup or pasta sauce tub
• Sharpies or permanent marker
• dry rice and pasta
• a measuring jug

How to ….

Homemade dry rice and pasta portion measure. Ideal for new students.

• Take a plastic tub that has contained soup or pasta sauce.  Wash it out and dry thoroughly.
• Then measure out half a pint of dried pasta (one adult portion) and tip into the tub.
• Take a Sharpie and mark a line to show the top of the dried pasta. Tip the dry pasta back into the pack.
• Label the line ‘dry pasta’.
• Measure out 75 ml of dried rice (one adult portion), again tip into the pot and mark a line around the tub to show the top of the rice.
• Label the line ‘dry rice’.
• If you use pulses or other grains regularly than measure and mark an adult portion of these in the same way.

Hope this helps in some way to keep both your stomach filled to the right level. It should stop you throwing your food (and by extension your money) into the bin. More for you to spend on that bottle of Vodka for pre drinks. Enjoy!

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