Quick Post: Guessing portions for grains

Cheesy picture courtesy of tilda.com

While cooking:

Rice and quinoa will double in size 

Couscous will almost triple

Pasta will "soften up", and in doing so grow by up to 20%

Put the [X] in a pan, imagine it [Y] times the size and ask "Is that going to be a bit too much?"

Having said that, don't forget that you can always put them in the fridge for tomorrow's bento/future meals:

• Rice is the most difficult to keep for long in my opinion: it goes hard in the fridge and can become tasteless and dry. If reheating, blitz to oblivion in the microwave because otherwise spores will kill you or somesuch. I generally make leftover rice into makeshift Onigiri while still hot, put them in the door of the fridge (try to keep them away from the cooling element) and eat within half a week
• Quinoa is delicious cold, and makes for good salads, especially if you cook it in chopped tomatoes (recipe soon). If it dries up too much, it can be revived with a tiny bit of olive oil (put in some lemon juice to up freshen, too)
• Couscous can end up in hard clumps if kept in the fridge for long. Don't pack it too tightly when you put it away, and try to eat it quickly. Again, small amounts of olive oil can revive, but too much will make it taste like one of those Tesco couscous salads
• Pasta is best revived in a pan of boiling water after spending time in the fridge. While it's still hot, be sure to put a teeny bit of oil on it to prevent it from forming solid bricks when it's cooled. Don't use butter, or it'll solidify and you'll get a greasy solid brick of pasta- super delicious(!)