This is the recommended serving size of cutenessAnyone read those hoity toity (tween Charlotte may have watched Newsies a lot. Like 12 times in the theater a lot.) cooking magazines like Fine Cooking and Gourmet? My simple Betty Crocker heart secretly adores flipping through all those delicious pages with their 200 ingredient recipes, food-porn pics and advertisements for exotic utensils like “mandolin” and “zester” and “chef’s quality squishy mat that feels just like a stress ball for your toes!”. But I have one problem with those mags (that’s a lie – we all know I have lots of problems with cooking but we’ll leave my food issues aside for now): all the ingredients are measured in weird things like grams and ounces. The only thing in my kitchen that measures ounces is my Vitamix and I don’t think that’s the kind of ounces they mean when they say “2 ounces of 85% bittersweet cacao.” (You know a recipe is serious when it calls for “cacao” instead of chocolate. How do you even say that? I’m imagining ka-KOW. You know, like chocolate for Batman. If it’s not, kindly don’t disillusion me. I like mispronouncing words in public. It’s half of why I’m so fun at parties!)
So, when I received EatSmart’s kitchen scale in the mail* my first thought was “Suh-weet! (adult Charlotte may have watched Napolean Dynamite a lot.) Now I can make all those gourmet recipes and host the dinner party of my dreams!” At which point everyone who knows me falls to the floor laughing. As if the lack of proper measuring implements is the only thing holding me back from making rosemary-lemon shortbread tarts. I don’t even own matching dishes, remember? Actually my real first thought was this:
Not only can you measure fancy-shmancy food but also babies with tiny little ears like apricots, so delicious that I can’t help but nibble on them! The other upside? The scale only goes up to 11 pounds so I won’t be tempted to weigh myself on it. (Who am I kidding? I’m already weighing myself. Just not on a food scale. Egads.)
For those of you without a gourmet or slightly cannibalistic bent (those cheeks are so yummy!), a food scale has another obvious use: portion control. Sure you already know that a 3 oz. serving of meat is the size of a deck of cards but if you play with those ridiculously huge Sesame Street Uno cards like we do then your, er my, perception of portion sizes might be a wee bit off. Nothing says reality check on the pasta bowl like accuracy to the second decimal point. Not to mention this scale measures in ounces, grams, kilograms and pounds.
Want one for yourself? Just leave a comment telling me how you would use this scale. Would you finally get to cook European recipes and relive that one sweet summer in France? Or would you use it to keep that holiday snacking in check? Or, like me, would you sneak around the house weighing random objects just for the fun of it?
The winner will be announced Friday Dec. 4th. You get to choose your own color but shipping is limited to the U.S. For another chance to win this, check out Heather Eats Almond Butter!
*According to the new blog rules I must disclose that EatSmart sent me one free scale to review and is providing one scale at no cost to a winner on my blog. I was not paid for this post. Not that you asked but I do not get paid to blog, period. Also, I can’t believe I have to write my on fine-print legal crap.
Want want want want one!! I've needed a food scale for ages and have been too cheap to get one ( I know you can relate:) When trying to lose weight, the hardest thing for me, the carnivore, is to guess my meat portions…I mean the palm of my hand is one dimensional…how thick is that meat?
On a side note…Rainey (sp)looks adorable!!!
great for portion control during the week, and measuring delicious igredients for a weekend treat! sign me up!
p.s. i am always thoroughly entertained by your writing- thanks for keeping me in blogs to read!
lauren
Hey this would make a cool birhday gift! (Friday is my actual birthday.) Hmmm I could use this to make fancy recipes.But like you I usually find the recipes that use grams etc usually also have some ingredients I usually do not normally carry in my pantry. In truth I'd use it for portion control- I try to weigh/measure at least 90% of my food. And all I have is the super basic food scale. The kind with the little dial that you have to adjust up or down, and squint just right to see if your cheese slice is 1 oz or is that really 1.5??? And I always wonder how accurate it really is. Especially when I walk out of the kitchen and then come back to find my 3 year old "playing" with it.
Just found your blog about a month ago and I have to say I love, love, love it.
I totally try all of the European recipes I've been saving.
e.estt[at]yahoo[dot]com
Love the baby pic! Is that a tinge of reddish hair?
I would use the scale to finesse my baking cred. When cooking, I feel comfortable fudging/guessing amounts. But for baking, I have learned the more precise the better.
And yes, I would definitely use it for portion control, because I really really want to know what a 3oz steak looks like.
I would use it to weigh almond butter bc I seem to be overloading on it recently!
And I love how your daughter looks like she is already giving you the "wtf mom?" look!
I suppose this would be nice to have in the kitchen but I don't want one more thing to do or think about. Now that CSA season is over I'm slopping out chicken strips and spaghetti on a regular basis. But that baby pic. OMG. What bliss!
i've been reading your blog for awhile now and i love your wit 😛
i'd totally use this baby to see if i'm guesstamating the correct portions of what i'm eating.
and i'd definitely be weighing rando stuff too 🙂
I would love to win this because I've been interested in baking! I haven't baked due to 1. school 2. lack of tools 3. lack of time…
but this winter break is perfect for baking.
I hope I win!!
junghwa-chung@Hotmail.com
Don't want to win one, already have a similar one and I love it. I used it for a while to be fanatical about my portions but have laid off that for a while now (thank goodness). One neat trick it to see how much salad dressing your really use. I would prepare my salad and then weigh, then add my dressing to the desired consistency and weigh again. All dressings show you the grams for the 2 T in a serving so you can do some handy math to see what you are really ingesting – it can be quite eye opening. I put it away for a while when I started to weigh the bowl afterward to see how much dressing was left and therefore did not need to log – like I said, fanatical.
First I would use it to measure my own baby (five-weeks-old) and then I would give it to my husband who thinks he is a good cook and likes fancy-schmancy stuff like this. He actually measures stuff when he cooks, unlike myself, who just throws a little of this, a little of that in.
As much as I wish I would use the scale for fancy schmancy gourmet recipes, I would honestly use it to measure portions. Sigh. I'd really love one though!
oh boy! i would use that to weigh my 28 almonds and see if that REALLY IS one ounce 🙂
That has got to be the most beautiful papoose I have ever seen! (your baby's gorgeous too- that goes without saying!)
I've ditched the scale- I have enough problems. Some other more deserving soul can enjoy it!
Ooooh–this is one of the things on my Christmas list! I want a kitchen scale for a bunch of reasons, the main one being that I bake a lot and can never be sure exactly how much flour to use. A recipe that calls for 1 cup of flour can be really imprecise if the flour is humid (hello, I live in Oregon) or if it gets compacted while measuring it out.
Hey Charlotte,
I would LOVE the scale. There are tons of uses in my house of four young women in our mid-twenties but mostly it revolves around our love of cooking and need to do portion control. All of use come from southern/midwest backgrounds and we have no concept of how much food should be on a plate. This is the key for two of us to get to a healthier weight. A scale would be a great way to understand portions AND become Julia Child apprentices. 🙂
Wow – what a great giveaway! I would LOVE a scale – I've always wanted a kitchen scale so I could portion out those huge "value packs" of ground beef into single-pound bags before cooking and/or freezing them…Being able to measure cheese would be handy too – I hate when recipes call for a certain number of ounces of cheese, rather than a dry measure. And yes, I'd probably also go around finding random things to weigh, just because! 😉
And your daughter – what a cutie!! (And so expertly swaddled too, I might add! :))
1. I already ordered a scale very similar to this from my 'rewards' site for my credit card
2. I'm comfortably living in Canada, so…well, obviously I can't enter.
But, I needed to comment because your daughter is so freaking adorable. And I wish I could be bundled up like that given that it's currently -16 and snowing (I'd opt out of the attached pacifier, but otherwise…I'm in).
How helpful!
If I had this scale, I would put it on my kitchen counter.
Not just on any counter, it would grace the fabled "Counter o' appliances". You see, I live with three other girls, and we all brought a random assortment of useless appliances: smores makers, fondue pots, a magic bullet, spaghetti maker pro.
These appliances are never used, collecting dust, and we are in desperate need of one that all of us would use. We would use it to measure portions or to assist with cooking. Perhaps even dress it up as the king of the appliances.
Oh, a scale! I would use it to make bread. All different kinds of fancy bread with crackly crusts. And also, probably cakes. And other types of pastries.
hmmm. I will add at the end that theres no need to enter me 🙂 BUT…
Id love to win this because a man I know who lives with me but whom Id never identify 🙂 wants to shed some weight.
Although i care not how he looks I love having him alive and am aware of his "bad" genetics when it comes to his ticker.
This man does NOT want me giving him pointers or food-tips and methinks he'd let a food scale do just that!
um, no need to enter me though 🙂
I would love this to fact-check on serving sizes. I used to have a scale (since broken) and was shocked how often snack pack portions and stuff like that don't contain what they say they do.
And okay I admit I would weigh random stuff too.
I would love to win a scale.
I would use it all the time! First and foremost to measure everything to finally get rid of the last terrible ten pounds (because they are becoming the frightening fourteen pounds and creeping up slowly…it is the holidays isn't it?)
Portion control is my downfall…maybe this would help me.
Any way, I would love to be entered in the drawing…Thanks!
I would love this scale. It is too cute. In addition, I think it would be really helpful to honestify my guesstimates for serving sizes. 🙂
And your pumpkin is just TOO sweet. I can see why you would nibble!
I need a scale because otherwise I have to eyeball how big certain portions should be. (Why can't recipes make everything EASY???)
Your bologna loaf is TOO CUTE!
I want to weigh your cute little one!!! Did I miss her name? Such a cutie pie!!!!
Quite an amusing post. I would probably weigh lots of things around the house & kitchen for curiosity sake & more!!!! I might even weigh one of those big ole cookies I eat for my special treat!!! Yikes best not. Suffice to say I will use it but I might be the only one eating my food as bad a cook as I am!
PS: Having a giveaway at my site too for a great tote that you may want to put baby things in OR your own special stuff!
I love, love, love that photo of your daughter! As for a scale: I like being fooled into thinking I eat normal portions. Now a gadget to tell me how much dry spaghetti to cook? I'd take it in a second!
I have wanted one of these for forever! It just seems that there is always something more logical that I NEED. I seem to always run into recipes that call for a weights…so I guess 🙂 Love the picture of your little girl!
Ooh! I would love to win one of these! I would use it for baking! I cannot count how many times I have "guessed" at an amount, and my desserts/breads have been somewhat "off." Thanks for a great giveaway!
I wonder how much my cat weighs…
Honestly though, I think I'd use it to show my husband how much red meat he actually is eating. Yikes!
Portion control all the way!
delurking here (although I read your blog daily)
I would use the scale to do all the baking I do. I love to bake and it would just be less messy not to use all those extra utensils while baking.
i love to bake and whenever i see a recipe that's measured in grams, i have to immediately eliminate it. this would no longer be a problem! 🙂
I would use it most often to keep my portions under control, but I don't know if I'll be able to resist the temptation to weigh my cat.
I LOVE nibbling cheeks and ears!! My baby is four months old, and breastfeeding doesn't seem to be taking care of the weight as well as it did the first two times. I'm thinking portion control is to blame, so I'd love this scale.
I actually have a food scale but it is horrible. It is tiny, not digital, only weighs up to a pound, and is always tipping over. I definitely need an upgrade. I would probably also weigh random stuff, although not my baby because he clocked in at a whopping 16 lb 9 oz at his four month checkup – yay!
ohh, I have a kitchen scale on my Christmas list! We are a family of 6 and I'm the only girl so I buy a lot in bulk 😮 I'd love a scale to measure out serving portions that I could freeze. Plus portion control to finish getting rid of the baby weight, My youngest is 5 months and I usually don't lose it all while I'm breastfeeding either but damned if I don't give it my all!
I would love to use this to measure produce! I'm good on meat portions and things, but I always underestimate the good stuff for big recipes.
Well, since I'm in Canada and can't win, I guess that means I don't have to disclose what I would use it for! hehehehehe
I want a food scale so I obsess about how many ounces of cherry cheesecake I'm eating. And because I could weigh my cats on it, right? I mean, the one is getting kind of porky and maybe this would help me keep her in line.
Aw…Canadians love their scales 🙂
I'll have to get my own then 🙂
I've been looking for a good kitchen scale. I'm used to lab scales and haven't found a kitchen scale that works well or is even remotely accurate…I have some european recipes that are in weight and I'd love to try them, but you need an accurate scale for them. This looks like a good one.
I would use it for portioning out meat (still can't get it right) too, but mostly for baking a fancy spice cake recipe I've had for ages but haven't been able to to without a scale….
I don't want the scale, I just want to comment on how ADORABLE YOUR LITTLE GIRL IS!!!!!!
And yes, baby/toddler ears, cheeks, toes, tummies, etc. are great for nibbling on.
(BTW, have you ever seen "Delicious" magazine? It's from Australia. They sometimes have it at Borders, and it is the ultimate in food porn!)
I recently found your blog and am loving it. You are a terrific writer. And honest. And FUNNY!
What's up with the "blog rules"? Are these some sort of law now?
I would use the scale for measuring pasta!!! I hate how recipes ask for "9 oz of spaghetti". I have to keep a calculator in my kitchen because of it. (Well, I keep a calculator in a kitchen drawer anyway, but have to drag it out often to measure pasta.)
I'd use it to measure portion. My entire childhood we had regular plates (that didn't have dividers) so my portions were never really shown to me. Plus, I had my parents and 3 brothers to fight with for food…you too as much as you could so you didn't starve. Unless it was spinach or green beans, PASS! So now as an adult, my portion control is still wonky because I have no idea how much I'm actually supposed to be eating…and being as I'm desperately trying to lose weight so I can enlist and provide for my family, that's a bit of an issue when you're counting calories, carbs, proteins, fats as strictly as I am. I didn't know until a few months ago that the serving size of meat was the size of a deck of cards (SO FREAKING SMALL, if you ask me).
So yea, there. I'd use it to aid in all that.
Um, yes please. Pretty please?
*cough*randomobjects*cough*
Definitely portion control on the homemade chex mix that will soon be coming from my kitchen.
-Joshua
LOVE your blog! You are such a great writer and articulate so well! I work in the recreation field so I love reading all your posts. And I feel I would love the scale and probably NEED it. I have a warped sense of how much to eat and I think I over eat. I have never measured food before and I think I may be shocked to see how much I am eating! Keep up the good work!
LOVE your blog! You are such a great writer and articulate so well! I work in the recreation field so I love reading all your posts. And I feel I would love the scale and probably NEED it. I have a warped sense of how much to eat and I think I over eat. I have never measured food before and I think I may be shocked to see how much I am eating! Keep up the good work!
Okay, I'd totally use that scale to measure out meat and pasta, just like you said. I also have a few Czech recipes I'd like to make, but have no clue about swapping out ounces/grams.
BTW, your little gal looks ADORABLE!! Is that reddish hair I see??
I would love to win one of these! Oh, the things I would weigh! It sounds perfect for weighing almonds and other small items that I tend to overindulge on because I don't know what a portion size is.
(Your daughter is gorgeous!!!)
Oh, I love my food scale. Especially for measuring things like pasta. Although I have to admit that how obssessive I am about it depends directly on my state of mind at the time. Sometimes I'm freakin' insane, and other times . . . well, let's just say *more* normal. 😉
Oh! And obviously, I don't need to win. I've got one already. 😀
I think I would use it first to measue the important stuff like pasta (I don't eat meat) but then curiosity would get the best of me and I would measure portions of everything. It would keep me from eating out of the chip bag though…
I have a GREAT scale, very similar to that one (which is lucky since I'm not eligible to win this one) and it's awesome for everything you mention. I love that I can switch from ounces to grams and back again so I have no worries when I'm using different recipes. And portion control use is king.
Everyone should have one!
I hardly ever comment on giveaways anymore…but I've REALLY been wanting a food scale but it feels like a silly thing to ask for for Christmas.
I would FINALLY make bread. I'm so sure I'd screw up the flour measurements, so a food scale would eliminate at least one of my possible errors. Plus bread-making seems so time consuming…I'm not going to do all that work and then wind up with a brick of bread. 🙂
I have a bread cookbook and all the recipes are written in grams. My kids would be thrilled to come home to the smell of baked bread!
Your daughter is precious. Thanks for sharing the picture!
Want want want oneeee!! I would use it to keep my formerly GINORMOUS pasta portions in check! I seriously could eat fettucine alfredo EVERY day! :]
i already have a small, crappy food scale (weighs up to like … two pounds or something) so no need to enter me. however, i wanted to say that "newsies?" so underrated.
Oh a scale! Random number generator, pick me!
I'd use it to do some serious baking. I love to cook and bake and have significantly improved my skills since joining a CSA this summer/fall. Still–there have been many occasions that my recipes asked for a certain weight in vegetables, flour, etc. and I have NO idea. And–when playing around with the fancy/expensive ingredients those serious recipes call for…I would prefer not to guess.
Still working on hosting that party of my dreams…one day I'll make Martha Stewart jealous. Yes, dreams.
I would love to have it! I'd use it for portion control…after the holidays. Weighing cookies would only be depressing!
I would use it to weigh my shake ingredients. I know I go waaaay overboard on my ingredients…
I've got a chocolate mousse recipe a Parisian friend made for me once–it calls for _ounces of dark chocolate and no sugar, and it's fantastic! It's definitely the first thing I'd make with this handy little scale.
OK, that totally cracked me up. I am scared to death of those fancy schmancy cooking mags; they make me feel unqualified to make a peanut butter sandwich.
We have a scale, an this is a great reminder to start using it again, thanks!
I had to scroll back up to check out the apricot ears. Awwwwh.
I used to love my scale, but too much goo spilled onto and into it and the food scale gave up and quit. It was so much easier to weigh things than to measure them.
Thanks for the chance to win a new one.
cammi99
Thanks for the link Charlotte. Love that you chose a red one as well. Your little bologna loaf is PRECIOUS!
The baby is adorable Charlotte! I'd love to win the scale because I have not eyeball for portion sizes!
Charlotte, you can ignore this comment as a count for the giveaway but I was thinking I could weigh my sweaty workout clothes to see how much sweat they collect during one of my crazy workouts! 🙂
Glad to see I'm not the only weirdo who puts my babies' body parts in her mouth, though I try to contain it to ears and curled up fingers too!
I was wondering if you're doing a giveaway for new scale batteries because yes, I have run the batteries out on mine. I use it for weighing my European recipes in grams, dry ingredients for baked goods (far more accurate for a more consistent result), and weighing portions (in grams because once I start I can be pretty anal. Not sure why my kitchen is so messy).
So that's how I use mine, and that's why it needs new batteries. Troy bought one the other day. One. I just need one more. This one looks like a candy wafer, and I might eat it soon if I don't install it. Without a scale my eating habits are getting lax, which means I'm baking more (inconsistent) goods for the "my baby isn't small enough to eat anymore" withdrawals. Thanks, so thoughtful!
hi charlotte. love your blog. (not trying to suck up, i really check in on it all the time). and i get motivated by your motivation – i'm working towards getting my pre-baby body back. i'm so impressed by people like you who look so great after children, especially after having my own.
i've been really into baking bread this last while, and i would definitely use the scale to measure while i make bread. wanted one, but a med school student's wife can't have fancy things like kitchen scales.
baby girl is precious.
lauren havens vellinga
I am a Food Network junkie, and Alton Brown says I have to measure by weight, not by volume…and I do whatever Alton Brown tells me to, you know.
Love the baby pic! I knew before I saw the picture you were going to put her on the scale. (And how could you not?) My brother got a fish scale for our family Christmas one year, and we weighed my three week old cousin in it. Ten years later, we still tease him about being the "Fish Baby." (Like it was his fault?)
Looks like you've got yourself a real live "Food Baby." 😉
This would really help with portion control. I would love to weigh everything.
I somehow stumbled apon your blog about a week ago and yours has become the first and only blog I have ever subscribed to. I'm not sure yet what exactly the draw is but I have a theory (which follows). I have been active all of my life but have long yearned to be one of "the very petite but wait I'm still healthily muscular club". To my total frustration I always hover 10-20 pounds above what I feel I should weigh. I admit, I look to members of that club at the gym with a weird mix of awe and hatred and I have yet to gain the courage to approach one. Now, as I've entered my 30's and had my second child the yearning to be in the club has suddenly increased dramatically. I see them everywhere and now I have found a blog and in it I find fitness tips, recipes, and ways to eat (and links to more blogs of more recipes and more ways to eat) that I had not fully explored yet. My aha moment. So maybe that's how I can gain entry into the club. And it all starts with a scale.
Charlette you are an awesome writer!! I sit and smile from ear to ear reading your blogs!! This is so fun! A scale you say???? What everyone should have but no one really wants to buy but does for the pure reason that it is one of the real avenues to portion control and that is not as fun??? ugh! Keep up the good work girl!!! You truely are amazing!!!
I'd love to have this scale – I have a non-digital one, and hard to read. I usually end up thinking, "Well, it's close enough…" I honestly won't use the scale on a regular basis until June, when I'm due with my third baby. After that, I'll desperately need it to get my gigantic pregnancy portions under control!
I'd like to be able to bake more accurately… I've been wanting one for ages!
My cooking skills sound much like yours…so snack portion control would be the main use.
yeah! a kitchen scale to make pain au chocolat! My families favorite treat from living in Geneva, Switzerland for two years. I've been afraid to attempt them w/out one. pick me, pick me!!
Ooo, What a nice scale! I would weigh food like everybody else said, specially the recipes that call for weights of dry measures. Also, I would mostly want to weigh yarn for knitting. If you knit one sock, and weigh it compared to the yarn you have left, you can tell if there is enough for the second sock. Or another potholder… or whatever.
I measure everything in measuring cups. Alton Brown would totally not approve, as he says that you must measure everything by weight, not volume. I just want to be as awesome as him (and you) when I grow up! 🙂
Hey, if I ever got one of these scales, I'd use it to make all the Alton Brown recipes I drool over (since they're in weights, not measures). Oh, since I'm not above bribery, I'd bring over my latest creations for taste tests. (Oh wait, maybe that's a threat and not a bribe…)
I'd love one of these! My food scale is so inaccurate – it's the cheap analog kind that moves up and down based on the weight, with the arrow supposedly pointing to the appropriate weight…
I'd use it for weighing packages to mail.
🙂
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