Serving Sizes?

This has always been a big issue for me.  When I eat pre-packaged meals, I can see by the nutrition label what a serving size is.  I prefer to eat my own meals that are cooked in my own kitchen but have NO IDEA how to properly identify a serving size. I frequently put recipes in my "recipe box" on here and it requires me to enter in a serving size.  But I don't know the first thing about "eye-balling it" correctly. 

Does anyone have any idea how to do this?

Thanks in advance...

It depends on what you are making a serving of.  For example a serving of pasta is 1 cup, meat is generally 3-4 ounces, for soups or casseroles i usually say 1 cup is a serving.  Then you can add up how much volume (cups, ounces etc) of food you have and divide it into servings.  I find this really hard too but this method seems to work best for me.  Hope it helps.

If is meat i usually go by the deck of cards method if is a size of a deck of cards is one serving if is bigger is 2.

For rice and pasta I ussually meassure by using a cup. Pasta specially spagethi is hard for me.

I cook fresh foods from scratch too.  The best investment I ever made was a digital food scale. I also bought extra measuring cups and spoons.  After weighing and measuring out portions, you begin to be able to "eyeball" the serving size.

A few little tips - a tablespoon is about the size of the last joint of you thumb.  A teaspoon would be about the size of your middle finger joint.  3 oz of meat, fish or poultry is the size of a deck of cards, or your palm.  A cup is about the size of your fist. 

+1 on digital food scale and measuring cups. Another side benefit is that you can reproduce the recipe easier.

UD

A quick and easy method to help with portion control is to make your carb portions the size of your fist and your meat/protein portions the size of the palm of your hand.  It's not an exact science, but it's helpful in a pinch.

Sorry for the redundant post, Clairelaine - didn't read your post carefully enough ;)