Foods like salads, casseroles, and soups do not belong in a single MyPlate food group. These foods generally contain foods from several food groups. For instance, macaroni and cheese contains macaroni from the grains group and cheese from the dairy group.
To figure your food group intake from such foods, you need to look at the recipes. Figure the total number of cups or ounce-equivalents from each food group that is included in the recipe. Then divide these amounts by the number of servings the recipe makes to determine the food group amounts per serving. You need to keep the following equivalents in mind when adding the totals from each food group provided by a recipe.
As an example, consider a recipe for a breakfast casserole that makes six servings. The recipe includes 3 cups of diced potatoes and 6 eggs. It also calls for 3 ounces of chopped ham and 1½ cups of shredded natural cheese. It is easy to see the potatoes in this recipe provide ½ cup per serving from the vegetable group. The eggs and ham supply a total of 9 ounce-equivalents from the protein foods group. Dividing this amount by 6 tells you there are 1½ ounce-equivalents from the protein foods group per serving. You can calculate the recipe includes 6 ounces of natural cheese, which counts as 4 cups from the dairy group. This means a serving of the casserole would provide ⅔ cup from the dairy group.
Figure the food group amounts provided by a serving of each of the following recipes.