Help, I am new to the Zone and need to know about measuring. When the recipe calls for 2 1/2 cups fresh spinach, do you just mash it into a cup or is there some weight to go by? Also, when the recipe calls for meat, do you measure BEFORE it's cooked or AFTER it cooked? Thanks so much

[color=darkred:bd8afad74b]Typically you'd consider it to be raw meat, and weigh/measure it raw. When a recipe calls for a certain amount of meat, it is measured prior to cooking. On the other hand, deli meats are already cooked, and they are measured as is (don't try to figure out what their raw wt used to be). Deli meats are usually 1.5 oz to a block because they have water added. If you have leftover cooked meat, chicken for instance, consider a block to be a little less than 1 oz (it loses weight as liquid evaporates during cooking). For the spinach, simply grab a huge handful or two. No special way to measure it. 2 1/2 cups is about 1/4 of a C block and of little consequence. Don't let yourself get too bogged down by precise measurements. A ball park estimate is close enough.[/color:bd8afad74b]

Thank you so much for the reply. This helps me a great deal.