Quote Originally Posted by Pravit
Hmmm. So if Ivan brought a nice casserole, and we said Anna съела the casserole(or should have), it means she got a bit of it and ate it all up, or she ate the entire casserole? Can't we use поела?
Let's assume that the casserole contained cereal. If we say "Она съела кастрюлю каши" it means that she ate the entire casserole and you can't say "Она поела кастрюлю каши". If you want to say that she ate some of the content you may say: "Анна поела немного каши." or "Анна взяла из кастрюли немного каши и съела её."