We do this at my house -- we serve our food from the stove. When we make turkey meatballs, for example, we scoop our servings right from the pan onto each of the four plates that sit at our dinner table each night. Then we dish veggies onto our plates right from the steamer. Then we sit, and eat, and rarely get up for more.

I never knew our practice was a healthy one -- until I came across this website and read the following note at the bottom:

Serve dinner from the stove, not family-style with bowls of food at the table. This discourages overeating and encourages controlled eating based on feelings of real hunger and satisfaction. This might clash with family tradition, but try it and see whether it doesn't help limit unconsciously eating second and third helpings.

Here we were operating from a less-dishes-to-wash standpoint. It was simply a matter of convenience for us to serve from the stove. Now that I know our dinner process is also good for our figures, I'll be sure to keep it up.