DanO's Chili nutritional analysis!

Making up a batch of Chile con carne y frijoles, is pretty easy to do. But, figuring out the true nutritional content, is muy dificil! Here is my latest effort to quantify a preparation I call My Chili. 

Weights in grams or milligrams.

Now, as it may be plain to see, this 'my chili' recipe is about as simple as it gets, using only four main ingredients! I took a pound of 81-19% blended mix of ground beef; browned it and drained off the fat – (ergo my rather svelte meat weight of only 374 grams), to which was added a can of petite diced tomatoes, a 'drained' can of red kidney beans and about 28 grams of Williams Chili mix. [Note: I also added just a dash (1 gram) of a bottle of dried chili seasonings from Mexico, just for some added spice, but no real nutrition]! All these ingredients were dumped into a 2 quart slow cooker, set to high, and then left unattended for a few hours to promulgate...

I generally like to serve this Tex-Mex meal-a-deal pretty much 'as is', adding only a bit of salt substitute (otherwise, it's rather bland) along with a few saltine crackers. (Hey, I'm only human). It makes for a very decent meal that doesn't bust ones' diet budget!

Making pasta a part of any diet!

This pasta meal came in at only 487 calories!

If you're like many Americans, a good plate of hot pasta is a must have meal as it is considered a comfort food by most. The problem is you also have to be careful due to the calories. Not with the pasta! It's only four calories per gram – it's the pasta sauce that can hurt. Alfredo sauce, for instance, is practically a heart attack in a bite! A much better way to go is to make your own low calorie – low salt sauce and then make sure you stick with small portions!

Pictured above was a filling meal I consumed just this morning. It was comprised of 70 grams of pasta, 47 grams of a homemade sauce that contributed only about 130 calories. With a glass of 2% milk the total came to just 487 calories! I also kept the sodium levels low by substituting Ms. Dash for the real thing!