In the Fast Diet book, there is a recipe for Vegetarian Chilli.
I’m confused about the kidney bean ingredient. The recipe says “add half a tin of red kidney beans (200g, 200cals)”
But the drained weight of a 400g tin of beans is 240g, so half a tin is 120g.

I think this a mistake in the recipe because the intention is to obtain 200 calories worth of food, so it should read “add a (drained) tin of red kidney beans”

(See http://caloriecount.about.com/calories-beans-i69907 for my reasoning.)

Are others in agreement with this interpretation?
Thanks
Silverback

Hi, keyz
Thanks for the input – it’s what I ended up doing. I’ve built an Excel spreadsheet which, amongst other things, has a ‘meal builder’. Input the ingredients and the quantity of each and it retrieves the calorific value and totals the meal.
For the veg chilli, I used the values given on the labels of the bean tins for calories in the drained weight.
I think I must have got it right because we are both losing weight!
Thanks for your input.
Silverback

RimRow (and everyone else on this forum) – sorry for the delay in replying but I’ve had to learn about putting files ‘on the cloud’.
I’ve uploaded two files to ‘the cloud’. The first is a Microsoft Office Word document describing the spreadsheet and how to use it; the second is a Microsoft Office Excel spreadsheet. Note that the spreadsheet is for Excel 2010 ONLY – it uses 2010 features and I have no idea what will happen if you save it to use in an earlier version of Microsoft Office.
Below are two internet links. When you click on them you will be presented with a webpage which offers a Download button. If this download button is clicked, a copy of the document I’ve posted ‘in the cloud’ will be downloaded to your PC. This is yours to do with as you will – nothing you do to your downloaded copy will affect the master documents.
I hope the ‘manual’ gives sufficient info for people to understand and use the spreadsheet. Whatever, this is offered with no guarantees at all. No support, no updates, nothing. It’s just something SWMBO and I have developed to help us on our 5:2 journey. However, I do believe that it’s a useful tool to help people on their way – but it’s no substitute for willpower!
I hope this will prove useful to at least some of the community on this forum. Good luck to everyone on their 5:2 journey.
The links are below.
Silverback

The ‘Manual’
https://www.dropbox.com/s/olxc0kzmp9u0tak/Fast%20Diet%20Spreadsheet.doc

The Spreadsheet
https://www.dropbox.com/s/87zqng5ua409ea2/FastDietSpreadsheet.xlsx

PS : I’m offline for a few days, eating and drinking far too much at my annual college reunion. No – I shall not be fasting while I’m there!

Dilly
I’ve had brainfade! I should have said that, as an existing user of Microsoft Office, you can download – from MS – a free compatibility pack which will allow you to open, edit and save documents, workbooks and presentations that were created in the newer versions of Word, Excel, and PowerPoint.
You can download it from here :
http://www.microsoft.com/en-gb/download/details.aspx?id=3

Using this would mean you could use the original 2010 version of the spreadsheet.
Hope this helps
Silverback