I'm assuming that you don't eat all the chilli you've made in one sitting! :-)

Otherwise, yes, it's quite healthy, if you don't use much fat to cook off the onions. Not sure about substituting ground turkey though....here in the UK we can get very low fat "minced beef" ("ground beef" to you I guess). Under 5% fat is common. You pay a bit more for it but to my mind it would be vastly superior to turkey meat, which I find bland and tasteless.

One of my own recipes for chilli (I have 3, the other 2 use more fresh ingredients, this is my "quick and dirty" one where I need to minimise the prep time) has a higher proportion of meat to beans than yours does (see below). The quantity I show below contains 1140 calories in total and gives me two large bowls, or 570 calories per serving. The calories come from 45% protein, 35% fat and 20% carbs with around 8g fibre and 3.9 "portions" (UK definition) of fruit and veg per serving.

Adding a single beer to that will take the calories per serving to around 720! :-)


Beans, Pinto, in Water, No Added Sugar Or Salt, Drained,-1 Can/235.6g

Beef, Mince, Steak, Extra Lean,-500g

Onion, large,-1

Tomatoes, Chopped, in Tomato Juice-240g

Tomato Puree, Double Concentrate,-1 Tbsp/15g

Tomato Paste, Sun Dried, Average-1 Heaped Tsp/10g

Oil, Vegetable, Pure,-1 Tbsp/15ml

Sweetcorn, in Water, Naturally Sweet, No Added Sugar Or Salt, Drained,-½ Std Can/136g

Chillies, fresh, home grown, 4-6 depending on size


The calorie and nutrition calculations were all generated automatically from the weight loss web site I mentioned in my previous post....I just had to enter the ingredients (including brands where applicable) and quantities and the vast database on the site worked it all out for me.