Meal 2: Potatoes, Onion & Baked Beans

A 10″ plate full – just enough for me but probably enough for 2 ladies!

CALORIE DENSITY: 16% = 500kcal/(780ml x 4)

(Compare with Sugar: 95%, butter: 180%)

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COST: 53p (So don’t tell me that eating healthy food is expensive!)

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INGREDIENTS

  • Potatoes 400g: 300kcal (350ml) Asda Grower’s Selection British White Potatoes 2.5kg for £1.29 =21p
  • Onion 160g: 70kcal (200ml) Asda Brown Onions 3 (435g) for 26p = 9p
  • Baked Beans: 168kcal (230ml) Asda SP Baked Beans in Tomato Sauce 410g for 23p

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INSTRUCTIONS

  1. Dice potatoes and onion and place in a large plastic container
  2. Sprinkle on Turmeric & Cayenne Pepper to make the potatoes look browned like chips and add salt to taste
  3. Fix on the lid and shake well to distribute the Turmeric, Pepper & Salt over all surfaces evenly
  4. Heat in the microwave at 800W for 10 minutes
  5. Drained baked beans, place in plastic container, sprinkle with Cayenne Pepper & salt to taste
  6. Heat in microwave at 800W for 2 minutes

Serve potatoes & onion on a large plate and place the beans on top.

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NOTES

The picture shows the whole meal on a 10 inch plate – enough for two ladies but only just enough for me! The Baked Beans must be drained because the sauce contains too much sugar. The 410g contents add up to 280kcal & 18g sugar. When drained the weight reduces to 250g – say 200g of beans plus 50g of sauce. 200g Haricot beans are 130kcal with 1g sugar. Therefore 150kcal & 17g sugar are attributable to the sauce and 50g of that comes to 38kcal & 4g sugar. This makes the drained baked beans 168kcal (230ml) with 5g sugar. If you haven’t got any onions make it 500g of potatoes and the calorie density comes out about the same.

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COMPARISON WITH A HIGH DENSITY VERSION OF THE SAME MEAL Compare with English chips, fried onion and un-drained baked beans.

  • 250g chips = 750kcal (250ml)
  • 100g fried onion = 250kcal (100ml)
  • 410g baked beans = 330kcal (410ml)

Calorie Density: 43% = 1330kcal/(760ml x 4) which means the low density version of the meal is nearly 3 times as satisfying for the same number of calories and only 37% of the high density version can be consumed to equal the calorific contents of the low density version and that would leave you feeling hungry!

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(Originally published as a facebook note on 20 April 2016 – transferred here on 30 June 2020.)