Hi everyone! I just made some chili from ingredients I found in my house, but since I don't yet own the Zone food block book I'm not sure how to proportion my meals (some of the ingredients aren't on the website list). Could anyone give me an idea? Here are the ingredients of the entire chili recipe:

Just under a pound of lean ground beef
6 oz tomato paste
8 oz tomato sauce
1 whole onion, medium-sized, chopped
2 cloves garlic, chopped
1 cup black beans
chili flakes, salt, and pepper

I am thinking a cup of chili plus a couple cups of cooked broccoli would make a good Zone meal, but because I've not been doing this for long I'm not sure. What do you think?

You should check the labels on the tomato paste and tomato sauce. Off the top of my head, I think that the tomato paste is 2 blocks, and the tomato sauce is one block. Then, the onion is probably about 1 block, and there are 4 blocks in the black beans.

I also am always trying to figure out how much of a chili or a stew would be "a serving". I have come down to assume that about 1 cup would be about 3 blocks of each, assuming 1/2 cup of beans for 2 blocks of C, the one or two chunks of onion that would be in that serving would be like 1/4 block of C, and the 1/2 cup tom. sauce would be about another block or maybe about 3/4 of a Block of C; assuming you had a good hearty portion of 3 oz. of lean beef in there would be 3 B of Protein; and then of course assuming you added a tiny bit of olive oil or other oil to saute the garlic at the beginning of the recipe would be your 3 B of fat (probably less). I have not been able to find any Zone recipes or other low fat ones for that matter that actually tell you what the "portion size" of these types of meals would be. They only always say serves 6 or 8 etc., which I guess if you carefully divided the recipe up into six, (also making sure your measurements of each block are correct), then you could see if you're eating within your "block requirements".

When I have a soup or chili that "serves 6", I dump it into a large mixing bowl that I have which has measurements on the side for cups, pints, etc. I figure the total volume, and then divide it up by the number of servings, to figure my single serving size.

Liza, the ingredients you list yield a total of about 10 blocks P, and 8 or 9 blocks C. If you add 1 tablespoon olive oil to it you'll have three 3 block meals (3 P, 3C, 3F in each meal). Then simply take one third of whole for each meal.