Reality check

Not too long ago, I signed up to receive emails from http://www.allrecipies.com/.  It's a great little website for people like me who need some cooking inspiration. Every few days, they send an email with a link to a recipe. It's a great way to think about cooking up some different items to add to our dinner menus.

Yesterday, I was just starting to think about dinner. I had decided on split pea soup. YUM! Now, I know that doesn't spin everyone's beannie, but I grew up loving this and my family likes it too. Ham chunks, pieces of carrot, a small squirt of fresh garlic; what's not to love about a hearty soup? Before heading to the store for the needed ham hocks, I quickly checked my email, and was greeted by a new recipe idea from allrecipies! YEA! Maybe I would find fresh inspiration and cook something new. I mean, I love pea soup, but something new is always exciting.

I opened the email to find this darling of a recipe waiting for me:   

Southwestern Chicken Lasagna

Here's the description: "A spicy, cheesy, Mexican flavored dish assembled and baked much like lasagna."

It sounded like it should definitely trump the split pea soup idea. Now to make a new shopping list.

chicken: have it, check

cheese: check

olives: add those to the list

spaghetti sauce: check

corn tortillas: need those

all of the other ingredients: check

All I needed were the olives and corn tortillas. This was going to be great! I would surprise my family with a delicious, new, yummy thing for dinner. Perfect on a night when we are coming and going with golf, track and dance all in one night.

Then came a pivotal moment. I clicked the nutritional content link. Let me just say this: If I ate stuff like this all the time, I would need new pants with a big elastic waist band.

Here's what it said:

Amount Per Serving

Calories: 902

Total Fat: 47.4g
Cholesterol: 194mg
 
HOLY CROW!!!  That's a lot of calories for one entree! Never mind the salad and some bread or something to accompany the dish. And a glass of milk. I could eat my entire day's worth of calories in one sitting. Bad. I think it may have had something to do with all of the cheese. It did call for 4 cups of shredded cheese. That's probably also what got it the 4.5 star rating and rave reviews from 46 subscribers.
 
If I was going to eat that many calories at one meal, I would just eat ice-cream instead. It's a lot quicker to prepare. And probably a lot tastier, too.
 
So, in the end, it was split pea soup for dinner, at a mere 200 calories. Fat grams were only .7 and there were 5 miligrams of cholesterol.
 
Good thing I really like the soup!