PEA soup...need some opinions.

Biglovelovesme

So today I didn't pack my lunch for work and was subject to the very dangerous and tempting cafeteria in the office bldg I work in. I thought I would be making a good choice by selecting a cup of pea soup, no bread, no chips ...nothing else. The soup was not thick like some pea soups can be and it did not have more than a trace of ham in it. I'd say that the few pieces of ham that made it into my cup were smaller than an actual pea.
Anyway, I went to track this on my food log and found about three doz pea soups listed, all with varying ingredients and calories.. Does anyone have any insights or advice about where I migtht look to find the nutritional inf on a cup of "institutional" pea soup? I tried asking the cafeteria lady who made the soup and what went into it and her response was a gruff..."I don't know exactly who made it but suspect it is made from peas"... So very helpful

thanks friends!
:drinker:

sharonus

I tried asking the cafeteria lady who made the soup and what went into it and her response was a gruff..."I don't know exactly who made it but suspect it is made from peas"... So very helpful

LOL! She probably doesn't like people talking about calories!

If you're bold the next time, you can ask her if it comes prepared to the kitchen, and if so, can you look at the package? I'm a vegetarian, so I'm pretty used to asking to look at boxes in cafeteria type places where I'm not really confident in the "I don't think it has any meat in it" response.

When I can't be sure of the calories are in the food I'm eating, I try to think if what I'm having compares with something else I've eaten at a restaurant that DOES have published nutritional information. Does it seem like the split pea soup at California Pizza Kitchen? (Assuming you've had that!) Then I'll log it under that one. Otherwise, I start looking at a few of the calorie counts and try to find the happy medium. I probably won't choose the one highest in calories unless I think the soup is REALLY creamy, and I don't tend to choose the "Cooking Light" options either. The "Generic" options (e.g. "Generic - Pea Soup") are usually pretty good.

And nice work on not picking up the bread. That's hard for me to do!

Biglovelovesme

Thanks for the response! That is just the type of validation I needed. The soup I picked weighed in at a hefty 500+ calories and I FREAKED out. I might as well have had a donut! i am going to go with something mid-range.

Next time I will pick a gentler looking cafeteria employee to query.

Thanks again,

dls06

It was probably Campbells or some other brand. I would choose one of the national brands and go with that.