Soup on a Chili Day

Food Challenge #1

Wendy's Chili

Nutritional Information:

• 200 calories
• 875 mg of sodium

Yesterday the forecast said we were in for a blizzard, so I decided my first recipe challenge should be something warm and hearty. Wendy’s Chili is rich, meaty, low in fat and high in protein. The problem with their chili is that it is loaded with sodium.

I’m not a chili gal myself, so I’ve decided to make my mom’s Split Pea Soup with Hot Dogs. Just like Wendy’s Chili, it’s low in fat, high in protein but much lower in sodium.

Ingredients:

1 lb. Split Peas $2

Carrots $2

Hot Dogs (I like turkey or chicken dogs) $4.99

Onion 50¢

32 fl oz. Chicken Broth (Low Sodium) $2.99

Total cost: $12.48

This soup is creamy and mouth-watering and brings back memories of winter days when the wood stove would be roaring and snow would be piling up outside. This is not the quickest soup because I use dried split peas, so make sure you let it simmer for a few hours before serving.

Chop an onion. Toss it in a big soup pot with a dash of olive oil and a pinch of salt and pepper. Cook down until tender. Add your split peas, chicken broth and two cups of water. Cook, cook and cook on medium-low for a few hours. Now you have a choice: if you want creamy soup, you can purée it now. If you want it with texture, let it be. Add your carrots and cook for ten minutes. Cut your hot dogs into generous slices and toss them in. Voila! Serve with some bread and you’ve got yourself a thick stew…just what the doctor ordered on a cold winters day.

My Pledge

I challenge the corporate abuse of our food. I believe we have the right to know how our food is made, what is in it, and the health and environmental impacts it causes. Fast food giants are a leading force in a global epidemic of diet-related disease that is making us sick. These corporations have fundamentally altered how we eat and the food systems we rely on for long-term health. McDonald's and others have made "value" to mean how little we pay at the register, ignoring the expense to our environment and health.

Since I'm advocating against the corporate food system, then I figure I'd better be provide some healthy, quick and affordable food alternatives. My goal in this food blog: to prepare a weekly dinner for my boyfriend and I which costs under $8. The meal will be prepped and cooked in less than 20 minutes and include as much local, healthy product as possible.

Did you know that nationwide, the number of households receiving food stamp benefits rose 19 percent from 2008 to 2009, and jumped 29 percent from 2007 and 2009, according to the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s Food and Nutrition Service, which administers the program?

Participation in the program has been climbing since 2004 — when the program shifted from paper food stamps to an electronic debit card, thereby removing some of the stigma associated with it — but has spiked in the past couple years in particular.

To qualify for the benefits, households must meet certain income criteria — gross monthly income must be 130 percent of the poverty level or less, and net monthly income must be 100 percent of the poverty level or less. That means that for a family of four to qualify, gross income cannot exceed $2,389 a month, while net income can’t top $1,838 a month.

Today, if there are two people in your household, you receive a maximum monthly allotment of $367. That is approximately $7 per person, per day in additional food money. For a meal, that means you individually have around $2.30. If you have dinner together, you have around $5 extra dollars to spend.

Stand by for my first quick and healthy meal...