As promised, I have taken pictures at where I’ve eaten the past few days. Mind you, I mostly cook and don’t eat out a lot, so this is literally just going to consist of Tuesday’s lunch, and Yesterday’s dinner. I have decided to split those into 2 separate posts, in both cases showing what I ordered, how you can vary it a bit, and what are the estimated calories.

Tuesday’s lunch at Food 101

I’m cheating a little because they have a  salad bar, and so that was an obvious choice! Their bar consists of the following items:

Since I’ve already explained that things can go wrong even with a salad bar, I’m going to detail what I ordered and a variation of it for more choice  – this is what I selected for my salad:

cherry tomatoes, iceberg lettuce, regular lettuce, artichokes, shredded carrots(not too much!), crab (I know it’s imitation meat but I wasn’t in the mood for tuna that day, which I recommend as a better option), a little fusilli pasta, and fresh mushrooms.

with balsamic dressing (the balsamic was poured over at the very end which is why its striking in the picture )

estimated* calories (including dressing): 365 calories

Variations of this could be:

• to include eggs instead of any meat, add more greens, cucumbers, tomatoes, and maybe no pasta (for those low-carb lovers).
• to include more greens, grilled chicken, no pasta, and green peppers
• to include feta cheese, no meat, more brocolli, pasta, cucumbers, and more greens.

• if you are going to order the salad bar as a side order and intend on ordering a sandwich or main dish as well: stick to greens, tomatoes, cucumbers, peppers, brocolli,  no pasta, no meat, and no eggs

Items to use in limited quantities: Beets, corn, and carrots. Also do not combine eggs, meat, AND pasta – this will be high calories and fat.

To be fair, when I first sat down for lunch, my friend and I were so hungry we decided to also order an appetizer – we opted for the Bruschetta which consists of: healthy fats (olive oil), cancer-fighting garlic, tomatoes, on a small piece of toast. However, since I opted for the salad bar and made good use of it, in all honesty I couldn’t eat any of the bruschetta and took my own advice and took it home instead of stuffing my face with it.

I did good today – started with a salad, and got to take food for later as well!

T

*it’s an estimation because I had no means of actually measuring the quantity used.

P.S: This is by no means, an endorsement nor a recommendation nor a criticism of FOOD 101 (nor was I paid for any of this) – just merely a portrayal of how you can make choices when eating out, at a place I happened to have lunch at on Tuesday. This can easily work in any restaurant that offers salad options, or salad bars.