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.
What’s the price of the salad bar at Food 101?
It depends on what ingredients you’re adding – I think mine was around 10$ but I honestly don’t remember exactly. Maybe they can help answer that question more for you 🙂