Are you considering dieting as a New Year's Resolution? You may want to read this blog prior to making this resolution or before you set up a diet menu!
A McDonald's Quarter Pounder is quite a mouthful! After eating one you are pretty much full... you may want a small french fries... and of course a 20oz Coke...
Total calories... 950
If you drink a diet coke... 740
If you only eat the Quarter Pounder... 410...
Okay... let's compare those calories to some salads at popular restaurants...
TGIF's Santa Fe Salad... 500
TGIF's Pecan-Crusted Salad.... 700
Chili's Southwestern Cobb Salad.... 950
Chili's Grilled Caribbean Salad.... 440
Panera's Fuji Chicken Salad.... 520
Panera's Full Greek Salad..... 440
Macaroni Grill's Chicken Ceasar Salad....950
I think you are starting to get the picture....
If you want to go out to eat and cut down on your calories one way you can do this and still enjoy the meal is bring your own salad dressing.
I love salads. I probably eat a salad as 4 or 5 of my main meals each week! I love to pile all kinds of goodies on my salads. I really don't need meat but a few slices of chicken would be fine. I love to start with a bed of spinach leaves and then some garden greens. Remember that iceburg lettuce has no nutritional value. When adding lettuce it is better to add romaine, butterhead, loose leaf and radicchio. I love shaved carrots, raw corn, raw almonds, craisins, sliced pickled beets, raw tomatoes, mushrooms, broccoli, edamame, sliced jicama, red or vidalia onions, pine nuts, bell peppers, shredded romano parmisano... with a handful of croutons...
I pick my salad dressings carefully.. Here is a list of popular salad dressings and their calorie count:
Hidden Valley Ranch Dressing: 140c for 2 Tablespoons
Hidden Valley Lite Ranch Dressing: 80c for 2 Tablespoons
Hidden Valley Lite Cucumber Dressing: 45c for 2 Tablespoons
Kraft Catalina Dressing: 100c for 2 Tablespoons
Kraft Fat Free Catalina Dressing: 50c for 2 Tablespoons
Newman's Own Balsamic Vinaigrette: 90c for 2 Tablespoons
Newman's Own LITE Balsamic Vinaigrette: 45c for 2 Tablespoons
Ken's Creamy Italian: 120c for 2 Tablespoons
Ken's LITE Northern Italian with Basil & Romano: 50c or 2 Tablespoons
As you probably know... most people put more than 2 Tablespoons of salad dressing on their salads... so the lower the calories in your salad dressing the better...
My favorite salad dressings are:
Newman's Own LITE Balsamic Vinaigrette
and
Ken's Lite Northern Italian with Basil & Romano...
I have a small rubbermaid container... looks similar to a salt shaker with a pop-top... that I fill with diet salad dressing when ever we go out to eat... I order a fancy salad with no salad dressing (if it's a southwestern style salad I order some salsa on the side)... and then use my own salad dressing to cut the calories considerably!
If you're hitting the salad bar... leave off the potato salad, macaroni salad and anything made with a dressing... those are extremely high in calories. Remember that restaurant salad dressings are a LOT higher in calories than what's in the grocery store. The restaurants want customers to have a great experience so they make or buy higher quality and better tasting salad dressings. Typically a restaurant salad dressing is around 300 calories per 2 tablespoons!
Hope this helps you with your "diet" resolutions...
1 comment:
Thanks for sharing this great info. I am hoping to "cut back" and see if I can drop a few pounds on my own (eating a chocolate chip cookie while typing) before heading to Weight Watchers or some place like that. Nothing like a hot juicy hamburger for sure! And I do love those fries!
One thing I do suggest for you and that is to give your post a title! Silly willy :-)
You have great content and a title will help with traffic and google placement!
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