nice weather & fast food

Good afternoon! What a beautiful spring day! It’s so nice – warm & sunny – and no rain forcasted for a good while. I can’t wait to spend some time this evening sitting outside! Hope you had a great weekend and a good Monday, too!
Since the weather is getting warmer and most of us tend to be pretty busy as the weather warms, I wanted to share with you some things I do for a quick meal. Like yesterday… as I was leaving church, my husband asked me to stop & pick up bacon & eggs for lunch. (We drive separately because he plays music for most of our services & by the time he comes home from the third service, I have normally lunch ready.) We planned on working in the yard all afternoon so I decided it would be nice just to stop on my way home and pick up a quick lunch. Normally when I do this on Sunday, I stop at a restaurant that mainly serves a buffet. I normally fill 3 to-go containers with a variety of low carb items like eggs, bacon, sausage links, sausage patties, cheese and omelets. I usually throw in a few strawberries and some melon, too.
I guess everyone had the same idea yesterday because they didn’t have much of a selection left of breakfast type items. Maybe it’s because they’re running a special – if you bring in your Sunday church bulletin, they’ll give you 10% off of your meal plus they keep a count of all of the church bulletins. Whichever church has the most bulletins at the end of the month – they’ll send the pastor/minister/priest 2 free meal tickets. Anyway, due to the limited selection, I ended up with chopped steak patties, steak, fish on a bed of spinach, smoked sausage, Mongolian beef & broccoli, baked chicken & a few other items including strawberries.
The nice thing I have found about doing this is that we have enough food for 2 meals for the 4 of us in our family. In fact, I don’t think all of the food was eaten yesterday. Another nice thing about getting food to-go from a buffet is that I think it is easier to make sure you stick to your low carb items. Yes, you may choose a few items that might have a few more carbs than usual, like the Mongolian beef & broccoli that I picked up yesterday, but you are not tempted by rolls brought to your table or by dessert, when you’re watching other people pile desserts on a plate. We also tend to eat a whole lot less if we simply bring the food home.
Here are a couple of additional ideas for food to-go – our local Cracker Barrel has a lot of different low carb meals, including at least 4 different low carb breakfast meals. You can check out their menu on-line, call & place your order and it will be ready when you get there. We also have a nice little diner that makes a great western style omelet – loaded with several meats, a little bit of onion & green pepper and stuffed with cheese. Another idea – most places that serve chicken have a roasted or baked chicken. They usually have a chicken meal with 2 sides & a roll. We ask for a double serving of green beans and hold the rolls. Last but not least – have a favorite fast food burger restaurant? How about ordering a couple of breakfast sandwiches and removing the biscuit? Or ordering your favorite burger and removing the bun or replacing the bun with low carb bread?
There are so many low carb items available - you just have to think about your options. After awhile this all becomes a habit. Sometimes people will tell me it is so hard to eat low carb but I totally disagree with that. It just requires a little thought. And I can eat at most restaurants and be able to easily find something low carb to eat on their menu.
I hope I’ve given you some “food for thought”. Have a good afternoon & evening! Take care!