Eating out is just so much fun! It doesn’t have to derail your whole day, you can enjoy a meal out at a restaurant and stay on plan!
I am focusing on of course, Mexican food in this post as my Tina’s Taco Tuesday Celebration post!
We have several yummy Mexican restaurants in our area, I sacrificed for you all and took myself out to dinner just so I could read over the menu and find good options to share with you!! Oh the sacrifices we bloggers make, I think I need a tissue for my tears. HAHA! Make that a napkin for my happy little mouth.
My first tip, DON’T EAT THE CHIPS! You know how that works, you sit down, you are immediately served chips, salsa and sometimes beans. My particular restaurant also serves freshly made, in front of your very own eyeballs, fresh corn tortillas. Oh my. They are heavenly….but they will kill the plan, so I just say no thank you and go sit down.
When they bring the chips out, you can just ask them to please take them away. Remove the temptation right away! But keep the salsa!
Salsa is a great addition to any meal you choose! It is a fuel pull and adds so much great flavor!
Tonight I chose to go for a crossover, you know in the name of blogging research, haha.
My dinner pictured above is 2 chicken tacos, with lettuce, tomatoes, and instead of the white rice made in to spanish rice, I asked for refried beans instead. This is a crossover because my beans have cheese, the refried beans have added fat and there is a sprinkle of cheese on my tacos. I asked for soft corn tortillas instead of the fried ones.
I could have easily made this in to an E by asking for whole beans and no cheese! Delicious!
Truthfully, there are more options for an S meal though.
The one I get most often is fajitas. I order it without any tortillas, although 2 corn would make it a crossover, but if I am trying to stick to one fuel, it’s easily done. Chicken or beef fajitas, cooked in oil,with peppers and onions. I will ask for guacamole and eat it with a fork! It’s amazing! If you can have cheese or sour cream, of course those would be very nice additions.
Some other great options I saw at our restaurant tonight were:
* Grilled chicken or Fajita Salad – just omit the chips
* Chicken carnitas – no tortillas
* Tacos de pescado – fish tacos, if not fried, these would be a good E option as well. Add whole beans
* Steak Mexicano – basically skirt steak sauteed with spices and non starchy veggies
You can have 1/4 cup of beans in an S serving as well, so if you can portion yourself out, you can always add that to your S meal.
Personally it is my preference to go for a crossover most of the time. If someone else is doing the cooking, I am going to enjoy the fruits of their labor!
The bottom line for eating out at a Mexican restaurant is:
2 soft corn tortillas are on plan for an E meal or a crossover.
Look for meals with meats and veggies sauteed in oils.
Ask for your chips to be removed from the table.
Ask for any additional salsas they may offer to add extra flavor and spice to your meal!
Ask for whole beans instead of refried to lower the fat.
Don’t eat the spanish rice it is traditionally made from white rice.
Enjoy!
With Joy ~ Tina
