Fast Food/Fat Food

Well, I am in my 4th (or 6th if you include summer school) semester of college with only one more semester of gen. eds. before I am eligible to attend for the Nutritional Science program. I start my application process later this semester.

This semester one of the classes I am taking is Intro to Nutrition. All I can say is that I am loving it!!! Our current assignment is to plan a days weight loss menu at a fast food restaurant that is also heart healthy. This means that the food item must have less than 30% total fat, 10% saturated fat and for the day, no more than 300 mg of cholesterol.

I texted family and friends to tell me what FF places they would like to know about. I have a list of 7 restaurants and will rate them below.

Arby's only had 3 food items that met the requirements and none of them were breakfast items so for breakfast I listed an applesauce from the kids menu.

Sonic scored even lower. There were only 2 items on the breakfast menu that could be considered at first glance because they were the only 2 that didn't have OVER 3oomg of cholesterol. When I calculated fat percentages those were knocked off also. So Sonic had 2 food items, the veggie burger and apple slices. Oh, you could also have the fat-free caramel dip for your apples.

I was unable to do a menu for Braum's because their nutritional facts are not on their website and I saw some problems with the sites that did list some of their items.

Taco Bueno does not list their cholesterol facts so they must have something to hide.

What a Burger was very limited also. They had a total of 5 food items that met heart healthy guidelines. This included cinnamon rolls, pancakes with or without bacon and 2 salad options but they fail to list dressing on their sight. So to be safe you would have to eat the Grilled Chicken Salad and side salad without dressing.

My 2 favorites were McDonalds and Chick Fil A. They were very good and you didn't feel like you were going to starve to stay within the calorie constraints. So below was what I selected from each.

McDonalds

Breakfast calories total fat sat.fat chol.

Fruit and Yogurt Parfait 160 2 1 5

Coffee 0 0 0 0

Lunch

Prem. SW Salad w/ gr. chick 290 8 2.5 70

Apple Dippers 35 0 0 0

Newman's LF Ses. Ging. Dress. 90 2.5 0 0

Snack

Straw/Ban. Smoothie 12oz. 210 .5 0 5

Dinner

Prem. Gr. Chick. Clas. Sand. 350 9 2 65

Side Salad 20 0 0 0

Newman's LF Ses. Ging. Dress. 90 2.5 0 0

Dessert

Kiddie cone 45 1 .5 5

Total 1290 25.5 6 150

Chick Fil A

Breakfast

Yogurt parfait w/ granola 290 6 2 10

Mixed fruit blend 45 0 0 0

Lunch

Chargrilled Chick Cool Wrap 410 12 4 55

Fruit Cup 70 0 0 0

Dinner

Chargrilled Chick. Sand. 290 4 1 55

Hearty Breast of Chick Soup 140 4 1 25

Total 1245 26 8 145

I think these are great options. McDonalds did give a bit more variety but I would do both of these. So now we know we can eat heart healthy at a fast food restaurant.

The End is Coming....

I will probably not be blogging for a long while after next week. I am starting classes at OU on the 19th and will be quite busy with the 13 hours I will be taking. I haven't studied in 26 years!!! Please pray for me & my family. I am excited and nervous. This week I am cooking food to freeze for nights when I'm either too busy or tired to cook. (every night :o) ) Next week is clean, iron & organize. Well back to cooking.

The Dawn Before the Day

Well today I woke up before my 5:00am alarm. Thoughts of Thanksgiving preparations were filling my head. So I got up, let the dogs out, fed them, loaded the washer and took Max for his walk (that is my walk also). Today I will be doing a little laundry in preparation for Abbie & my trip to KC with "the girls" to see Wicked. We are all really excited about that. We will also spend time at The Plaza which I hear has spectacular Christmas lights. So, back to Thanksgiving. Today I will be brining the turkey, making the cornbread for our dressing, putting together my sweet potato casserole, making the cranberry salad, cooking the chicken for chicken & noodles & baking 3 of our 10 pies. Today I am baking the pecan, cherry & Kentucky derby pies. This evening my parents , my sister Denise and her son Tyler will be arriving. I am making a pot of chili with fritoes, cheese, & crackers. That way they can have it like they want it. I also will be getting a refresher on math from my dad. I am scheduled to take 3 tests at OU on Monday to assess what I have retained since high school. Hmmmmm. For all of you that are going to be traveling today, have a safe trip and a Happy Thanksgiving.

Day 2

Well, today I set out my bread to get stale for our dressing. We make a stale bread/cornbread combo dressing. It is one of my favorite things about the meal. I also will be getting the last of my Thanksgiving groceries today. Linens will be next on the list. I am ironing tablecloths and getting the napkins ready (see picture from table setting post). I have a few other odds and ends to deal with today. Oh, I almost forgot to mention.....I scheduled my advisory and testing for OU. Please pray that the testing goes well. I haven't tested in.....well some of you know since I went to high school with you :o)

So It Begins......

Today is the day I set aside to move my turkey from the freezer to the refrigerator. Now that that is completed I will move on the final cleaning. What are you doing today for your Thanksgiving prep?

Place Setting Decided

I have finally decided on our place setting for Thanksgiving. What do you think? I went pretty simple this time.

Thanksgiving Prep & Thanksgiving Past

Well I have been doing some deep cleaning but now will hit surfaces which have suffered due to the deep cleaning. I can't tell you how many bags of "stuff" I threw away. I'm trying to get the laundry done today and tomorrow so that nothing will get in the way of cleaning next week. So if anyone is interested in having coffee.....call me after Thanksgiving weekend :o) The last time I hosted Thanksgiving was in 2006. Then we had 2007 at my sister-in-law Kim's house. Last year was at my sister Denise's house. So this year I nabbed it early. I have been struggling with how I am going to decorate the table and place settings. I'm hoping to resolve that this weekend so I can put it to rest. Posting the photos of the 2006 I realized that the living room was still yellow then and we still had wallpaper up in the kitchen. The pictures will look totally different this year.