Healthy Eating Out in the Twin Cities

Mega portions deep fried in oil...

What's your favorite place to eat a quality guilt free meal?

I like TGI Friday's Dragonfire Chicken.

I love Applebee's Quesadilla Burger.  If you get it without the Mexi-Ranch dressing it's only 375 calories.  Pair it with the plain garlic mashed potatoes and the total is only 565.  It feels like a complete splurg!

I have a few...

Chili's Guiltless grill Chicken Sandwhich - so yummy and it comes with veggies and beans.

Green Mill has an awesome low calorie chicken pizza.  I think the whole thing is around 600 calories and I always take home half.

Panera their low fat soups are awesome.  I love the black bean soup the best.

Applebees also has a weight watchers menu for healthy alternatives. The french onion soup is awesome!

Honestly I've been looking for good places to eat but I don't like Friday's or Applebees...

any other ideas?

I am a huge fan of Potbelly for quick eating or for casual hang-out-with-a-friend meals. For my money, they make the best-tasting sandwiches in town.  I order the Veggie, "Skinny"-style.  (That's where they scoop out the middle of the bread.  It gets filled in with more veggies.)

If I don't have enough calories to spend, I ask for it without cheese, which only minimally affects the taste.  Oh, and needless to say I only get the mustard, not the mayo.

As a great bonus, their website has a very cool nutrition information tool where you can add and subtract toppings to create the exact sandwich you order.

Hey Twiggy,

I don't know what kind of food you are in to, but a great place in Mpls is Cafe Brenda - organic, locally grown food (within reason - they do have Mahi from HI, and teas which of course are not from MN).

I also love middle eastern food because you can make it carb free, or fat free, or neither if you choose - they also have lots of vegetarian options.  One of my favorites is called Marina (Mpls) and they have another one called Big Marina in Columbia Heights.

If you like Thai food, a little hole in the wall with fabulous Thai food is Chai's on Cedar/Riverside (West Bank of the U of M).  My husband and I both work in Mpls, that is why we visit restaurants there.

Cafe Brenda sounds like a good choice.

I have been struggling with eating out as most of the places I like don't have very good options. But I tend to look at salads with chicken breast wherever I dine out. The other option I look at is to try to choose the best entre that I can and then have the waitperson box half of it before it ever gets to me. That helps me out on the portion control.

Is it just me or am I paranoid because I get concerned at HOW foods are being prepared (even vegetarian meals) as far as fats and such?