Fit Mom Aly: Friday Food Frenzy 11

Friday, June 7, 2013

Friday Food Frenzy 11

From time to time, we all struggle when we're out and about to eat right. It's not always easy to make healthy decisions, and sometimes it doesn't even seem like there are healthy options for us to eat. The mall food court can be evil. You've got all kinds of bad but super yummy foods staring you down. I'm relieved that the pizza place and Five Guys is located all the way in the back section of the food court at my mall so I'm less likely to let it bother me. Sure, I'd love a burger and fries and might allow myself a burger or fries at some point in the future. But right now, I need to stick to my plan.

Fortunately, there's a Chick-fil-A right near the food court entrance. I frequented Chick-fil-A before my wedding for their Grilled Chicken and Fruit Salad, which shortly thereafter, the mall locations stopped selling. I was devastated!! It was a great salad loaded with fruit --- before adding the dressing, it was only 230 calories (and the light berry balsamic dressing they had added 110 calories if you used the whole packet). It was such a great salad. I'm so sad they don't have this salad anymore.

If you follow Chick-fil-A at all, you may have heard they recently changed their salads. I was devastated to hear this news, however, before venturing to the mall yesterday, I checked out their new salads online to see what their new offerings were. After scoping them out, I was actually kind of excited to try them. Without further a due...

Chick-fil-A new salads:
- Grilled Market Salad: 180 calories before dressing and condiments (nuts and granola) are added; loaded with apples, blueberries, and strawberries
- Asian Salad: 330 calories before dressing and condiments (Chinese wontons and almonds)
- Cobb Salad: 430 calories before dressing
- Grilled Chicken Cool Wrap: 330 calories before dressing (to dip wrap into)

I wanted to try the Asian Salad. My mall location doesn't sell it, of course! So I picked the Grilled Market Salad. I loved all the fruit that was in it, and preferred the grilled chicken (the Asian and Cobb salads are actually made with their chicken nuggets, which probably plays a part in the higher calorie counts). I didn't add any of the nuts or granola. The zesty apple cider vinaigrette was suggested for this salad, which I honestly didn't love, but it was ok. I only used half the packet of dressing (the entire packed would have been 230 calories --- yikes!!) My only gripe about this salad was the blue cheese. I personally am not a huge blue cheese fan. I picked around the big chunks of it the best I could. Since Chick-fil-A has their salads made daily, I don't know that I could even order it without blue cheese but I will certainly ask next time. Overall, I really did enjoy this salad tremendously. I definitely still want to try the wrap and Asian salad!

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We've all heard about Green Tea. It's potential health benefits to help fight cancer and heart disease. Lower cholesterol. Burn fat. Prevent diabetes and strokes. And possibly even helping to prevent the onset of dementia. However, I've never really been a fan of it. I'm not really a tea person in general (unless it's iced tea). When I was picking up my K-Cups one day in Target, the tea section caught my eye.

There was a whole section of Lipton flavored Green Teas. And a lot of them contained the "Superfruits" that seem to be dominating the market these days. Purple Acai. Red Goji. Mangosteen. Pomegranate. The list goes on. Anyway, I noticed specifically that one of them was decaf!! I didn't know they even made decaf green tea! I've become a decaf coffee drinker at night which I'm trying to change, so decided to try the Decaf Blackberry and Pomegranate Green Tea. I LOVE IT! It's so yummy! It's slightly sweet but not too overpowering. I also picked up the Red Goji and Raspberry (caffeinated) green tea to try since I love raspberries, but to me, it tasted a bit too artificial. There are so many flavors I want to try! Passionfruit and Coconut. White Mangosteen and Peach. Black Currant and Vanilla. I don't think any of these would ever make me quit my morning "Cup of Joe", but they certainly could be good to have midday before the caffeine would keep me up at night. Interested in trying green tea? Check out their full selection!