Days 4-8: Out and About

So I think we are finally getting the hang of this eating clean thing! Maybe...

Eating clean is hard to do while eating out with friends and family. I must admit, I come from a family that eats out a lot. My sister and I were always involved in activities and so our family time was spent at the dinner table, but not usually our own table.  Things are still this way with my family now, which is why it is so important that we figure out how to eat clean while eating out.

Over the last few days we had an opportunity to figure this out.


I have off work every other Wednesday, so I took Johnny lunch. After doing the Daniel fast many times with our church, I knew that Pei Wei would have a lot of options for us. I ordered off of the kid's menu so the portion would be appropriate. Johnny had steamed tofu with brown rice and mixed vegis and I had "velvet" chicken (**which is how you order chicken at Pei Wei if you don't want the breaded chicken) with brown rice and vegis. It was so good!

We both had protein & healthy carbs. Success! And, it was only about $9.00 for both of us to eat

Then Sunday afternoon after church we went our for brunch. We went to BBD, our fave breakfast place in Tulsa. We actually had a lot of great options there! I had their homemade granola with plain yogurt and fresh fruit & 2 scrambled egg whites. Johnny had a buckwheat pancake with natural peanut butter & 2 eggs over easy.

We both had protein, healthy carbs & healthy fats.

Then last night Johnny brought home dinner from In The Raw-- yum. Sushi & ITR salad... Johnny really loves me.  Johnny had a pineapple rice bowl with steak & vegis. I had a small ITR salad (which has lettuce, chicken, scallions, almonds & ginger vinaigrette) and a roll with salmon, crab & cucumber. The rice around my roll was white rice, so not 100% clean... but what we are learning about eating clean is that it is more about making better choices than being perfectly "clean."

Here are the ground rules we have established for eating out:
- no fried food (look for steamed or grilled protein)
- drink water only (juice sounds healthy, but the amount of sugar in juice is outrageous)
- no bleached flour
- no cream based sauces or dressings
- smaller portions, or take 1/2 of it to go

I really don't think you could eat out as much as we are accustomed to and truly eat clean... I know a lot of what is not "clean" about eating out is the way the food is prepared--which we cannot control unless we cook at home. However, because of our lifestyle, we have to figure out how to make BETTER choices when we eat out.

It's not easy, but it can be done!