Almost Grain Free Diet Day 25: Wendy’s

My mom and I went shopping Thursday morning while Dustin stayed home to make the money for us to spend. Kidding… sort of.

My wake-up snack wasn’t going to tide me over for several hours and I definitely didn’t want to go to the grocery store on an empty stomach, so I made a quick-and-easy salmon burger brunch before we headed out.

I’m the only one that will eat this red cabbage + radicchio cole slaw. It’s freakin’ delicious, why doesn’t anyone else love it?! Haters.

• One Trident salmon burger (130 cal) on a homemade grain-free white cheddar pumpkin seed roll with red onion, baby spinach leaves, 1 dill pickle sandwich topper, and no salt added mustard
• Heaping half cup of red cabbage + radicchio cole slaw

Yummmmmmmmmmm! The salmon burger was SO GOOD! I lightly toasted the roll, then loaded it up with awesomeness.

Trident Seafoods salmon burgers are grain-free/gluten-free and have the most amazing flavor that I haven’t been able to recreate with homemade salmon burgers. They’re kind of pricey @ $8 for a box of 4, but worth it, in my opinion.

I could seriously eat these every day and never get tired of them. They’re that good. I can only find them at Price Chopper in Middletown or at Whole Foods, so I stock up when I see them. They will make a smokey salmon lover out of people that don’t even like salmon, like Dustin. 

The mother figure and I went to Shop Rite in Middletown, then to Hannaford. I was really only trying to buy fresh produce, but one impulse buy leads to another and before you know it, my $50 produce run turns into $150.

In my defense, I bought a lot of nuts for Dustin to snack on. He needs calories being he’s involuntarily losing weight after he quit drinking soda. Men! lol

He wanted a spicy chicken sandwich from Wendy’s for lunch, so before we left I built a menu on their web site with things that I could have. Out of the 200 options, I narrowed it down to 5 things, LOL.

My choices:

2 small side salads with pomegranate vinaigrette, no croutons; a plain baked potato, and a medium light lemonade. Their grilled chicken contains corn and is way too high in sodium, so that’s why I just went with two small plain salads.

I opted out of their funky reduced fat sour cream and put a whole small container of Siggi’s plain nonfat skyr-style yogurt (100 cal, 17g protein) on my baked potato when I got it home.

Skyr is even thicker than Greek yogurt. It’s fabulous! Unfortunately, the only place I can find Siggi’s is at Whole Foods, and being this was from my last trip there, I probably won’t have it again anytime soon.

So much better than the funky sour cream stuff.

I used one packet of the pomegranate vinaigrette and added some red wine vinegar + EVOO at home.

Really not bad for a fast food meal! Not bad at all. The only “unhealthy” component was the soy bean oil in the vinaigrette, but a little here and there is a non-issue. The potato was HUGE, so I only ate 2/3 of it. The potato itself was quite awesome, though. It was cooked perfectly; fluffy, yet firm. I liked it a lot! I’d definitely eat there again, probably the same selections, lol.

Thursday’s Almost Grain Free Diet Menu

• One medium banana
• Trident salmon burger on a homemade grain-free white cheddar pumpkin seed roll with red onion, spinach, pickle, and mustard
• About 1/2 cup cabbage + radicchio cole slaw
• About 10 mixed olives from olive bar
• Wendy’s: 2 garden side salads, 1 packet pomegranate vinaigrette, drizzle of EVOO + red wine vinegar
• Wendy’s: 2/3 of a plain baked potato with a small container Siggi’s plain nonfat yogurt
• Piece of Endangered Species 72% dark chocolate with nibs
• Fruit leather – raspberry
• Half of a white cheddar pumpkin seed bun
• 1oz reduced fat/sodium cheddar cheese
• Honeycrisp apple
• 10-12 olives from olive bar

New York state Honeycrisp apples are on sale at Hannaford for $1.49/lb! I bought 7 of them and might pick some more up today. Love them! I overdid it with the olives from the olive bar. Ugh!

Question: What’s your go-to fast food meal when you’re trying to make healthy choices? I like Panera Bread salads, Subway’s veggie delight 6″ sub, and Wendy’s salads + baked potatoes. I usually don’t try to make healthy selections when I eat fast food, though. Chipotle and Qdoba have healthier options, but I’ve only had burritos there. Maybe I’ll try a salad next time we’re there. Big maybe.

Tagged as: almost grain free diet, fast food, gluten free recipes, gluten-free, grain free bread, healthy fast food options, salads, takeout, Trident salmon burgers, Trident Seafoods, Wendy's