Mexican Adventure Part 3… There were four of us ordering lunch that day. Order # 1 “I always get the tortilla salad.” We discussed what was on the salad and it sounded pretty good—chicken, corn, cilantro, cheese (depends how much…remember how many calories are in ½ cup?). Her biggest concern was that the chicken tasted like it was cooked in oil. I encouraged her to find out how it is prepared. If it is cooked in oil there may be options the server can recommend. However, she was hesitant to change her favorite meal…
Order #2 “I love Chimichangas”. Well, that’s a difficult one… Chimichangas are Chimichangas because they are fried. Fried is almost always more calories than you expect! So we went back to my research from Calorie King. A Beef Chimichanga (without eating the sides) is 1310 calories with 98 g fat (31 g saturated fat) YIKES! What about chicken? Well it’s better: 1099 calories and 42 g fat (20 g saturated fat). “I will never order that again!” I say, never say never… you can split it with someone or save ½ for another meal. (For the chicken Chimichanga, this would be acceptable but still a bit high for calories and fat.) We decide to look at a different menu option. We decide on cheese quesadilla, depending on how it is prepared. A cheese quesadilla is closer to 490 calories and 28 g fat, much better.
Order #3 “I like fajitas”. In my research fajitas varied quite a bit 450 calories to 851 calories (both chicken and both without the sides). We look to the lunch menu and decide to order from that since portions tend to be smaller. Also, asking questions when we ordered.
My order, since I had done all this research I decided ahead of time I would stick to one of my favorites a tostada. I actually prefer flour tortillas but I do like the corn tortilla in tostadas or hard tacos. They actually didn’t have a tostada lunch meal so I simply ordered the chicken tostada as a side. Even on its own a tostada is 360 calories, 21 g fat. With my chips and salsa that is actually about a typical amount of food that I eat for lunch if I pack my own.
I’m so proud of my lunch mates! They all asked questions (even about the chicken in the salad) and we learned that in this restaurant the chicken is not cooked in oil but grilled with the skin on. The lunch fajitas did not come with a tortilla which was fine for us! We saved ~100 calories there. And my Chimichanga gal really liked the quesadilla which was not cooked in oil at all.
I think we all learned a lot and had a delicious Mexican meal, all healthier than what we normally would have ordered! ¡¡Viva Las Margarita’s!!
