Fast Food Debate

Ok, so every once in a while, everyone is allowed to break down and grab fast food. I too fall into this category except that in the last 7 days, I have done more than break down...I have completely haulted, pulled over and gotten as much as I can of it. And to tell you the truth, as much as it tasted good, I prefer my stuff and real restaurant food anyday. Ok - here's the breakdown of the last week.

With moving out of my old apartment and into my condo, cooking was very sparse this week. So last week Thursday I took advantage of the new Toppers on Grandview and ordered a single order of Toppers Stix and a Myza for $9.99. Thank goodness I dated a few guys from Whitewater and got to understand the Toppers experience early on and know the greatness that it is. I got ranch for my Toppers Stix (they switched from Hidden Valley to another brand, but its still good!). The Myza is something new and very interesting. It's basically an oval piece of dough that looks like a football pizza and then it is cut 3 times diagonally to make 4 pieces of pizza out of it. I chose sausage as my one topping. The best part is some pieces had crusts on both ends. Hard to explain - check out www.Toppers.com So that was Thursday and I had the leftovers on Saturday when I woke up a little under the weather from the night before!!

Monday - Chef Boyardee Tortellini for Lunch - McD's for dinner. The Tortellini was actually extremely disgusting - a fake meat substitute in the middle that tasted like flour was just not appetizing. I used to love all of Chef Boyardee's stuff - guess its back to Ramen and Mac n Cheese! And then McDonald's. I had a Fair board meeting until 9:30 and by then I just needed something fast and wanted to get home. So a McChicken and small fry it was. The McChicken was quite heavy on the mayo which I would typically enjoy but with my new health kick, it made me mad that I was eating it. And the fries were extremely soggy. I like crispy fries - like from Oscar's or Kopp's. This was just a disappointment. But what should I expect for $2.10

Tuesday - Qdoba for Lunch, Spring Garden for Dinner. We were supposed to have Milio's Subs drop off a party platter for my company on Tuesday but it never showed, so I went with a quick and easy choice of Qdoba -- it's only a block away. Well Qdoba now has a Pick 2 menu so I chose a Naked Queso Burrito with Chicken and a Chicken quesadilla. Both are smaller portions than regular and I actually ate just the burrito and saved the quesadilla til today. Don't even bother looking at the nutrition facts because you will just make yourself sick. www.qdoba.com if you are tempted. I could attempt to justify it by saying they were smaller and I spread them out, but I know that I too could make this at home and have it taste better! I finished cleaning out my apartment and decided to get Chinese from Spring Garden that night. I only meant to order chicken fried rice and shrimp lo mein, but then I saw egg rolls and splurged for a spring one as well. When I went to pick it up they accidentally made chicken lo mein first so they gave me that for free too. At least I limited my intake and have plenty of leftovers now, but there is something about the MSG (I'm assuming) that makes Chinese taste so much better from takeout than from homemade. PS - if you like Hot & Sour soup, my friend Nick highly recommends if from there. They make it fresh and you get a huge container for really cheap. I have yet to try it.

Wednesday - (The complete derailment!) KFC & Noodles. Don't get me wrong, I love both of these places and I could have made better choices and not felt as guilty but I just decided to go for broke. At KFC I got a mashed potato bowl - mashed potatoes, gravy, corn, popcorn chicken and cheese, a trucker's fantasy!! It is always delicious and I saw that Hungry Girl suggested an at home version of this that is healthier so I should probably opt for that from now on. Noodles - well I never veer from what I know I love there - Pesto Cavatappi with Parmesan crusted Chicken. Just watching the oil pool up in the bottom of the bowl made me feel guilty. But I just love it, the mushrooms are delicious.

And Thursday - I am having my quesadilla from my Pick 2 from Qdoba - its ok - would have been better fresh and not nuked, but the smaller size is more like a perfect portion size. Definitely something to think about doing with a friend. They get a pick 2 as do you and you get to sample all different things for just around $6. I did notice that although the advertised price is 2 items for $5.99, when you add meat to anything - its an additional charge.

Ok - so tonight I'm going to make myself a healthy dinner at home and attempt to break myself of this horrible habit. Definitely not a good thing to do week 4 of a 13 week diet/lifestyle change.

One thing I would like to point out is that even though I ate at all those places there are plenty more in Waukesha that I could have succumbed to as well but resisted. Hopefully the next time I write, I will have new meals to write about or restaurant excursions. Happy Eating!