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Old 04-12-2011, 11:48 AM   #1  
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Default For Canucks - Tim Hortons?

Canadians, let's talk about that embarrassing commercialization of our national culture - Tim Hortons. Personally, I find that Tim Hortons is impossible to avoid. Places like Burger King or MacDonalds I can easily just refuse to go to, or I can go to a subway or pita pit next door/across the street and get something much healthier while friends grab their food. Tim Hortons are everywhere though - at school, next to my work, at the malls, next to my gym, at the bus stop. Friends and family always want to "grab a coffee and chat", so I find it hard not to go there at least once or twice a week without being anti-social.

So I know that Tim's has pretty excellent and extensive nutritional information on their website, but I am still curious about what strategies other people use while drinking/eating there. I'm pretty good when it comes to the drinks, because my favourite hot drink is just plain green or peppermint tea, but I do still have a hard time with the food at Tim's. I know most of the baked goods like dougnuts and danishes are out, but I find it so disappointing that even the "whole-grain" and "low-fat" muffins are still in the 300-450 calorie range (for a small muffin!).

I know some of the healthier food/meal options at Tim Hortons are the chili and some of the chicken sandwiches, but I'm a vegetarian. I usually rely on the egg salad, which is extremely yummy. The egg salad snack wrap (210 calories) is good for a smaller pick-me-up or snack, and the egg salad sandwich (360 calories) is alright for a full meal. Both can be made on whole-wheat. They're both kind of high in fat, but the fat is just from the eggs (which I consider a whole food) and natural mayo (I asked them once and they said their Mayo is Hellman's real), so I don't mind the higher fat. I am starting to get sick of them though!

What else do you eat at Tim Hortons? I haven't tried very many of the soups. I tried a tomato soup once and it was disgusting. It was so salty that it was almost inedible and it just had a weird flavour. I couldn't eat more than a few spoonfuls of it. If you think Campbell's soups are extremely salty, think again! Are any of the soups actually good? What about the bagels? I haven't gotten a bagel from Tim's since I started my diet, but if you get the 12 grain or wheat with a small dab of peanut butter are they really that bad? I'm not on a low-carb diet but all the low-carb talk has poisoned me against bagels. Do you think that either the ice caps or the fruit smoothies are worth the calories? I've always been addicted to the ice caps during the summer, and I've always had them made with either skim or chocolate milk (1%) since I first started drinking them, but even without the whole milk I know it's still just empty calories and sugar. They're so delicious though! I'm looking forward to seeing everyone's responses!

Last edited by alicia89; 04-12-2011 at 11:50 AM.
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Old 04-12-2011, 12:26 PM   #2  
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I looooove Timmy!
I don't know what plan you are on but I used to be a vegetarian. I have tried the BLT without B(acon) which is good and they give you more tomatoes & lettuce if you ask. They also have cheese so that is an option too, replace bacon with cheese.
Bagels have lots of calories/fat, croissants and biscuits even more.
I love the oatmeal for breakfast!
I am not a big soup eater but I like the sun-dried tomato one, chili is good too.
I haven't tried the smoothies yet but I will. The iced capp is too sweet for me now but the iced coffee is good. I don't get them often but they are better than ice cream!!
I am on the advisor board at Tim (they send you surveys etc via email) and they do ask more and more about healthier choices I find. I also always include that in my comments! So let's hope for more...

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Old 04-12-2011, 12:50 PM   #3  
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I don't eat a meal there very often, but if I want something little that's sweet and not very many calories, I will order a couple of timbits (the lower range calorie ones). Less than a donut, and nobody's looked at me funny yet...

I don't like their soup either...just the cream soups, but those are out.

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Old 04-12-2011, 12:59 PM   #4  
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their oatmeal is the only thing that gets me out of bed on mondays
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Old 04-12-2011, 01:18 PM   #5  
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Quote:
Originally Posted by josey124 View Post
I looooove Timmy!
I don't know what plan you are on but I used to be a vegetarian. I have tried the BLT without B(acon) which is good and they give you more tomatoes & lettuce if you ask. They also have cheese so that is an option too, replace bacon with cheese.
Bagels have lots of calories/fat, croissants and biscuits even more.
I love the oatmeal for breakfast!
I am not a big soup eater but I like the sun-dried tomato one, chili is good too.
I haven't tried the smoothies yet but I will. The iced capp is too sweet for me now but the iced coffee is good. I don't get them often but they are better than ice cream!!
I am on the advisor board at Tim (they send you surveys etc via email) and they do ask more and more about healthier choices I find. I also always include that in my comments! So let's hope for more...
Thanks Josey! For some reason I've never heard of the oatmeal before. I guess I've just never seen anyone ordering or eating it, but I checked the website and it's listed there for all their restaurants and the nutritional information looks great. I will definitely be trying it! The BLT hold-the-bacon is a really great idea too for something a bit different. Funny thing about the soup is that I'm 99% that the disgusting soup I mentioned in my post above was the sundried tomato flavour! I'm wondering if they prepared it wrong or somehow it got over-salted or something because honestly it was beyond being just kind of salty, it was like gag-worthy salty. Could have just been a fluke on that particular day at the particular location I was at maybe. I want to try the minestrone but they never seem to have that one on the days that I'm there.
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Old 04-12-2011, 01:24 PM   #6  
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Ohhh you gotta try the oatmeal!!!

Not sure about the sundried tom soup. I only had it once. I really have to force myself to eat soup so usually I don't :-)
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Old 04-12-2011, 01:24 PM   #7  
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I'm probably the odd person out when it comes to this, but I'm not crazy about the timbits for some reason. I find them kind of dry and I really dislike the chocolate, sour cream and powdered ones. The plain glazed ones are ok but I'm kinda meh on them. I'd rather have something savoury or spend those calories on a small ice cap. I can see how they're definitely a good option for people who like them though, since you can just eat a few!
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Old 04-12-2011, 01:35 PM   #8  
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Yes...very weirdly...I find I can eat a couple of those without wanting more. I don't like them enough to binge, but they are sweet enough that my body says, "Ah. Sugar." when I have them. And I don't find that they're stale very often, unlike stuff at Second Cup. Bleah.
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Old 05-14-2011, 10:34 AM   #9  
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I'm a fan of Timmy Chili too.

The minestrone soup is pretty good, but yeah probably really salty. They also have beef and barley sometimes, which I like.

They also have those yogurt and berry things, but the berries are kind of mushy.

Just stay away from the nanaimo bars and the crullers.

alicia: I only like the plain lazed timbits too.
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Old 05-15-2011, 09:03 AM   #10  
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Damn it!

http://ca.shine.yahoo.com/just-how-h...moothies-.html
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Old 05-31-2011, 12:09 PM   #11  
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Awesome thread! Love Tim Hortons. But I usually end up making bad choices there. The only good thing I seem to come out with is milk in my coffee. Probably my favourite thing there is a breakfast sandwich or an everything bagel with herb and garlic cream cheese.

Really appreciating the healthier options! I don't often eat anything other than breakfast there though. Didn't even know they had oatmeal!
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Old 05-31-2011, 12:58 PM   #12  
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You gotta try the oatmeal! I loooove it! We usually go for breakfast on weekends. I am looking forward to the berry oatmeal all week :-)
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Old 06-07-2011, 10:15 AM   #13  
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I always have a 12 grain bagel with peanut butter. I scoop out some of the bagel (it's a lot of bread!) and ask for only 1 peanut butter (they give you 2). It's still not completely on-program for me, but the bagels are higher in fibre than most of their options.
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