I have a group of friends who I go to play trivia with at a local mexican restaurant on Tuesday nights. We've been playing for almost a year now and we love getting to spend that time together and hang out and compete. I've always kind of let that night slight as a sort of "cheat night" for me so I can enjoy the bad food and do well the rest of the days.
Well, effective last night there is a new place in town doing trivia with the same host that I am friends with, so a different group of my friends decided we should try it out and support them. Well, we won first place so now we want to start making this a habit as well.
I know I don't want to let myself get away with two cheat night... but long story short, What do you order at a mexican restaurant that is healthy and good?
A group of SAHMs in my area go to lunch every tues so this is a big prob for me too, you can only eat so much soup ya know. I thought I was doing good (not great) but ok the other day and ordered a small burrito w/o sour cream, got home and logged it.... 1350 cals. I FREAKED so I'd love to know opinions on this too
I had a similar dilemma a few weeks back as my friend chose a mexican restaurant for her birthday meal. Another lady on here told me to order chicken fajitas and to load up on the peppers and onions if I get to make them myself, and to have pinto beans as a side dish. She also said to either try sharing with someone or ask the waiter if he can put half of it in a doggy bag then I have no chance of eating it all just because it's on my plate.
I found this online too:
Mexican:
Avoid nachos or any dips like sour cream or cheese, and while guacamole is full of healthy fats, a small amount of it can quickly add up to your calorie and fat intake for the day. However, eat all the salsa you want, as it’s fat-free and low calorie, and makes a great topping for a salad.
Order a healthy side dish of pinto beans rather than refried beans and you’ll get a similar flavor without the fat, plus beans are high in fiber and protein. Healthy meal choices are: bean burritos, chicken fajitas, or a grilled chicken dish with onions and peppers (but skip the cheese) and when in doubt, choose soft tortillas, which are baked, rather than fried tortillas.
Mexican restaurants can be tough places to find something low calorie to eat. I usually order a taco salad, but ask them to use black beans instead of beef and put the sour cream and guacamole on the side, so I can just use a little bit instead of having big globs. I always try not to eat the shell, but I usually end up eating part of it anyway. If the restaurant you go to is good about substitutions and slight changes, something like that might work out well.
I love Mexican food because I think it's easy to order something healthy, and/or everything comes on the side! The flavors are bold
If you're doing Tex-Mex, ask for corn tortillas instead of flour, and ask them to warm them without frying. Fajitas are a good option because you can pick and choose how much to put into your tortilla, and stick with cilantro, salsa/pico de gallo, limes, and jalapenos/hot sauces. I LOVE fish tacos with plenty of cabbage, but avoid them if they're made with fried fish. If they have a chicken tortilla soup, that's also a pretty good option and typically broth and tomato based. You'd only have to be weary of crushed tortilla chips on top.
The thing to avoid is the basket of fried tortilla chips that sometimes are offered on the table. They're but so delicious. Anything you order, ask for cheese, sour cream, guacamole on the side.
Thanks so much!!
I know one of my hardest things will be kicking the cheese dip that I love so much and I could just eat salsa on my salad but I love those darn tortilla chips! My roommate suggested turning away the chips when they bring them to you, that will be a challenge but I may try it this coming week!
My tricks for Mexican are if I want something cheesy I get an appetizer size quesadilla instead of entree sized. And if an order of tacos comes with three, I only eat two of them (I try and give one away to a friend so its not sitting on my plate calling to me).
Many restaurants have amazing Shrimp cocktails (often in several sizes) consisting of cold cooked shrimp in a tomato juice/pico de gallo mixture (a bit like gazpacho only better, because I don't like gazpacho and love this) with lots ot clilantro, green onion and tomato along with avocado chunks, served with saltine crackers on the side. I limit or omit the crackers and eat the shrimp and veggies/sauce with a spoon (and maybe an occasional nibble of cracker - at least when I was still eating wheat).
Ask the waiter about the sizes, because I once ordered the largest (of three) sizes since I was eating it as a meal and not an appetizer, and it came out in a brandy snifter bigger than my head, obviously meant to serve several people as a group appetizer.
If the pieces of avocado are plentiful, I eat around most of them, unless I'm eating low carb for the whole day.
Fajitas without the tortilla eaten with a fork works well too, but I avoid the fajitas with chorizo because the calorie count skyrockets. A lot of low-carbers lose well on high fat choices, but low-carb without calorie control doesn't work well for me for very long.
There's another low-carb dish (if you skip the tortillas) that I can't remember the name of. It's often with the fajitas on the menu. It's basically chicjen fajitas (chicken, onion, bell peppers, and I think tomatoes) served over a bed of poblano peppers (roasted or steamed) and topped with queso cheese, served with tortillas.
Normally a high calorie nightmare, but I ask them to double or triple the bed of poblano peppers and ask them to use only a bit of the queso or serve it on the side (that's a lot to ask so I offer to pay any additional charge and I've never been charged much).
I usually suffer for it, because that's a LOT of vegetables (and I'm a bit sensitive to fiber overload) but it's delicious and I always lose weight the third day (I'm usually up a pound the following day from the salt, but if I drink a lot of water and stay on plan I usually see a good loss "the day after the day after."
You have to love peppers though (I adore poblano peppers).
Carnitas are also a good low-carb choice if you avoid the tortillas or substitute corn. Occasionally the meat is fatty, but more commonly it's relatively lean. If it's fattier than I want, I skip the tortillas and eat less, avoiding the fattier pieces (which is tough because the slow-roasted pork meat and fat taste super amazing together - Geez, now I want Carnitas).
I have good luck eating low-carb on days I eat out, even if I'm not following low-carb the rest of the week.
What to order...
but so delicious. Anything you order, ask for cheese, sour cream, guacamole on the side.
