In an effort to reduce the seemingly endless parade of cakes and cookies, my officemates and I have started a new tradition of taking colleagues out to lunch to celebrate birthdays. Today we tried a local coffee shop that has a "light lunch menu." I chose an unsweetened iced tea (so far, so good) and a salad. The salad was delicious and perfectly filling. When I returned to my office, I logged onto The Daily Plate in an attempt to estimate the calorie count for the salad. And...(here's the bad news) I came up with a shocking 900 calories for the salad!! Is this possible. Admittedly, I'm new to the calorie counting thing, but I was stunned at the thought of this. The salad consisted of the following: romaine lettuce/baby spinach, cubed grilled chicken breast (~3/4 c), feta cheese (~1/4 c), dried cranberries (~2T), candied walnuts (~1/3 c) and vinagrette dressing (~2T). I think the walnuts put me over the top, right?
For those of you calorie counting experts, could I have possibly eaten a 900 calorie salad???
Well between the feta cheese, dried cranberries, candied walnuts and vinagrette dressing, it is totally possible.
Does the place you go to have nutritional information for their items?
Oh and I went to look for something comparable and I did find something except the walnuts aren't candied. It also really depends on the size of the salad and serving but you may be closer to the 400 range, maybe 500 than 900. http://www.readypac.com/healthy/chicken_cranberry.php
Once you start putting "stuff" on your salad, especially the dressings, they can add up calories extremely fast! They are def one of the most deceiving things to eat, cause you think you are doing really good, and then you find out you weren't! When I do a salad, i stick to basics. Cucumber (which I hate, but I'm trying to eat), lettuce, lite dressing & sometimes, if I have the cals I put a couple of unsalted peanuts in there too. The cheese & dressings really kill the cal count!
Restaurant salads, especially large "meal" salads are notorious for being crazy high in calories, often higher than a burger in the same restaurant.
It's often difficult to guesstimate calories, so if you can find the restaurant's nutritional information online and make your choice before you go, you've got a better chance of making the best choice you can.
Next time, get the nuts, feta and dressing on the side. I have a favorite restaurant here that has an awesome salad, but if I just let them pour it all on the salad comes to 1100 calories. So I ask for the calorie laden stuff on the side and dip my bites into the dressing and add the others sparingly. At home I can make salads that rock my world for less then 200 calories. But eating out for me is a special event, so I do it very infrequently.
ghost - I agree, most restaurants will serve you way over 2tbsp of salad dressing. I used to go to a place with awesome salads and they would bring you about a cup worth of dressing. Some people would use it all!
I have seen calorie counts for restaurant salads over 1500 calories. And those salads billed as "healthy fare". So, I am not surprised that yours was 900. Restaurants really need to retool their salads and make them lower in calories and higher in nutritional value.
dried cranberries (~2T), candied walnuts (~1/3 c) and vinagrette dressing (~2T)
These three things are pretty much solid sugar. Candied walnuts are the worst because you have the calories from the nuts (healthy calories, mind you) and then coated in sugar syrup.
And most dried cranberries are sweetened with sugar or corn syrup - since plain cranberries are VERY tart.
I'd say if you removed those things from your salad and got them on the side, you'd save a lot of calories.
Scary isn't it, that you can really try to be healthy and just be sabotaged by a few unexpected items.
Heh I love cranberries in salad, but they are calorie bombs. I would have asked for just a little cheese and the dressing on the side. I also bought some packes of 25 calorie Italian dressing that I carry around in my purse. They taste pretty good (and no HFCS which is important to me) and it's a lot of flavor for 25 calories.
Salad disaster?
So, I am not surprised that yours was 900. Restaurants really need to retool their salads and make them lower in calories and higher in nutritional value. 