Mimi’s for Lunch

Yea! Mimi’s now posts their own nutrition information off the online menu. My mom and I meet for lunch about once a week, and we love to meet at Mimi’s. Our favorite lunch is the petite salad. They serve it with a muffin! I manage to stop after eating about half of it. Yum. You’d think we were being good, right? Not necessarily. Here’s a breakdown, comparing my other favorite Mimi’s meal, the Classic Beef Dip sandwich. (I couldn’t find the coleslaw information on the Mimi’s site so I used other web sources.)

	Petite Crispy Chicken Salad + ½ Carrot Raisin Muffin			Classic Beef Dip + ½ Serving Coleslaw
	Salad	Ranch dr	½ Muffin	Sandwich	½ Slaw
Calories	356	194	303	521	95
Fat	29g	20g	17g	15g	2g
Net Carb	7g	2g	34g	38g	4g
Fiber	1g	0g	1g	5g	1g
Sodium	266mg	321mg	340mg	3928mg	160mg
Protein	15g	1g	4g	49g	<1g

Well, the salad lunch is unbelievably high fat, but the sandwich lunch is REALLY unbelievably high sodium. I tell myself that the sodium count has to include all the au jus in the cup, and I only use a little, so it must be OK. If it is, then the sandwich is a much better all-around choice. I guess all I’m trying to say is that appearances and pre-conceived notions can be deceiving. But now that Mimi’s posts their nutritional information, they don’t have to be. Check it out.

McDonald’s McMuffin

I love fast-food restaurants. They all provide nutrition specifics on their websites so we can make informed decisions. We might not make the best decisions when faced with all their tempting choices, but they can be informed ones.

My favorite fast-food breakfast, by far, is the McDonald’s Egg McMuffin. With only 300 calories, it’s certainly not the worst choice you can make in the morning when you’re feeling stressed and hungry. With plain black coffee, you can continue your day relatively guilt-free. Just compensate for the sodium (840 mg!) and fat (12g, 5 of them saturated). It’s got a total of 27 g net carb, so combined with the egg and slice of Canadian bacon, it doesn’t spike my blood sugar.

However, I try to do better. I love the taste of an Egg McMuffin, and with the Western Alternative English muffin, I can re-create the McDonald’s version and freeze them for easy grabbing on my way to work. The sodium is still high because I like to use Kraft 2% slices to emulate the McDonald’s taste, but it’s not quite as bad as the original. If you use a Western Alternative English muffin (or substitute the Thomas Lights), one egg white with a streak of yolk, one Kraft 2% cheese slice, and one slice Canadian bacon, here’s the approximate nutritional breakdown: Calories 182, fat 4g, sodium 650mg (yikes), net carb 18g, fiber 5g.