Vacation eating

I thought it might be interesting to share techniques for surviving eating away from home. I pretty much have a routine at home and know what I can order when eating out in my own town (which often includes bringing home half the food). I find it a different challenge when out of town. First, carrying home food is not practical. I hate wasting money on food that I won't eat. Many upscale restaurants have only expensive large portions. Here is the way I approach it--perhaps you can share some ideas: 1) If I can get someone to order a huge dinner and split it, I get a variety of food with little extra expense. 2) I peruse the appetizer menu to look for "meat only" appetizers that may represent low carb smaller portions of dinner food. I have done well on this, especially with crab cakes and shrimp. The downside is that you don't get the variety of veges usually. 3) I look at the sandwiches. These usually have "normal" servings of meat and if I can substitute slaw or veges or a salad for the fries I get more than I can eat (without the bread), at about half the cost of an entree that would be 3 x my capacity. 4) Sometimes the senior menu works, especially for breakfast. Any other ideas out there? Joy

Joy, Sounds like you're doing all the right things for travel eating. I usually stick with the left side of the menu because that's where all the soups, salads and appetizers are. If I can't find something there, I mooch and pitch in for someone else's meal. Often times, it's enough to order soup or a salad and then just graze my way around everyone else's plate. My nieces and nephews are used to sharing with me. The other thing that almost never fails for me is to just ask. I usually don't go into great detail, but tell the waitperson that I just need to eat something small with a lot of protein and ask for their suggestion. Often times they'll come up with something not on the menu or let me have something a la carte, especially if it's not a chain. I ate lunch yesterday at an Italian place and that was tough. I find Italian restaurants to be the toughest for me. So many carbs and so little protein. I ended up ordering Italian Wedding soup that came with meatballs instead of crumbled sausage. I ate the one meatball and that was that. The waiter kept asking what was wrong and I kept telling him that I wasn't as hungry as I thought. Considering the cost broke down to six bucks for one meatball, I don't think I'll be doing that again. Hugs, Connie

I bring my husband along. He now has a nickmane, "MIKEY"

So when is his WLS scheduled? LOL! Joy

Joy~ I am reading this with MUCH interest as we are going to England for 3 weeks this May. I WILL ofcourse have FISH and chips at least once but other than that...I don't know quite how to handle everything being covered in gravy (YUCKO!!!) I try to order like a chicken salad type thing and ask for the chicken grilled and on the side with the dressing on the side. My husband just laughs because I am NOT a picky eater but I just don't want to order something I will feel like I have wasted or won't eat. I always ask if they can throw some other veggies into the salad for an extra buck or 2. USually they are pretty good. Then my daugter eats the salad with me, she is a vegetarian at age 5 so she is happy cause the chicken didn't touch the salad @@ LOL HOW did I get a vegetarian child??? I LOVE MEAT!! LOL nic 291/165/155