Thursday, January 19, 2006

Au Bon Choice

I had another good lunch at Au Bon Pain today... I think I'm accepting that place as a key to my weight loss plan. After several days of making due with soups that I didn't think were all that exciting (what, a week and no tomato florentine? come on, people!) I decided to go the full-size salad route. I tried one of their new ones - the steak salad with mandarin oranges and cranberries. Although mine didn't have cranberries on it, and it had a tiny bit of crumbled bleu cheese. They recommended the balsamic vinaigrette with it, but I went with my favorite - the lite olive oil vinaigrette. It was super-tasty! The steak was really good, and it was a decent-size portion (about 5 strips), and the mandarin oranges made for a really nice, refreshing taste. And my favorite dressing was pretty darn good on it, so I'll stick with that.

I just calculated the points using Au Bon Pain's nutrition info and it was really good! The salad itself was only 6 points, plus 4 for the dressing. Wow, dressing really is a lot if you're honest about how much you actually use. (Sometimes I've been known to cheat and just say "ah, 2 points!" when it really should be more.) But that was a very tasty, fresh, filling lunch selection for 10 points. I also had a bag of regular Sun Chips, which made for another 3 points. And I brought back some pineapple to eat as a snack later.

The real key, I've found, is that I have to have small breakfasts - 5 points or less - in order to make sure I can have a satisfying lunch. Cuz I really do need something tasty and filling in the middle of the day to keep me awake and motivated!

1 comment:

Lady Brandenburg said...

I do the same - no more than 5 points for breakfast (mostly do 4 pts.) to allow an 8 or 9 or 10 point lunch. Today I did 13 points at lunch - I can't resist beef BBQ sandwiches on Thursdayas and Booeymongers - will need to do a light dinner!