How do restaurants manage to pack in so many calories and so much sodium????

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13

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  • Alatariel75
    Alatariel75 Posts: 17,959 Member
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    emily_stew wrote: »
    arditarose wrote: »
    The same way I could manage to. Trust me, if I didn't have to think about calories/weight my meal would have had a lot more butter and salt in it tonight.

    Aww yiss! Actually cooking like that is but one of the reasons I got so fat.

    I didn't get fat on take out or 'junk', I got fat from living with a chef and 2 food lovers and baking and cooking as a passtime! I could spend all day cooking and baking... and frequently did :D
  • Tubbs216
    Tubbs216 Posts: 6,597 Member
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    arditarose wrote: »
    My mom likes to cook restaurant style. Butter and cream in everything. I grew up eating multiple servings per night. Delicious but dayum...I'm smaller now than I was in middle school.
    Up until a couple of years ago, I used to ALWAYS have cream in my fridge. Add a little to the eggs, a drop to the sauce, DELICIOUS! No wonder I gained weight. My husband, given half a chance, puts cream on his breakfast cereal!
  • 7elizamae
    7elizamae Posts: 758 Member
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    I'll jump in here and add a little encouragement. It IS possible to cook beautiful, flavorful food without a huge excess of calories. I do it at home all the time. I'd say that many of the 'better' restaurants do so.

    But if you're baking or going for fast, inexpensive, goof-proof yumminess, you'll probably wind up using lots of fat, salt, and sugar.
  • arditarose
    arditarose Posts: 15,573 Member
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    Tubbs216 wrote: »
    arditarose wrote: »
    My mom likes to cook restaurant style. Butter and cream in everything. I grew up eating multiple servings per night. Delicious but dayum...I'm smaller now than I was in middle school.
    Up until a couple of years ago, I used to ALWAYS have cream in my fridge. Add a little to the eggs, a drop to the sauce, DELICIOUS! No wonder I gained weight. My husband, given half a chance, puts cream on his breakfast cereal!

    It's wonderful. But, I still eat out once in awhile and don't miss it at home. I'm just happy I fit into pants and my allotted "space" on the subway seat.
  • Tubbs216
    Tubbs216 Posts: 6,597 Member
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    Alatariel75 wrote: »
    I didn't get fat on take out or 'junk', I got fat from living with a chef and 2 food lovers and baking and cooking as a passtime! I could spend all day cooking and baking... and frequently did :D
    I had a small baking business for a few years - wedding cakes, fancy cupcakes and cookies etc - THAT helped pile on the pounds, despite being on my feet all the time. Well, you know what they say: Never trust a skinny chef.
  • atypicalsmith
    atypicalsmith Posts: 2,742 Member
    edited March 2015
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    KrissyMuree wrote: »
    RE: McDonald's

    Having worked there, I can guarantee half the things you think are safe and okay to eat from there are definitely not. In my district at least, the lettuce and most vegetables were sprayed with a chemical compound to keep the composition of the vegetables. It's why our restaurant had a cancer warning near the entrance. The salads were usually made in the morning but the boxes would be shipped to us weeks prior. Joke's on America, I guess.

    That would explain why my salad that I bought at 7:00 on Friday night was MUSH at 7:00 on Saturday morning. Thanks for the explanation!
  • Alatariel75
    Alatariel75 Posts: 17,959 Member
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    emily_stew wrote: »
    Alatariel75 wrote: »
    emily_stew wrote: »
    arditarose wrote: »
    The same way I could manage to. Trust me, if I didn't have to think about calories/weight my meal would have had a lot more butter and salt in it tonight.

    Aww yiss! Actually cooking like that is but one of the reasons I got so fat.

    I didn't get fat on take out or 'junk', I got fat from living with a chef and 2 food lovers and baking and cooking as a passtime! I could spend all day cooking and baking... and frequently did :D

    Oh yeah! Don't get me wrong, I ate/eat a fair amount of takeout and fast food too, but I also love home cooking and playing around in the kitchen. The calories add up either way!

    Oh yeah! And we were all hospitality workers so dinner was frequently restaurant food. Man, I remember it being normal for us to sit down with a mixing bowl of mashed potato (full cream, butter and lashings of salt) drizzled with truffle oil and a spoon each while we watched TV.
  • arditarose
    arditarose Posts: 15,573 Member
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    Alatariel75 wrote: »
    emily_stew wrote: »
    Alatariel75 wrote: »
    emily_stew wrote: »
    arditarose wrote: »
    The same way I could manage to. Trust me, if I didn't have to think about calories/weight my meal would have had a lot more butter and salt in it tonight.

    Aww yiss! Actually cooking like that is but one of the reasons I got so fat.

    I didn't get fat on take out or 'junk', I got fat from living with a chef and 2 food lovers and baking and cooking as a passtime! I could spend all day cooking and baking... and frequently did :D

    Oh yeah! Don't get me wrong, I ate/eat a fair amount of takeout and fast food too, but I also love home cooking and playing around in the kitchen. The calories add up either way!

    Oh yeah! And we were all hospitality workers so dinner was frequently restaurant food. Man, I remember it being normal for us to sit down with a mixing bowl of mashed potato (full cream, butter and lashings of salt) drizzled with truffle oil and a spoon each while we watched TV.

    drool
  • sodakat
    sodakat Posts: 1,126 Member
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    As far as the original question posed in the OP, I think the reason iHop's egg breakfast is so calorie laden, without meat, is it includes 2 or 3 pancakes or hashbrowns and "buttered" toast.

    iHop lists a single egg, on the side, as 130 calories. I'm going to assume this includes the fat its cooked in. So 2 eggs would be 260.

    Hashbrowns are 280
    Toast with butter & jam/jelly is 250
    Pancakes listed as 470

    Some combination of the above plus syrup or whatever they add to the breakfast plate, must equal the 810 calories listed.

    But they do have 310 and 350 calorie egg breakfasts. The simple Fit 2 egg breakfast is 350 and the simple Fit omlette breakfast is 310. The first includes toast and fruit I think. Not sure about the omlette.

    A side of bacon is listed at 90 calories at iHop.

    My go-to breakfast order at unfamiliar out of town restaurants when I drive school bus to all-day events is one egg, either poached or basted if they don't offer poached, 2 strips of bacon and 1 piece of toast with butter on the side. 250-300 calories is my ball park amount for this including any fat the egg may be cooked in. I usually carry a grapefruit from home that I eat at some point.

    Really, I find breakfast to be the easiest meal to eat out without stressing over calories, as long as I order what I know will fit my calorie budget.

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  • 2BeHappy2
    2BeHappy2 Posts: 811 Member
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    TheVirgoddess wrote: »
    Alatariel75 wrote: »
    Actually, iHop's secret to their scrambled eggs is that they add pancake batter to the mix!

    Yes. Which totally and completely grosses me out for some reason.

    No wonder I didn't care for them the 1st time I ate scrambled eggs at IHop :confused:
    Now I know why Id always ask for fried or over easy...its easier to tell what youre getting that way :wink:

  • Swiftlet66
    Swiftlet66 Posts: 729 Member
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    I never really understood this either. Sometimes, the food even tastes bland but it still has 1000+ mg of sodium, which doesn't really make sense to me.
  • hesn92
    hesn92 Posts: 5,967 Member
    edited March 2015
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    Chilis and IHOP are not very good restaurants to be eatin at. Chilis I'm pretty sure serves frozen stuff that they reheated (based on my experiences) and IHOPs eggs are weird. they don't look like real eggs.
  • JPW1990
    JPW1990 Posts: 2,424 Member
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    For anyone who doesn't want their eggs with pancake batter (and it's not just IHOP, most pancake houses use that trick), ask for them with egg whites only or ask for fresh cracked eggs. It's not that they're adding pancake batter as they go, they're pouring all the eggs from one giant pre-mixed batch of eggs and batter.
  • PeachyCarol
    PeachyCarol Posts: 8,029 Member
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    7elizamae wrote: »
    Alatariel75 wrote: »
    Actually, iHop's secret to their scrambled eggs is that they add pancake batter to the mix!

    I have cooked a lot of egg recipes and have never heard of such a thing. I'd be interested to hear more about that. We could try it at work!

    Maybe it changes the structure so they look nicer (less runny?) on the plate?

    It's true. It's quite widely known information in the celiac community for obvious reasons.

  • atypicalsmith
    atypicalsmith Posts: 2,742 Member
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    JPW1990 wrote: »
    For anyone who doesn't want their eggs with pancake batter (and it's not just IHOP, most pancake houses use that trick), ask for them with egg whites only or ask for fresh cracked eggs. It's not that they're adding pancake batter as they go, they're pouring all the eggs from one giant pre-mixed batch of eggs and batter.

    Ewwww!
  • spoonyspork
    spoonyspork Posts: 238 Member
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    My IHOP breakfast:

    2 POACHED eggs so I know it's not fried in butter or has pancake batter added: ~140
    2 slices bacon: 90
    2 slices dry white toast: ~120 (a guess because they only list it with butter and jam... so I just go off my similar store-bought bread)
    1 cup grits: 80
    Broccoli (I hate their mixed fruit so sub a veggie): 50

    Don't add butter (bread is used to dip/catch runoff from the egg so isn't needed)

    Total: 480 and about as much sodium as you'd expect (it can only possibly be added to the grits and broccoli, plus normal sodium in bacon)

    OR if I'm wanting pancakes I get the simple & fit for 480 plus ~200 calories in margarine & syrup

    I get breakfast almost exclusively from all of these types of places these days, as I'm guaranteed to be the most full for the longest time on the fewest amount of calories (it's usually road trip fuel). Plus I love breakfast but hate cooking it.

    For a bit of fun, look up 'naked chicken' from Buffalo Wild Wings. Something like 2x RDA sodium but pretty low on the calories. I know you're fine not really looking at sodium unless you actually have issues with sodium, but that's still insane!
  • atypicalsmith
    atypicalsmith Posts: 2,742 Member
    edited March 2015
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    Waffle House is the only place that knows how to scramble eggs the way I do. Or maybe I like them so much I learned to scramble eggs by watching them!
  • kristydi
    kristydi Posts: 781 Member
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    Alatariel75 wrote: »
    Actually, iHop's secret to their scrambled eggs is that they add pancake batter to the mix!

    Is that what's weird about iHop eggs? I never liked them and could never figure out what was wrong. They were just weird.
  • peter56765
    peter56765 Posts: 352 Member
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    KrissyMuree wrote: »
    RE: McDonald's

    Having worked there, I can guarantee half the things you think are safe and okay to eat from there are definitely not. In my district at least, the lettuce and most vegetables were sprayed with a chemical compound to keep the composition of the vegetables. It's why our restaurant had a cancer warning near the entrance. The salads were usually made in the morning but the boxes would be shipped to us weeks prior. Joke's on America, I guess.

    Interesting. Their latest breakfast campaign assures us they start making your Egg McMuffin by cracking a fresh egg. This is a salvo against Taco Bell and Dunkin Donuts who have taken quite a bite out of McD's breakfast market share but who reheat already created breakfast sandwiches shipped from a central location.

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