Which do you think has less calories?

Fitnessgirl0913

I am going out to dinner tonight with my girls who are my bridesmaids for my October wedding. We are going to a restaurant that is small and local so does not have nutrition facts listed for their meals. I tend to eat a vegan diet monday-friday simply because I do not care for any of it that much but I am craving something different tonight. Which meal do you think would be less in calories? They both sound delicious to me so I am good with whichever one is less. The first option is a half portion of chicken French served over escarole (4 oz of chicken according to the menu breded and pan fried in a lemon, white wine, and butter sauce). The second option would be seafood marinara, shrimp and scallops in marinara over fettuccini and honestly I probably wouldn't eat all of the pasta maybe 1/3 to 1/2 since the portions are so big.

Any insight would be greatly appreciated! Thanks


Edit to add how many calories you would ballpark for each meal?

deannalfisher

probably the seafood marinara - because the first is in a butter sauce which will add calories

Need2Exerc1se

I agree. The seafood marinara sounds lower.

quiksylver296

Seafood.

Fitnessgirl0913

Thanks guys!

debtay123

Anything that says fried is usually more calories- I would go with the seafood pasta as well- and be lenient on eating so much of the pasta

aeloine

It's hard to ball park the calories for either because we can't see the portion sizes. Eat half, bring half home and weigh it. Even though pasta expands upon cooking, you'll be able to "guesstimate" the calories in the fettuccini.


Agreed that the chicken sounds like it'd be higher in calories.

DX2JX2

Seafood if for nothing else than controlling the portion size/calories should be pretty easy. If it's one of those places that serves monster pasta portions, it's helpful to pull the portion you want to eat onto a side plate to avoid mindless dips of the fork back into the dish!

Normal restaurant portions, I'd guesstimate the chicken dish at 700 calories (350 chicken, 350 sauce and cooking oil for the vegetables) and the pasta dish at 800 (200 protein, 400 pasta, 200 sauce/cooking oil). Just pull aside a single serving portion of the pasta and you'll easily reduce that number by something like 250 calories, even if you eat all of the protein.

xvolution

Taking a peek at similar dishes in the database here, it looks like the Chicken French over escarole has fewer calories (370 calories for the chicken vs 660 for the seafood marinara). Be advised though that a lot of those calories is from the butter sauce, so if you're watching your fat intake then the seafood marinara would still be better, even though it has a lot more calories.

For the chicken french, that accounts for a 5oz portion of chicken over two cups of steamed escarole.

HeidiCooksSupper

It could go either way depending on how the chef cooked it (e.g. how much butter and oil they used). Choose whichever you wish, eat a reasonable amount, and enjoy this special occasion.

corinasue1143

So excited for you and your October wedding! Don't know which has lower calories, both sound healthy, so no advice there. Whichever you choose, don't stress! Decide before you go what to do, do it and have a great time!

nowine4me

Too late, but I hope you enjoyed whatever you had. I would have guessed that both are pretty equal.