Chili's Guiltless Grill Revamped!

Phoenixflame

Wowza! Did the universe know about this but deign not to tell me? My beloved Chicken Fajita Pita is even more sinless...provided I give the waitress a serial-killer stare and whisper "Tell the chef to go verrrrrry easy on the salt. It does funny things to me. Oh yeah and broccoli 'stead of fries please."

Anyway, check out some of the new dishes and stats!

http://damnthefreshman15.blogspot.com/2009/01/chilis-suprisingly-awesome-new.html

Phoenixflame

Wowza! Did the universe know about this but deign not to tell me? My beloved Chicken Fajita Pita is even more sinless...provided I give the waitress a serial-killer stare and whisper "Tell the chef to go verrrrrry easy on the salt. It does funny things to me. Oh yeah and broccoli 'stead of fries please."

Anyway, check out some of the new dishes and stats!

http://damnthefreshman15.blogspot.com/2009/01/chilis-suprisingly-awesome-new.html

Cookn

If you look at the nutritional analysis for all of Chile's Guiltless Grill menu items, the least sodium any of the items has is 420mg with the most being 2305 mg. I didn't see a Chicken Pita listed but the Chicken sandwich had almost 1400mg of sodium, just over half of your daily requirement. Actually a meal would have much more sodium because each item on the meal would have it's own sodium content.

What most people don't understand is that all of your major chain restaurants menus are prepared and set in stone long before the food ever arrives at the individual locations. The "Chef" does little more than heat and serve the food. It arrives from a warehouse already seasoned, ready to heat and serve. There is no control over ingredients. The recipe was fixed long ago in a corporate kitchen and tested and tested and the ingredient list fixed there. Then it was gone over with the food suppliers and they put it all together and packaged it, sent it out tho the regional warehouses, and deliver it to the locations. They prepare it, platter it, and serve it to you. About the only real control they have at the local level is whether you want veggies or potatoes, mayo or mustard, rare or well done.

If you are trying to cut sodium in your diet, you will not do it by eating out. You have to look everywhere to cut sodium and it's very hard to do. Even something like 1% cottage cheese at listed 1/2 cup serving size has something like 400mg. You common everyday lunch meats like turkey and ham have usually above 800mg per 2 oz. serving which is 2 slices if you are lucky, usually 1 1/2 is more like it. I've found it much harder to cut sodium than it is to cut calories. There are ways to do it but you have to carefully chose your ingredients and use exact portion sizing. I'll be more than happy to pass on some tips if you want them.

cmdelux

You're not kidding! My sodium intake is almost always above my recommended level, especially on the days when I am at work. I know any packaged or prepared item is loaded with sodium, but those also happen to be the things that make packing a work lunch easier.

It is so frustrating trying to find something quick to take that won't throw my sodium level through the roof! For instance, Progresso Light Chicken Noodle Soup or Light Santa Fe Style Chicken BOTH have 680mg sodium per serving. What a disappointment because you can eat the whole 18.5 oz can for only 140 calories and 3 g fat, but that would make a total of 1360mg of sodium per can !@#! OUCH! I make sure to take as many fresh things to eat as I can (fruit/veggies), but I would also like some protein and dairy foods ! Any suggestions?


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Cookn

One of the things I do, is I am an relentless label reader paying special attention to the sodium and serving size. I look for serving sizes that can be cut down. I'm a sandwich eater, so a lot of what I do is pointed in that direction, but it will also help in other places. My latest discovery is Honeysuckle White Turkey Breast medallions as listed they have a 4 oz. serving size with 470 mg of sodium. If you cut that in half to 2 oz. you have 235 mg of sodium. Now there are two way to go from there, you either eat a small portions or you put it on a sandwich. I use a whole wheat pita bread cut in half which half's the sodium of that to 112 mg. With lite mayo and lettuce and tomato I'm still less than 500 mg of sodium, actually right at 450 mg. But it took my a while to chasing around a looking at a lot of labels to find this out.

For breakfast try a whole wheat english muffin, one slice of Canadian Bacon-serving size 4 slices with sodium of 400 mg-egg whites only 95 mg if you can do with out the cheese, you have an egg mcmuffin at 425 mg. I cheat and grate some fresh parmesan on the thing so I figure it's just under 500 mg.

Honeysuckle White has some great products, they have a turkey breakfast sausage that has a 2.5 oz. serving size, which is very generous, that has sodium in the 320 mg range for the serving, even if you only cut .5 oz. that's 20%, it drops to 256 mg. 2 oz. would be plenty for a wrap.

I also look for spice blends to add flavors either with or without salt, I just use lees of the ones with salt. Check Penzeys. com for blends, I particularly like the Tuscan Sun salt free mix and Fox Point is wonderful and doesn't have too much salt. I use their spices exclusively and I can't recommend them highly enough. I'm not affiliated with them but they are the freshest most potent spices I have ever found.

Get a good digital scale for your kitchen if you don't have one already. Use it religiously, and weigh everything you eat. I have a Salter Nutri-Weigh, which is probably over kill for most people, but I build a lot of my own recipes and the scale will total nutritional values as I put the recipe together. You can pick up a very accurate scale for under $40 and it's what I would consider an essential.

If you really want to play with flavors get a book aptly named "The Flavor Bible" by Page and Doernburg. It is two inches thick and list what flavors go with what. It will help you add guilt-less flavor to anything. I also consider it an essential but I'm a little over the top when it comes to cooking.

Phoenixflame

Yeah, I know, the sodium's bad. But it's still good to know you can get an otherwise decent meal for under 500 calories.

I am very watchful of my sodium intake. If I know I'm going out to eat, I eat very low sodium food throughout the day, and be sure to drink a ton of water.

The chefs at Chili's have some sort of control. I've had foods regular and when I requested light on the salt, and I could taste the difference (and feel it in my stomach). I guess they spice it a bit themselves to give it a fresher kick?