Chili's are they kidding

annacataldo

That's fairly standard across the board for places like Chili's/Applebees

except applebees has a 8-10 item menu that has 550 calories or less, which is great, just with high sodium (like everything at these type of places), but water can cure excess sodium. i drink at least 5 big cups of water everytime i go to a resturant, after drinking my regular 20cups that day, and making sure to drink alot of water the following day too.

ladybug1620

I had this problem when going out for my husband's birthday a few months ago. Everything on their "healthy" menu had at least 700 calories. And not a single salad on the healthy menu. I ended up ordering a black bean burger with steamed veggies instead of fries. I ate only 1/2 of the burger, and had the rest for lunch the next day. I've also done this with the grilled chicken sandwich.

MarieNevada

dont forget to add about 10 to 20 percent to the total values because restaurants and food manufacturers purposely under report calorie counts.

inlander

Yeah, I totally know how this feels. Sometimes I'd rather go out to eat than cook something at home / go shopping in order to cook something at home, and I was looking at Red Robin's menu the other day and wept.

annacataldo

you can order things how you want. i havent been to chilis before personally, but ordering a plain baked potatoe with plain chicken/steak and a steamed veggie, will be much better for you than something that comes with cheese and all the extras. if a salad has 1300 calories, examine the menu to discover why, and identify the ingredients that are higher calorie and order it without those items (like cheese, or sour cream, etc)---things that you can still enjoy the meal without those certain items... a burger you could order without mayo and cheese, eating half the bun even, and that will save you a ton of calories... never order rice pilaf cuz its always made with butter, and they dont make that kind of stuff to order so you cant order it plain without butter, but things like potatoes you can. just make sure you know what a serving of potatoe is cuz alot of times they give you those big baker potatoes and those are 250+calories, where a serving of potatoe is only 100calories.

michedarnd

Yeah, I totally know how this feels. Sometimes I'd rather go out to eat than cook something at home / go shopping in order to cook something at home, and I was looking at Red Robin's menu the other day and wept.

I like the lettuce-wrap-you, though. I took the kids, and that actually worked out reasonably well.

Net132

I used to work at chilis. Let my tell you unless you have a great waitress and know how to order you food you are not getting anything healthy, I loved getting people what they wanted when the wanted something healthy but I like waiting on people. The use fresh herbs and a lot of fresh veggies. They just marinate them in a tone of sodium, and stay far away from the soup. If you want to be really picky talk to a manager that is the only way to get what you want some times. They always of not marinated meat which will be way less in sodium. Margarita chicken is on of the lowest in calories but highest in sodium. I liked fajitas, onion and peppers steamed with not marinated chicken with pico de galo and guacamole no tortillas that's the best.

neanderthin

I'm all over that burger.