Eating at my Neighborhood Deli

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lors624
lors624 Posts: 30
in Health and Weight Loss
I absolutely love a restaurant in my neighborhood. It is family owned and operated, not party of a chain and they make all of their own stuff from soup, salads and sandwiches to their own condiments. But, that makes my food really hard to log.

Example: I had a killer cucumber red pepper tortilla soup today - but I have no idea the ingredients. I ended up logging it as "roasted red pepper soup" that I found in the database because it had a higher calorie and fat content than the cucumber soup I found in the database. I try to estimate high, but now I am over my calorie and fat for the day, which is depressing.

Does anyone have any suggestions other than asking the chef for his secret recipes?

Replies

  • DaveyGravy
    DaveyGravy Posts: 283 Member
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    You can only really estimate, unless you log every ingredient that is obvious and how much of each thing which is fine in theory, impossible in reality.
  • xonophone
    xonophone Posts: 474 Member
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    I do the same thing as you...find a food on here that sort of seems like what I ate and log it in. My husband I love to go to the beach for pizza, and even though I have no idea how many calories are in a slice, I compare it to something in the database that we recognize (DH says the beach pizza is similar to Papa John's thin crust cheese). You can also ask the staff what they would recommend as low calorie or low fat options from the daily selections. Maybe if they get enough inquiries they will start to include more diet-friendly foods.

    Once you get used to "appropriate" portion sizes, you will be better at eyeballing what you're eating too. For example, when I met friends for lunch I opted for the healthy veggie hummus wrap (although I really wanted the bacon blue cheese burger) and could sort of eyeball how much of each veggie and hummus was included, and then used the nutritional content for a large wrap in the MFP database.

    However, the key really is portion control. So now, instead of getting the huge sub with a large creamy soup and bag of chips, you can be satisfied getting a half sandwich/half soup combo. Or something like that :)

    BTW, good for you for patronizing your local family owned restaurant! Personally I HATE chains and go out of my way to avoid them...although lately I hate to admit I go to them a little more frequently because many offer nutritional content on their websites.:embarassed:
  • amathus
    amathus Posts: 49 Member
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    Maybe you could ask them for recipes, then use http://caloriecount.about.com/cc/recipe_analysis.php to calculate it yourself. Or if they're unwilling because they want to protect the recipes, give them that website and ask them to calculate it themselves. I'm sure a lot more of their customers than just you will want the nutritional info.

    As for me, I tend to do what you're doing and guesstimate, leaning toward the high side.
  • iRun4wine
    iRun4wine Posts: 5,126
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    I don't know that they'll give you the exact recipes, but we have very good family friends that own a little "hole in the wall" cafe, and I know (because I used to work there!) that people from time to time will say that they're watching what they eat, and that they'd like a little bit more info. about what's in the food- chances are there may not even be a "recipe" per say- depends who's cooking and what kind of a mood they're in that day, probably :laugh: But, they may be willing you give you, their loyal customer, some insight as to what's in their food. It's worth a shot, right? :flowerforyou:
  • firepixie
    firepixie Posts: 65
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    They might not want to give you the recipe, but maybe they would work out the nutritional info of a few of their dishes.
  • lors624
    lors624 Posts: 30
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    Thank you all for the feedback. I suppose I will continue with my current method and just ask when I am really at a loss for an ingredients list (like the soup I had). Go local establishments!

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