The Eating Out Balancing Act

Not that we eat out a lot when we're at home, but we've found that having this daily feedback on our food has really made us look at what we order in restaurants. Not only that, but we've seen just how all that extra sodium in restaurant food manifests itself as retained fluid and noticed how long it takes to finally clear our systems.

A few evenings ago, we went to The Keg Steakhouse for dinner. One of the wonderful things about the wealth of information on the internet nowadays is that the larger chain restaurants are putting nutritional information on their websites, and The Keg is no exception. I have to say that their site is extremely good in this respect, letting you build your meal exactly as you had it. Or, in my case, exactly as I was going to have it. Not that I scrimped at all or had something less than I really wanted because of calories or fat concerns. Well, that applies to everything except dessert. They have something called Billy Miner Pie, which is their signature dessert. It is delicious, but, be warned, if you are keeping track at all of calories, you need to share this dessert with at least 3 people!

The good thing about doing my research first was that I knew what I would be comfortable eating, and it also wouldn't take me as long to make my decision when I got there. And anybody who knows me knows I can take a while to make up my mind sometimes... In the end, my meal of salad, steak with vegetables and mushrooms, french fries (but I only ate half!) and vanilla ice cream only came to about 800 calories, which for a restaurant meal is pretty good.

Of course, the other planning plus is that we went out on a day that we also work out with Eric, so we had more calories to work with on the consumption side. After getting on the scale 2 days after the meal out, I found that I was exactly the same weight as the previous week, and I'd managed to drop my body fat percentage by a bit, too.  But I think that might also be due in part to what we ate the next day - and that leads me to today's recipe.

Still trying to keep the protein percentage high and the fat content low, I made a Lentil Stew for dinner the next night. Not only did it fit the bill in both cases, but the vitamin and mineral content is great, too.

Lentil Stew

2 slices Bacon, cut into strips
1 Pork Loin Chop, cut into 3 pieces
1 cup Onion, chopped
1 cup Carrot, chopped
1 cup Celery, chopped
1/2 cup Tomato, chopped - canned or raw
1 tbsp Tomato Paste
2/3 cup dry Lentils
1 1/2 cup Water or Vegetable Stock
1 small Bay Leaf
Salt, Pepper to taste

Chop and cut all ingredients as needed. Rinse the lentils. In a deep pan or a pot, start the bacon and saute until it starts to render some fat, but not until it is too brown or crisp. Add the onion, carrot and celery and cook for about 2 minutes. Move the vegetables out of the way and add the loin chop pieces in the middle of the pan. Brown for about 2 minutes on each side. You may have to stir the vegetables a little to keep them from browning too much. Add the tomato, tomato paste, lentils, stock and bay leaf. Stir to blend everything together. Cover and simmer on medium to low heat for about 30 minutes. Check seasoning after the first 5 minutes or so and adjust as you stir occasionally during the rest of the cooking. Serve in shallow soup plates or bowls. This recipe makes 3 servings.

Nutritional Information per Serving (about 2 cups):

253 Calories, 5.3 grams Fat, 48.1 mg Cholesterol, 30 grams Carbohydrate, 7.7 grams Fibre, 22.2 grams Protein

So we're finding that balancing what we eat day by day is also a great help in keeping control over our weight and nutrition, and still lets us enjoy a meal out once in a while.

Tonight's dinner will be rainbow trout that has now become one of Larry's favourite fish dinners. And that's an achievement since he's truly 'not a fish person'. I'll show you that next time.