Restaurant Hop

Disney Magic of Healthy Living

I hope everyone is having a magical week!
Congratulations to the winner of my BeckleyByMelissa Scarf Giveaway: Celina!

Yesterdays delayed Monday Motivation: “To change your body, you must change your mind.”

Ahhh Disneyland. The worlds biggest human trap operated by a mouse!
A magical land of discovery, dreams, and really unhealthy food!
I’m quite spoiled, living only a short drive from the Disneyland resort in California. My best friends and I all have annual passes and love going as much as we can, even if it’s just for one ride a fireworks. See, I told you. Very spoiled living so close… I LOVE Disneyland. I’m a total kid at heart and am in awe of it’s magic every time I go. One small problem I’ve always had with Disneyland is that it’s not so easy to eat healthy there.

A quick flashback story: When I was trying to lose weight, I never wanted to go to disneyland with my friends. I basically cut one of my favorite things to do out of my life because I had a fear of the sugary fatty temptations that were at the park. I thought that if I went to Disneyland, I wouldn’t be strong enough to avoid the temptation and go on a crazy sugar binge of churros and Mickey Mouse Ice Cream Sandwiches and gain 20 lbs overnight. We all know that isn’t true… but at the time, my disordered mind told me that it would happen. So ya, you read that right. I was basically scared of Disneyland! Who is scared of Disneyland? Speaking of wanting to stay “healthy” and only eat “healthy foods” I should’ve known how unhealthy I actually was at that point. After I was able to get back on my feet and recover from my eating disorder, I started going to Disneyland with friends again. I was in a much better place where I didn’t fear food or the house of mouse, and allowed myself to have fun and enjoy a churro. It’s all about balance!

RFFMBT DisneylandToning my arms on the Teacups! haha just kidding!

 

For a company who promotes the “Disney Magic of Healthy living,” there are not many healthy options for us at Disneyland. Or at least not advertised around the park! I did some super detective work to find the best options to stay healthy while having fun at Disneyland. Call me Catherine: Mouse Detective! During my exploration at Disneyland for healthier foods, I discovered some excellent options!

Disney Magic of Healthy Living
Here you leave today and enter the world of yesterday, tomorrow, and fantasy.” – Walt Disney
Enter Tomorrowland: bringing inspiration, ingenuity, and ideas of building a better tomorrow.

Did you know that Tomorrowland is home of the only all-healthy-food cart at Disneyland, CA?
The Tomorrowland Fruit Cart is the only cart that strictly sells healthy foods. You won’t find any tempting chips or sodas at this cart! Just 100% healthy, wholesome foods to nourish your body during a long day at the happiest place on earth. Here’s what the Tomorrowland Fruit Cart has to offer!

Red and green apples, bananas, oranges, sliced pineapple, sliced mango, grapes, apple slices, strawberries & blueberries, pickles, veggie sticks with ranch dip, Sabra Hummus & Pretzel Pods, Disney Freeze Dried Fuji Apple Crisps, OceanSpray Craisins, and OceanSpray Craisin Trail Mix! They also sell Vitamin Water Zero, Powerade Zero, Honest Tea, Smart Water, and Dasani.

Disney Magic of Healthy Living
Disney Magic of Healthy Living
Disney Magic of Healthy Living
Disney Magic of Healthy Living
Disney Magic of Healthy Living
Disney Magic of Healthy Living
Disney Magic of Healthy Living
Did you know that all of the plants in Tomorrowland are edible?
The visionary landscaping doubles as a potential farm, projecting an ecologically astute future, where humanity makes the most of its resources. It’s a great big beautiful tomorrow, in Tomorrowland! I absolutely love this idea of an agrifuture. I never noticed the gorgeous display of veggies until now.Look how gorg that red kale & rainbow chard is? Umm inspiration for my future house’s landscaping! I would take a kale bouquet over flowers any day!
* I wouldn’t recommend eating the Kale landscaping at Disneyland! haha

Disney Magic of Healthy Living
Disney Magic of Healthy Living
At Frontierland in Disneyland, CA there is a pretty good Mexican restaurant by Thunder Mountain called Rancho de Zocalo. The restaurant has different stations for tacos, burritos, and tostadas. There is a great vegetarian option for tacos called Soft Tacos Monterrey which contains two tacos with sautéed vegetables, rice, and beans in a flour tortilla along with a side of spanish rice and beans, guacamole, salsa and shredded lettuce. This huge plate of deliciousness is $10 (annual pass discounts available here, score!)
*You can make these tacos vegan by requesting no cheese and no sour cream.

My order: Soft Tacos Monterey without cheese or sour cream.
* This meal is big enough to split with someone!

The Rabbit Food Pyramid Breakdown
Produce: sautéed vegetables
Whole Grain: flour tortillas & rice (two servings of grains, but very filling)
Protein: beans
Plant Based Fat: oil that the veggies are sautéed in

Soft Tacos Monterey
I’ve also found a pretty healthy vegetarian option at California Adventure. The Lucky Fortune Cookery in the Pacific Wharf area at Disney’s California Adventure Park has a variety of Asian Rice Bowls with your choice of protein and sauce over sautéed Asian vegetables and steamed rice for about $9 (annual pass discounts available here too, wooo!).
*All of the sauces are vegan except for the Thai Coconut Curry sauce!

My order: Asian Rice Bowl with tofu and sautéed veggies and some teriyaki sauce on the side.

The Rabbit Food Pyramid Breakdown
Produce: sautéed vegetables
Whole Grain: rice
Protein: tofu
Plant Based Fat: avocado (guacamole), and oil (that the veggies are sautéed in)

Asian rice bowl
With a little bit of faith trust, and pixie dust, you can stay on track with your healthy eating while visiting Disneyland! Balance is key. Healthy produce for snacks all day, a well balanced meal, and a little something special like a churro to indulge in!

RFFMBT DisneylandWith my main squeezes Boo & Kitty a.k.a. Sully!

Health & Happiness xo

Chobani LA Dinner

Yesterday I had the honor of attending a Chobani dinner with Amy Keefe (Chobani) and some über awesome LA bloggers! Dinner was held at Hatfield’s in West Hollywood for an evening of nothing but good food and drinks, complete with Chobani-inspired dishes specially prepared by acclaimed chef Quinn Hatfield. I entered the restaurant to see a group of lively bloggers and Amy, the girl behind the Chobani emails! It’s so exciting when you finally get to put a face to the name of someone you have been talking to via email. Amy is hilarious and so much fun to chat with! After dinner, we decided we were long lost soul sisters. I definitely need to make a trip to the Chobani SoHo Yogurt Bar in the big apple and say hi to all of my other email pen pals at Chobani! CHO has the funniest bunch of employees I have ever worked with.

I was so excited to meet some blogger pen pals and new bloggy friends like the adorable Jessica from What Would Jessica Eat?,  Kelly from Foodie Fiasco (um ya, this little powerhouse is a freshman in high school. She is so inspiring and wise beyond her years! Needless to say I am obsessed with her), and Adrianna of A Cozy Kitchen. Adrianna and I found out that we both have tri-colored Corgis and after that… there was tons of squealing, picture showing, and “awwwws” going on until wee hours into the night. Proud corgi mommas. Oh, and I decided that my Corgi Teddy and her Corgi Amelia are dating. It’s love.

Why do I love Chobani so much?
Besides their awesome employees, I love that their yogurt is natural and Greek strained. It’s made with only milk and cultures with the addition of real fruit and cane sugar in flavored options. Some brands market their product as Greek yogurt, but in fact it isn’t true Greek strained yogurt. Be aware that “Greek-Style” yogurt is not the same. Greek-style yogurts contain additives, milk concentrate, and added whey protein to make the yogurt taste and mimic the texture of authentic Greek yogurt.

So what is Greek Yogurt?
The word Greek refers to the straining process which gives the yogurt it’s thick texture and high protein content. True Greek yogurt only contains milk and live & active cultures.

Did you know that Chobani uses 3 pounds of milk for every 1 pound of Chobani Greek Yogurt? Thats where that high protein rich creaminess comes from!

Chobani LA Dinner
#1 Chobani community coordinator Amy Keefe and I! If you love cats & Chobani, you will def love Amy!
 

Chobani LA Dinner
Finally met one of my favorite healthy living pen pals: personal trainer Bree Bond!
Bree and I have been exchanging tweets for almost a year! You have to checkout her Instagram. She is so inspiring, and girl has a sweet six pack!
I told Bree she needs to start training me haha
Bree’s Instagram & Twitter.

Chobani LA DinnerChobani LA bloggers!

Chobani LA Dinner“It’s time to treat CHOself!”

Chobani LA DinnerFIVE courses of Chobani inspired nom noms! Ohhhh my gosh, checkout that menu!

Chobani LA DinnerAnd of course, the wine pairing. Because Chobani goes all out!

Chobani LA DinnerThe night started with a small crab salad.

Chobani LA DinnerFirst Course: Raw Marinated Kanpachi
Marinated baby radish, herbed Chobani Yogurt, fresh horseradish.

Chobani LA DinnerSecond Course: Butternut Squash Soup
Roasted apple, pancetta, hon shimeji mushrooms, Chobani yogurt crema.
 – took a photo of Amy’s soup to show you guys since I’m allergic and couldn’t have it! –

Chobani LA DinnerModified Second Course: Arugula Salad
Marisa Sheep Cheese and Pecans.
Since I found out the hard way that I am in fact 200% allergic to squash a couple of weeks ago… the sous chef made me a fresh salad! Simple and delicious.

Chobani LA DinnerThird Course: Sous Vide Chicken in Greek Yogurt
Roasted Fennel, Chobani creamy barley, apple salad, whiskey prune smear.
I’m pretty much vegetarian, but I really wanted to give all of the menu items a try. The Creamy Chobani Barley was insanely amazing. I NEED to learn how to make this! Totally inspiring me to make a Chobani Risotto. Or shall I say RiCHOtto!

Chobani LA DinnerFourth Course: Thirty-Six Hour Braised Beef Rib
Smoked Chobani yogurt potatoes.
Once again, I’m not really a meat eater at all, especially red meat, but I’ll try anything once. I like to live life on the edge! haha. The potatoes and roasted broccolini were out of this world. Oh. my. gosh. Absolutely mouthwatering!

Chobani LA DinnerFifth Course: Meyer Lemon and Chobani Yogurt Meringue Tart
Grapefruit confit, mint, huckleberry.
Minus the huckleberry because of my allergy!

Chobani LA DinnerAfter dinner coffee, a must!

Chobani LA DinnerChobani swag bag: Love this bag, upcycled from a burlap coffee bag! Inside the bag was a sweet reusable Chobani water bottle, wooden spoon to get my cookin’ on, Chobani Nike Dry-Fit shirt, and a magnet with conversions for cooking with CHO
Chobani LA DinnerConversions for cooking with Chobani!
Simple swaps to make any meal even healthier! #justaddgood

Aren’t you totally inspired to cook something with Chobani now?
Checkout their awesome recipes and get inspired


Huge thank you to Chobani and Hatfield’s for the amazing dinner!

Restaurant Hop: Panera Bread

Hi Everybunny!

Thank you so much for your support about my thyroid health dilemma that I mentioned yesterday! I really appreciate all of the positive comments, vibes and stories from readers who have dealt with similar healthy issues. You guys are the best!

Today I am starting a new little feature for my blog! One of my brilliant little bunnies Lidia commented on a post with a fabulous question which turned into an awesome idea: RFFBT Restaurant Hop!

“I was wondering, is there anyway you could do a post about some healthy but tasty foods to eat when necessity dictates eating out?” –Lidia

I love hopping around to different restaurants and trying different foods, but I can say that one year ago, it was a very different story. It can be so hard to go out to eat while you are trying to lose weight and stick with your specific eating/diet plan. When I was about halfway through my weight loss journey, I was so obsessed with getting to my goal that I cut myself off all social events that included eating. I stopped going to my friend’s birthdays and started avoiding any sort of social situation that centered around restaurants and food. My obsession with dieting and my all or nothing mentality led to a pattern of disordered eating, which I still struggle with today. I remember going to a restaurant with my friend in Houston and I had so much anxiety over the entire dining situation (what should I order? Is everyone going to watch me eat?, Will the waiter judge me if I have a super complicated order? What if I give in to the bread basked and “ruin” all of my hard work?) that I started crying while reading the menu and had to leave. It was a terrible feeling and it seems so ridiculous when I think back on these moments, but to me, going out to restaurants was harder than final exams in college. It took me a lot of time to get through my fear of dining at restaurants, but I learned to use my Rabbit Food Pyramid guidelines at restaurants to help me make better choices and stay on track.

I really loved Lidia’s idea because I (obviously) know how challenging it can be to make healthy choices at a restaurant, so I want to give you guys some ideas of meals that you can order at popular chain restaurants so you can enjoy the experience and be stress free when it comes to deciding what to order!

My first RFFMBT Restaurant Hop location is: Panera Bread!
Panera has tons of locations and some great menu items, and with a few tweaks, you can have a perfectly balanced RFFMBT friendly meal!

Here is what I had at Panera last night!

My Order: 1 full Fuji Apple Chicken Salad, no chicken, no pecans, dressing on the side and a whole-wheat baguette. THAT WAS EASY! Now let me show you the breakdown!

The Rabbit Food Pyramid Breakdown
Produce: mixed field greens, romaine, red onions, vine-ripened tomatoes, and apple chips
Whole Grain: ½ whole-wheat baguette
Protein: Gorgonzola cheese
Plant Based Fat: 1 spoonful (eyeball 1 Tbsp) of white balsamic Fuji apple vinaigrette (made with olive oil)

For an even more detailed description of my swaps, let me break it down a little more for you:

The original Fuji Apple Chicken Salad comes with:
All-natural, antibiotic-free chicken, mixed field greens, romaine lettuce, vine-ripened tomatoes, red onions, pecans, Gorgonzola, apple chips & white balsamic apple vinaigrette. A side of potato chips, 1 apple, regular baguette or whole-wheat baguette.

If you look at the ingredients, they list 2 proteins (chicken and gorgonzola) and two plant based fats (pecans and white balsamic – contains olive oil). Now, take your pick between what you would like as your protein: chicken or Gorgonzola? Since I am mainly vegetarian I opted for the Gorgonzola cheese for my protein serving. Next, choose your plant based fat: Would you like pecans, or white balsamic dressing? Since they don’t have a fat free dressing option (such as plain balsamic vinegar) I opted to keep the dressing and leave the pecans behind. When adding your dressing, note the amount that they provide you with. Restaurants usually load healthy salads with calorie/fat bombs of dressing which make some salads just as fattening as a cheeseburger. Try to eyeball 1 Tbs of dressing for your salad or dip your fork full of salad into the dressing to avoid too much plant based fat. Also note the size of your whole-wheat baguette. Panera tends to be very generous with their baguette portions, after all it is called Panera BREAD! I usually cut my baguette in half and give the rest to a friend or box it up right away so I am not tempted.

I know that some people look for the nutritional information (calories, carb, fat, etc.), but I have found that counting calories is just not a great match for me and my past all or nothing eating style. If you have been reading my blog for a while, you know that I stick to balanced portions from the 4 food groups in order to stay on track. If you need the nutritional value for this meal, you could always use the Nutrition Calculator on Panera’s official website.

For more tips on dining out, read my RFFMBT Dining Out Guide!
I cannot wait for my next Restaurant Hop! Suggestions for future restaurants are welcome!