Disease Proof

I just flipped through the last couple month’s of Eating to Live on the Outside and I’ve got to admit, its been a nice run. Check out these great restaurants: Blue Sage Vegetarian Grille, Salad Works, Live, Green Tango, and Leaf Cuisine. All good!

And this week’s is another winner. Daily’s has serious potential. Thanks to Michael for emailing me about it. Daily’s menu is about half and half; half the food is iffy, but the other half could easily soothe the savage nutritarian. So, enough vamping—let’s hit it!

For starters I like the steamed vegetables and the small mixed green salad; hard to find something wrong with these. Steamed veggies rock and provided you go easy on the dressing, the green salad kicks butt too.

Now, onto the salads; I like four of the six. I’m skipping the Baja Flavors Pasta Salad and the Large Mixed Green Salad; the Baja Salad because of the pasta and the Green Salad because it’s a tad boring, but the rest entice me.

Combined the Chinatown Chicken Salad, Thai Noodle Salad, Greek Salad, and Spinach Pasta Salad are made with Romaine lettuce, cucumber, carrots, water chestnuts, chicken, sesame seeds, sprouts, soba noodles, celery, scallions, cabbage, feta cheese, black olives, pepperoncini peppers, rotini or fussili pasta, spinach leaves, red onions, tomatoes, parmesan cheese, and your choice of dressing. Wow, a lot of stuff!

Okay, here’s the stuff I’d omit: the chicken, soba noodles, feta cheese, black olives, either pasta, parmesan cheese and of course, I’d order the dressing on the side. I’d go with the balsamic vinegar. What would you do?

I’m passing on the entrees and pizza; nothing there gets my motor running. Let’s check out the sandwiches and wraps and yes, the wrap, bun, or bread would a concession. I’m fine with it. A bread concession I can live with, believe it me, it could be A LOT worse!

My two favorites are the Veggie Wrap and the Mediterranean Wrap. The Veggie Wrap is made with a flavored tortilla, mushrooms, onions, black olives, tomatoes, zucchini, brown rice, and a ginger sesame dressing—I’m ditching the olives and getting the dressing on the side. Now, the Mediterranean Wrap includes a flavored tortilla, tomato sauce, zucchini, mushrooms, lentils, brown rice, and nonfat mozzarella cheese—I’m dropping the cheese.

I also like the Grilled Eggplant and Zucchini, the Garden Vegetable Burger, and the Thai Wrap; altogether they’re prepared with roasted red pepper spread, eggplant, zucchini, French baguette, garden vegetable burger, whole grain honey bun, flavored tortilla, tofu, celery, cucumber, shredded carrots, mushrooms, rice, and various dressings. All good stuff; grilled eggplant, zucchini, and mushrooms are three of my favorite things!

I’m jumping over the desserts and drinks and going right for Daily’s Blender Bar. I like four of them. The Paradise Splash Smoothie; fresh orange juice, strawberry, and banana. The Double Berry Blitz; blueberries, strawberries, and apple juice. Razzle Dazzle; cranberry juice, strawberries, blueberries, and raspberries. And the Fit & Fresh; raspberries, strawberries, blueberries, bananas, and apple juice. Seriously, what’s better than blended bananas!

Now, perhaps the coolest thing about Daily’s is that the menu lists the nutrition facts. This is a HUGE asset for anyone who is mindful of their nutrition. So, here are the nutrition facts for the items I selected. Take a look:

Pretty cool—right? Yup, I definitely think Daily’s is a great place to have a healthy meal. But hey, I say it all the time, what do I know? I’m just a blogger. I’m hardly a nutrition expert. So, do me a favor, scope out Daily’s menu and let me know how you handle Eating to Live on the Outside. Make a comment or send an email to diseaseproof@gmail.com. Until then, eat wisely. Peace.