Friday, July 3, 2009

Fantastic Food Find Friday: Fast Food Edition

The Food Find: McDonald’s Premium Southwest Chicken Salad

The Facts: I know, I know…McDonald’s not something that people automatically think of when they think “health food.” I personally stay away from the place unless it is an absolute emergency. HOWEVER, we all have crazy busy lives and let’s be honest, there are the occasional instances when a super fast drive thru is the only way we can get a bite to eat. So, in these instances, it’s important to arm yourself with a healthy alternative to the burger and fries deal of the day.

On Tuesday, I was in one of those “situations” where I was about the eat my arm off and the only place with food between client #1 and client #2 was a little place with big golden arches. Fortunately, earlier this week, a friend gave me a coupon for a FREE Premium Southwest Chicken Salad (at which I have to say I scoffed at him and with my nose in the air I told him “I don’t eat at McDonald’s.” Sorry, Friend! I was wrong!)

The salad was actually tasty. It had a good mix of salad greens, black beans, roasted corn, peppers and tomatoes, a wee bit of cheese, a few tortilla strips and a good size grilled chicken breast (fried chicken is an option as well…don’t go there…). All of that came to 320 calories, 9 grams of fat and 6 grams of fiber. Not bad, right? An even better surprise came from the dressing, Newman’s Own Creamy Southwest Dressing, which only tacked on 100 calories and 6 grams of fat. Compared to some salad dressings, that’s a major calorie steal! The only downside to the salad that I could find was the sodium content. With 960 mg of sodium in the salad alone, that sucks up over 40% of your daily sodium allowance…yikes! But overall, the salad was a winner and I’m sure glad I found it for those “emergency” situations.


Spice it up! If I had time to spice this one up, I would add more black beans and mix one half packet of the dressing with some fresh chunky salsa…yummy!

Until next Friday…

1 comment:

  1. I love this salad, and with it being so cold in MI the indoor playland is a must for two active boys! I only use 1/2 the dressing because I found w/ the tomatoes and peppers there is still plenty of flavor, plus, they grill the chicken w/ some sort of spicy sauce. The sodium is a problem, I find myself drinking about 3 extra glasses of water because I am so parched about an hour after eating! Oh, this is Elissa Hamill btw!

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