So, the last two days I've had to head into town bright and early,foregoing breakfast at home. This has meant I had to stop and get quick bites to eat wherever I could. Now that we're settled in, I'm trying to work on my weight again, that never ending battle that I'm slowly winning.

So, I go to McDonald's. My "healthy" breakfast options are limited to a fruit and yogurt parfait and orange juice. Not bad choices, mind you, but it got me to thinking.

Walk into any restaurant and look for their healthy food choices. Nine out of ten times,you will find it limited to salad and maybe steamed vegetables. Chicken is invariably fried, and when you can get it grilled, it has all the taste of a preprocessed soy based chicken patty. Fast food is even worse. In our community, I've narrowed down the truly healthy choices to:

Breakfast:

Fruit and Yogurt Parfait and OJ at McD's

Lunch/Supper:

Salad at McD's

Taco Salad at Taco Bell (plus a few taco/burrito options with salsa substituted for cheese)

Nothing at Sonic, KFC, Long John Silver's, or Braum's

Half the menu at Subway (but unfortunately, none of their toasted subs)

Anyway, the gist of things is salad dominates the healthy food selections of many of these places (how thankful I am for Subway). Now, I've got nothing against a good salad, but most of these fast food salads are mainly iceberg lettuce and a few tasteless tomatoes. Plus, salad gets tiring after awhile. VARIETY is the key to staying with a diet.

When I'm at home, I make a ton of great healthy dishes (many of them vegetarian, but I don't limit myself to meatless fare). I make taco "meat" with lentils (whole wheat tortillas round out the protein), I make lentil curry and incredible stir fry using either kidney beans or tofu depending on my mood (with the rice to round out the protein). In short, I cook with the same passion I put into my meat dishes, and attempt to create the same or similar flavors.

Why,oh why can't restaurants do the same?