Are you going to eat that?

Last week my Dad had a check up with the oncologist..(which turned out well).  Afterwards, he asked if I wanted to get something to eat.  He wanted pancakes so we went to IHOP.  Once we were seated, our waitress brought us our menus along with their "special menu".  They had 3 new griddle sandwiches and when I saw this one, my immediate thought was, "healthy". Being a vegetarian, I noticed the spinach and roasted red peppers first, which made me think this might be a good sandwich.  However, after I noticed how much cheese was in it, I thought I'd better look up the nutrition facts. 

  

New! Spinach, Roasted Red Pepper & Cheese Griddle Melt

One-of-a-kind. That's this new, hand-crafted breakfast Griddle Melt with sautéed spinach and onion in a fluffy omelette, layered with roasted red peppers and melted Provolone, Parmesan and Pepper Jack cheeses on grilled, sourdough artisan bread. Served with your choice of hash browns, seasoned fries or seasonal fruit.

 

  Well, I almost fell out of my chair.  Check out the stats:

 

1590  Calories    55  Protein  109 Fat  100  Carbs 

Calories from Fat 970  Saturated Fat 43

Trans Fat 2.5  Cholesterol 575  Fiber 9  Sugar 5 (notice they don't tell us sodium content??!!)

 

This is the stats for the sandwich ONLY!!!  So if you get fries or hash browns, you are in for an even deeper shock.  The other two sandwiches are up to 100- 200 calories less than this one and they have ham in them.  Kudos to them for offering fresh fruit but seriously....who needs a sandwich with this many calories??  They do offer half a sandwich for those that don't want a full serving.  Oh Yay, so I can eat 795 calories and still be hungry?!  This does go to show you, just because it is vegetarian, does not mean it is healthy. 

 

Wondering what I ate?  I was really wanting multi- grain pancakes so I settled for one instead of the stack of four.  I eat my pancakes dry.  I'm not a big fan of syrup although I have been known to put peanut butter on my cakes.  That one pancake cost me 247 calories...normally they come in a four stack for 990 calories!!!  And that is without syrup or butter!!!  Gah!!!!!! 

 

 

 

I also had the oatmeal with banana.  This rang up to be 260 calories.  It also came with a huge scoop of butter and brown sugar and milk.  I used just a touch of brown sugar. 

 

 

The waitress kept trying to give me margarine and sugar free syrup and it upsets me that she believes those items are supposed to be good for me??!!  NOT!!  Margarine is horrible for you and what exactly is in that sugar free syrup?  It's not going in this body. 

I escaped with 507 calories vs 1590 calories plus that I could have eaten had I not checked.  Check your stats when you go out to eat my friends.  If you don't have a smart phone, check online before you leave or ask your waiter for the nutrition information. 

If you are trying to lose weight and you tend to eat out a lot...you might be shocked at what you think you are consuming verses what you are consuming. 

Stay educated my friends.

With love,
j