You Want Fries with That?
Fast food is difficult to avoid. Unless you live in a remote location miles from civilization or you never leave your house, you drive past fast-food outlets several times every day. And if you’re out and about, or on the road in a strange town, they’re an attractive option for a quick meal. But do they have anything that you can eat?
Thankfully, the answer is yes. Several of the larger chains now offer veggie burgers on their menus and also offer fresh salads (simply ask for yours without chicken). If you know the secret password, you can get vegetarian sandwiches at McDonald’s and Burger King; request a Big Mac without meat, and they’ll be happy to comply. Ask for a veggie burger at Burger King, and you’ll get tomato, lettuce, cheese (if you’re ovo-lacto), and condiments on a bun.
Some chains, like Wendy’s and Arby’s, offer baked potatoes and lunchtime salad bars. And Taco Bell is a surprisingly good option for vegetarians; they use only vegetable oil in their cooking, even in their refried beans, and have a number of menu items that are good for ovo-lactos. Other chains have pita sandwiches and breakfast items like French toast sticks and scrambled eggs.
If you have concerns about what’s in the food provided by your local fast- food purveyors, check out the nutritional information on the company’s Web site. You might be surprised to learn that those French toast sticks are made without eggs or milk, and that McDonald’s chocolate chip cookies are vegan. It pays, however, to check in occasionally and make sure menu items still contain the same ingredients, because if the company changes suppliers, the formulation may change too. The French fries at most fast- food restaurants are vegetarian, since they’ve pretty much all switched to 100 percent vegetable oil in response to public demand.
For your heartiest fast-food meal, look for restaurants that offer both salad bars and baked potatoes; not only is that a great meal combination, you can use salad bar toppings to customize your baked potato in whichever way you like.
Healthy Lunches at School or Work
If your school or workplace has a cafeteria, you may be in luck and they may offer vegetarian options. Institutional cooking is increasingly becoming health-conscious.
The option offering the most control for vegetarian children and teens is to brown-bag it and make them take their own lunch to school. If you’re packing your own (or your kids’) lunches, make sure to offer the same variety that you’d demand for yourself. Good lunch items include peanut butter or almond butter on whole wheat bread, carrot or celery stick with hummus spread, containers of fruit, pudding, or yogurt, Baggies of dried fruits and nuts, cartons of rice milk, string cheese, and protein bars.
Most schools send home schedules of what meals are planned for the week, so you can figure out ahead of time what hot meals can be eaten in the cafeteria and what days lunch should be brought from home. Sometimes, the ideal option might be to eat some of the cafeteria meal, like macaroni and cheese, and supplement it with fresh fruit, whole-grain crackers, and rice milk from home.
If you’re a college student, you’ll probably find that your food options include vegetarian meals; college is a time of experimentation, and most universities bend over backward to accommodate vegetarians (who are probably quite vocal about their needs). They also have bigger budgets and don’t have to comply with the same food service restrictions as public schools, so you’ll find a much wider range of healthy meal alternatives.
If you work for a big company, you may have a company cafeteria at your disposal. That may be great as they may have a salad bar or be vegetarian-friendly in their menu options. But there are equal chances of its being a grease pit that only offers greasy burgers and soggy fries. It all depends on who’s doing the cooking. Some company cafeterias have their own in-house chefs, in which case you can request that they provide some vegetarian menu items or even make you something special. Other companies contract out their food service, and it’s made off-site.
The same strategies that apply to dealing with public school cafeterias can be used with your workplace cafeteria. If they offer a weekly menu, you can plan which days you’ll eat in the cafeteria and when you’ll bring your own lunch or eat out. You can also bring your own food and buy a couple of things in the cafeteria. One great advantage to being an adult employee is that, if you’re dissatisfied with the vegetarian options in your company’s cafeteria, you can meet with whoever coordinates the food service and ask if they can provide ovo-lacto or vegan options on a regular basis.