Healthy choices from Ashburn restaurants

I'm just curious where health-conscious residents go for a good meal...or snack. Although some restaurants aren't known to be figure-friendly, I know there are always healthier choices that you can choose there. Where do you go and what do you pick? I know "healthy" can be subjective based on who you talk to, but feel free to share.

On a side note, I found that Red Robin has a really great interactive tool on their website to build a meal and it calculates it as you create it. Thought it was pretty cool.

 

My husband and I are very health conscious, so we eat at home most of the time. We haven't found a restaurant yet that serves enough vegetables for our tastes. I always ask for double veges when eating out, but it's still not enough. The problem with restaurants is you think you're ordering healthy...turns out, not so much! Not that we don't splurge....but most of the time, we eat healthy. When we get a pizzza - we go for the wheat crust....not too many places offers that, but the new pizza place, Z, that just opened up across from Wegmans does offer wheat and their ingredients are all organic.

 

you KNEW i would jump on this one! lol

Cafe Rumi uses great fresh ingredients and their sandwiches are quite healthy tasting- I dunno the fat or calorie counts but you can tell they aren't fat-laden grease bombs. the tuna, turkey and chicken salad stand out as healthier choices.

Silk Road in Lansdowne- such well made organic meals- $10 lunch buffet that is fantastic. not an ounce of fat on any meat that i've had there yet!

Tropical Smoothie has a smoothy called Sunny Day that tastes like stright up fruit PUREE... oh so good. their website lays out nutritionla info. they also use Boars Head meats in their sandwiches and wraps so you get a good quality healthy sandwich there too if you lay off the mayo.

Sorrento Grill has great chicken kabobs with rice or salad- satisfying and filling without being greasy or too high in calories.

but of course I am the grease bomb queen, and eat healthy at these places so i can hit fosters for my charburger and fries once in awhile... mmmmm.

 

I agree about Sorrento Grill....love their kabobs with salad....I really hate greasy food, makes me ill just thinking about it...don't crave it at all. If I eat hamburgers, we grill them ourselves. Turkey burgers too. Which reminds me - a lot of people think they're ordering healthy in restaurants be ordering turkey burgers, but they're wrong......

 

American Flatbread uses fresh and often local, organic ingredients and it's delicious! Also a nice selection of local wines.

There was something I was reading recently about a published health review of chain restaurants by Health Magazine, and at the top of the list was UNO's. http://www.cnn.com/2008/HEALTH/diet.fitness/04/25/hm.restaurants/index.html

 

But does American Flatbread serve whole wheat crust? As far as I know - only two pizza places offer whole wheat crust and it's Z pizza and Manhatten.

 

does american flat bread get much business around here? do they have odd hours or something? we drove by a couple times at peak lunch hours over the last couple weeks and they were dark and closed.

 

You can find healthy options at lots of Ashburn restaurants.

For me, it's really a matter of declining the bread basket, substituting rice/potatoes for veggies/salad (although Hooked in Sterling charges $2 for this, another reason not go go there), and boy oh boy, eating pasta like the Italians do not mammoth all-you-can eat family portions, but as a side or anti pasti.

 

Hi,

Here is the link to American Flatbread's menu http://www.americanflatbread.com/ashburn/menu_pop.htm.

It says: "100% organically grown wheat milled into a white flour w/ restored wheat germ". I have no idea how similar to whole wheat that is, but as I recall the crust is brown like whole wheat.

BTW: during the week they don't open until 4:30 although they do open at noon on weekends.

Best regards,
Richard

 

Coming off a course-load heavy in eating-disorder prevention, I would like to remind you that figure-friendly is not the same as healthy.

Eating healthily is eating from all the food groups in amounts that provide enough energy to keep your body strong and moving. Remember that you need glucose to think. Your brain gets its energy directly from sugars and doesn't store it like your muscles do.

Remember that you need fats in your diet to process fat-soluable vitamins.

Remember also, that chocolate is good for your seratonin levels!!!

 

Sometimes the way the meal is prepared offsets the nutritional level, I think. I like that at Logan's Roadhouse in Cascades they offer a variety of vegetables (broccoli, sweet potatoes, green beans) but you have to make sure they are not smothered in butter. They taste good that way, but are more fattening.

In Texas there is a chain restaurant called "Souper Salad" that was a soup, salad, baked potatoes, and pasta buffet. They offered wonderful muffins, too. The salad was serve yourself and so you could be as healthy as you wanted. There is a similar chain called "Sweet Tomatoes." I miss having something like that around here!

The sandwiches from Bean Scene Cafe seem to be fresh and healthy. Fruit is offered as a side item.

 

Villager I forgot all about those places, now you are making me homesick!!!!

 

Mmmmm.....Braum's!

 

Oh.... I'm originally from Texas and I LOVE Souper Salad!!! They also have a great soup selection!! We used to go there at least once a week. The kids loved it! We often wonder why something like that doesn't open up around here. Seems like it would do great in this area!!

 

This post totally just reminded me of the Black Eyed Pea that used to be in Herndon. When I worked in Reston we'd head over there at least once or twice a week for a plate of veggies for lunch. Ahhh...memories!

http://www.theblackeyedpea.com/?request=home

 

There is always the old standy of Subway-they have great healthy sandwiches. And Panera is also a good choice.

 

We had the Black-Eyed-Pea in Texas and I loved it. You could get a vegetable platter without meat if you wanted. Until about 2000 or so they had some of them around here.

 

About 15 years ago, there was a salad/soup/pasta/pizza station place in Reston, near Whole Foods. There was also one in Fair Lakes. Can't for the life of me remember the name, but it was pretty good (or so I thought). They've both closed, of course - not sure why.

There was a similar place at Tyson's Corner and you paid for your salad by weight. One day, I met my husband there for lunch and our salads weighed EXACTLY the same, to the tenth of an ounce. (Doo-doo-doo-doo - queue up the Twilight Zone theme!)

I was a Black Eyed Pea fan, too, and was so sorry to see them go.

 

I remember the one in Fair Lakes - it was on the end of the shopping center. Was it called "Strawberry Fields"? I'm pretty sure it was the name of a Beatles song, but definitely NOT Ruby Tuesday.

 

I believe it was called Sgt. Peppers. We used to go there when we first moved here about 10 years ago. In Reston, it was located in the Champs/Whole Foods shopping center and it was where the Ann Taylor Loft is now located.