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Fast Food Salads

fifi

By fifi
in Food Traditions & Culture

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fifi

fifi

Posted
Posted

Yeah... Yeah... Yeah... I know that as an eGulleteer I am supposed to find that little ethnic place and buy real food handcrafted by that grandmother from Noddleania. But, when I have just driven over 50 miles to get to my office, I will have about 30 minutes to get something to eat and eat it before I race to that next meeting... Well, the fast food drive-throughs are about the only option. I think I have found an option that is really not bad:

The Cows are busy in the garden - Chick-fil-a salads

You can click on the individual salads for a description and nutritional data.

These are actually pretty good. The greens and veggies are cold and crisp. The lettuce is mostly romaine and some spinach leaves thrown in. Chicken tenders (real ones), croutons, sunflower seeds and dressing are bagged up with the salad bowl in separate containers so that you can assemble your salad right before eating. If you choose the low fat dressing option, this doesn't look bad at all. AND... Unlike a certain sandwich we have discussed at length... The salads actually look like the pictures. At just under $5, I don't think this is a bad deal at all. I didn't really look at all of the nutritional information in detail because I quit worrying about salt and fat a long time ago. At least I am getting something from the vegetable kingdom.

Any other good salads out there?

Linda LaRose aka "fifi"

"Having spent most of my life searching for truth in the excitement of science, I am now in search of the perfectly seared foie gras without any sweet glop." Linda LaRose

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Toliver

Toliver

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I'm a big fan of Wendy's Mandarin Chicken Salad. It's about $5. The mixed greens are nice (not just iceburg) and the mandarin oranges are refreshing. If I want to watch my calories/fat grams, I'll get the Non-Fat Italian dressing and eliminate the sliced almonds (or save them for a cubicle snack later on).

I am eager to try Wendy's new Spinach Chicken Salad.

 

“Peter: Oh my god, Brian, there's a message in my Alphabits. It says, 'Oooooo.'

Brian: Peter, those are Cheerios.”

– From Fox TV’s “Family Guy”

 

Tim Oliver

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clothier

clothier

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Posted
I'm a big fan of Wendy's Mandarin Chicken Salad. It's about $5. The mixed greens are nice (not just iceburg) and the mandarin oranges are refreshing. If I want to watch my calories/fat grams, I'll get the Non-Fat Italian dressing and eliminate the sliced almonds (or save them for a cubicle snack later on).

I am eager to try Wendy's new Spinach Chicken Salad.

Mrs Clothier is right there with you. She thinks this is a dandy.

Much as I love her, I just can't walk/drive through a fast food place and get a salad. I start to say the word salad, and cheeseburger just comes out.

I can't explain it.

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fifi

fifi

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That Wendy's chicken mandarin salad may be my next choice. If you keep clicking, you get to the specs on the individual salads and you can chose your options and recalculate the nutritional information. Very cool.

Linda LaRose aka "fifi"

"Having spent most of my life searching for truth in the excitement of science, I am now in search of the perfectly seared foie gras without any sweet glop." Linda LaRose

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Toliver

Toliver

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Okay, I'm reporting back on the Wendy's Spinach Salad with mixed results. How about that...I took another one for the team! :laugh:

The price on the menu was $3.99.

Technically speaking, it's not really a spinach salad. There is only a LAYER of spinach leaves on top of a bed of chopped Romaine lettuce. There is quite a bit more Romaine than there is spinach so I am already questioning the name of this salad. I'd hazard a guess that the ratio of Spinach to Romaine is 1:4 or even 1:5. I could see grounds for a "False Advertising" claim right there. :angry:

The Sweet & Sour Bacon dressing that comes with the salad is more than a little on the sweet side (surprise...high fructose corn syrup is the first ingredient on the ingredient list). :angry: But it does have cider vinegar and bacon listed, as well.

They use grape tomatoes in the salad instead of slices or chunks, which I think is a plus. There is chopped egg in the salad which is unusual for a fast food salad. I consider this a plus (even though it has preservatives :blink: ).

As for the bacon, it isn't little bits of crumbled bacon but seems to be something along the lines of Hormel's Real Bacon Bits, meaning it's more like bacon sand. It's bacon and it's in little tiny firm bits. I mention "firm" because if you get too much in one bite it's kind of gritty...and chewy, like eating chewy sand. Did I use enough "paint on that picture"? :laugh:

Oh, and it comes with a small bag of croutons, which are more like an afterthought. They do add a crunchy harmony with the bacon sand. :wink:

Texturally, it's an interesting salad. The crunchy croutons, the soft egg , the firm chicken, the crisp Romaine, the naturally "chewy" spinach, the pert & plump tomatoes, the sandy bacon :laugh: ...all make for a nice blend of textures.

Does it taste like a spinach salad you'd get in a restaurant? Of course not (thanks to all that Romaine :angry: and the fast-food dressing). But it does have a bacony-flavor that will do when you have a hankering.

Would I order it again? Yeah, sure I would, grudgingly so because I certainly wish they'd put more spinach in it.

As a side note, I think it's interesting that this salad gets a lot of its flavor just from the salad ingredients, as opposed to Wendy's Mandarin Chicken Salad that gets most of its "oriental" flavor from the dressing. I hope that makes sense.

Reporting from the Front Lines...

Toliver

 

“Peter: Oh my god, Brian, there's a message in my Alphabits. It says, 'Oooooo.'

Brian: Peter, those are Cheerios.”

– From Fox TV’s “Family Guy”

 

Tim Oliver

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Gifted Gourmet

Gifted Gourmet

Posted
Posted
I just can't walk/drive through a fast food place and get a salad. I start to say the word salad, and cheeseburger just comes out.

I can't explain it.

For me, the gently wafting aroma of a freshly prepared Whopper just destroys any good intentions I may have toward trying a salad ... even the drive thru window doesn't change that ... :hmmm:

Melissa Goodman aka "Gifted Gourmet"

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  • 2 years later...
Toliver

Toliver

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Posted (edited)

Thought I would bump this back up since Wendy's is offering salads again.

The bacon bits in the Spinach Chicken Salad are a lot better than in my previous post.

What's nice is that, if you ask for it, my local Wendy's will give you an extra packet of salad dressing without charging you for it. I don't use the entire second package but it's nice not to run out of dressing (McDonald's, on the other hand, charges for everything extra).

edited to add: wow, the bacon dressing is still very sweet. :hmmm: It makes me wish I had a cruet of vinegar at work to cut it with.

Edited by Toliver (log)

 

“Peter: Oh my god, Brian, there's a message in my Alphabits. It says, 'Oooooo.'

Brian: Peter, those are Cheerios.”

– From Fox TV’s “Family Guy”

 

Tim Oliver

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