Day One Hundred and Sixty Five!!!!!!

We went to Montana’s for my mothers birthday lunch today!


I think that this is a really good example of how it is that you can eat out and still continue to be successful in regards to carbohydrate intake. Of all the choices on the menu, my mom decided on the SouthWest Steak Salad and the reason why she chose to have this salad was because she got a combination of foods in it, that she doesn't actually usually eat. The main ingredient that really drew her to the salad was the picture; mixed greens tossed in a cilantro pepita dressing, topped with a 6oz grilled steak, corn, black beans, peppers, shredded cheddar cheese, tomatoes, guacamole and crispy corn tortilla strips. 


The calorie count for this dish is 460 on the menu. The avocado is about 12 carbs for one avocado and that is why my mother doesn't eat them very often. I am going to guess there was about a half a cup of bell peppers and tomatoes, which is about 2.5g of carbs. The greens are about 4 grams of carbs because there was an excessive amount of them, I am guessing 4 cups worth. The crisp tortilla strips my mom pushed to the side and did not eat. It’s hard to say how many grams would be in that dressing, the great thing about getting the dressing off to the side is that you can dip your salad into the dressing and not have to use the full amount. I’d say she used about half of the dressing provided. The black beans and the corn probably tallied maybe half a cup in total and were actually really hard to find in the salad itself. A tbsp of black beans is 8g of carbs and a tbsp of corn is 8g also. 


The majority of what was eaten was all of the meat and all of the avocado, quite a bit of the spinach, but the truth is the amount of food was just so huge that there was quite a bit left over, and just too much to eat. So if we add it up, lets just say, 1 gram for the greens and 12 grams for the avocado and maybe 4 grams for the black beans, tomatoes and the corn and another gram for bell peppers we get a tally of 18 grams. The difficult thing to guess, however, is the dressing, so I will guess 5 grams. Basically, we are looking at 23 grams of carbohydrates in total. Not bad when you think about it.


I think what is really the most important thing to pay attention to is that this is a nutritious meal, it tasted great and what’s most important is that you can fill up on the greens as much as you want. Which if you do, is really just going to add in one gram per cup. It’s all the rest of the additional stuff though, the added flavourings of the meal that personally at home I just wouldn’t add in. 


Way better just to go with lemon as a dressing, zero carbs there, onion, egg, mushroom, zero carbs there! And what is really great, by loading up on the greens, you don’t need to even touch the bread (or crispy corn tortilla chips) provided. And actually what really amazed me about being at Montana’s is that there was no free bread! 


Actually no complimentary anything, except the bonus though was that we did get free refills for our diet Pepsi! Another way to fill the tummy with zero carbs.