Adapting at the Restaurant

Today Glenn and I went to a local restaurant, the Elephant and Castle, for lunch. There was absolutely nothing I could order as-is from the printed menu to conform to nutritarian principles, so I asked if I could get the Thai Chicken Salad at a reduced cost for leaving off the chicken. No go, but I could get all the toppings on the side, so I went ahead and ordered it. Here's the description:

Thai Chicken Salad 8.99 [I think it was 7.99 today!]
Grilled chicken with Thai peanut sauce, crisp greens, roasted red
peppers, red onions, water chestnuts, cashews, chow mein noodles
and cilantro garnish. Tossed in our homemade red wine vinaigrette.

It arrived with the chicken breast on top, so I just set it aside and brought it home later with most of the chow mein noodles (I ate a half dozen of those :-) ). They were out of Thai peanut sauce, and the vinaigrette came in a cup and could not have been made with red wine, but it was good anyway. I began by spooning off most of the oil from the cup of vinaigrette, then dressed the salad with that and a lime wedge, and I enjoyed it thoroughly!


TODAY'S MENU

Breakfast--Steel-cut oats cooked with homegrown honeycrisp apples, with raisins and walnuts

Lunch--ELEPHANT AND CASTLE THAI CHICKEN SALAD with variations as above

Rest of Lunch--1/2 cup CROCK POT CHILI mixed with half a can of red kidney beans, topped with chopped peppers and onions; pink grapefruit

Supper--Two small zucchini chopped and simmered in a couple of tablespoons of white wine, then a handful of fresh spinach added to wilt, then about a third of a cup of Ragu, then about a half to 3/4 cup of leftover filling from GARDEN STUFFED VEGETABLES, all heated together a bit. This was almost too much to eat.