Friday, May 29, 2009

How to Eat Raw at Moe's (or any other fast food burrito joint)!



As much as all of us would like to hope we live in a health food paradise, we simply don't.  Yes, there are some places that are starting to get smart about serving healthy food, but the truth is most convenient places to eat are full of processed, pre-packaged crap.  

As a raw food punk, I want to be able to eat raw while still maintaining my place in the standard American culture, fast food joints and all.  Eating raw in a McDonald's laden world can be tough, but, I have found, that with a little bit of knowledge and some savvy choices, we can all eat healthy, even raw, at just about any American restaurant.  The first of my raw fast food adventures was at Moe's, and I think it was pretty darn successful. You can apply these tips to any burrito chain such as Chipotle, Qdoba, and others.  

How to Eat Raw at Moe's

1.  Start with a salad.  The Personal Trainer is the vegetarian salad at Moe's, so that would be the best choice.  You'll be making quite a few adjustments though, so it doesn't really matter which one you choose. 

2.  Say no to the rice, beans, and meat.  This is probably easy for  most raw foodies.  If its a challenge for you, however, I guarantee you will get plenty of flavor from the other toppings.  What do you think has more flavor, white rice or fresh salsa?  

3.  Have fun with toppings: cucumbers, olives, pico de gallo, cilantro, jalapeno peppers, guacamole, cabbage....There are a ton of raw options that can be put on top of your salad to make it incredibly full of flavor.  If you are not 100% raw you can throw the fajita peppers, onions, and mushrooms on the salad too, yum-yum!

4.  Skip the dressing.  I guarantee the guacamole and the pico de gallo will fully suffice for dressing your salad, you don't need those processed commercial dressings.

5. Skip the cheese and sour cream.  Again, things like guacamole, pico de gallo, and salsa will give you much more flavor and nutritional benefit than processed dairy.  Even if you indulge on some tortilla chips (which I don't recommend, but I've eaten a few too!), you should opt for salsa instead of cheese sauce.  Better flavor, better nutrients, better health!

Focus on the whole, raw foods that can add color and flavor to your salad, skip the processed stuff and you'll be good to go!  Fast food gone raw!!

Music Fix: Ain't Nothing Wrong with That-Robert Randolph

4 comments:

  1. i'm excited that i found you're blog. i love you're recipes and am gonna try some of them. i'm just starting out this whole raw thing (for the second time but still) and need inspiration... which you give. by the way if you think itäs difficult eating raw in Buffalo - try a small town in northern Sweden ;-) people are like "raw what? you can't eat raw meat... you'll get sick i tell ya..." and the classic "what do you do for protein". we'll see how this goes. hope you keep your blog going.

    /Lina

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  2. I just wanted to let you know that I mentioned you in my "Green Monster" smoothie post today!
    www.naturalnutritionist.blogspot.com

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  3. Who would pay to eat a salad at Moe's? Just make that yourself at home. Boring. Making raw food look difficult.

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  4. I don't think her intention was to purposely go out to eat at moes.... It's more like if you are out and didn't pack enough raw food or your non raw friends want to go out to eat as a social event... She is offering ways to make it work for raw people too... Definitely not ideal but I think it is important to be able to adapt and co mingle with other people and places that may not share our same beliefs etc. Great post!

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