Happy Friday!! The weekend is here, and it’s time to celebrate.
In honor of Friday, for lunch, I met a friend at Dishes – a place near my office that I’m a little obsessed with. I absolutely need to start bringing my lunch to work again, but I often make an exception for Dishes Fridays, which isn’t the best plan since it’s typically one of the more expensive meals that I get.
You can get great sandwiches, salads and soups at Dishes. But what I like most about it is that you can get a lot of fresh prepared foods from their buffet like poached salmon and various veggies.
Why do I love to go to Dishes on Fridays? To celebrate the weekend, you ask? Yes. But also because Dishes Fridays means mac & cheese! When Megan and I committed to being healthier, we recognized that this didn’t mean eliminating foods that we loved. Before when I was “dieting,” I’d avoid mac & cheese like the plague – but no more!
What I can do, however, is be smart about what I eat with the mac & cheese, keep the portion in check and try to make healthier choices for other meals during the week. Besides, a little mac & cheese never hurt anyone! 
Here’s my plate. I’m still getting used to taking pictures in public and had to warn my friend beforehand. I think she was both amused and weirded out.
I took the picture quickly, so it’s not the best, but I got my wonderful mac & cheese, a coconut crusted chicken finger with sauce (also a favorite) and a sautéed greens mixture – kale, collards and mustard greens. It was fabulous as usual. I should say that while this mac & cheese is delicious, it pales in comparison to my mom’s; however, it is still pretty good – just different.
Just to be clear, before healthy living, I’d have an additional 2-3 chicken fingers on that plate. And you see those greens, remove those and replace it with the mac & cheese. Yup – now you have my former self. 
It was a good time, but to be honest, I was just as happy with this and felt great about the whole experience.
To recap:
- When you know you’re going to splurge a bit, plan out your meal in your head beforehand. I told myself that I was definitely going to get the mac & cheese and a chicken finger but wasn’t going to go crazy. I also knew that I wanted to get some veggies in there, and luckily, they had that wonderful greens mixture.
- If you go overboard, don’t worry about it! It’s one meal, and it probably wasn’t as bad as you thought it was. If you’re right on the money with how bad it was, again – it’s fine, just don’t turn it into an out of control spiral. Get back on board with healthier meals the next day.
Megan, do you have any specific places that you go where you know you’re getting something a little indulgent?
Also, as if I needed another reason to love LC (Lauren Conrad) from the Hills, I found this little quote from an interview she had with People Magazine.
“I think my acting is offensive.” Hahaha – I LOVE the honesty! Oh, LC, you will be missed on the Hills!
