Dining out with GD

I'm grateful for the places that I can eat out while having Gestational Diabetes. Diabetes is different for everyone and my dinner meals are 28 grams of protein, 30 grams of carbohydrates, a serving of fruit (not considered part of my carbs), a dairy serving (also not part of my carbs), and two servings of vegetables. As long as I stay under the carbohydrate limit, I can expect to have a glucose blood reading of between 90 and 115. I'm currently on insulin, but these meals were working for me for months before without the insulin.

Jason's Deli
I get the manager's special. It's a half sandwich, a bowl of soup, and strawberries and cantaloupe. I almost always get the tomato basil soup, which I count as my vegetable and which the bear cub loves. The sandwich varies, but my favorite is the Philly chick wrap. I also absolutely love the Black Currant Tea which is a Jason's Deli exclusive (if anyone knows where I can get this tea elsewhere, please let me know). Once this baby is born, I'm going to eat a lot of deli meat sandwiches which I'm currently avoiding due to the listeria risk.

Olive Garden
As I said before, everyone that has diabetes has a different diet. I'm lucky enough to not have pasta as a trigger food. I used to skip the bread, croutons, and pasta and get the chicken marsala with the side substituted with the squash medley. This would allow me to get the no sugar added chocolate volcano cake with strawberries that they used to offer. Sadly, they no longer offer this dessert and Darth Baby isn't fond of squash. Now, I like to get the braised beef and tortelloni and it is two meals for me. I also like to get a side of asparagus. Our local Olive Garden is generous with the asparagus, but I've learned that other locations are sometimes pretty stingy with the amount of asparagus. This sounds so good right now to me that I may drag my hubby for dinner.

Outback
I get the Alice Springs Chicken with the vegetable medley and a side salad, and if I skip the bread and croutons, I can have cheesecake for dessert with no topping, though truthfully I usually go for a little of the bread because I love it. The chicken is enough for 3 meals and the vegetables enough for two. I used to get their citrus chicken, but it isn't carried here anymore.

Taco Cabana
The only thing on the menu that works for me is the fajitas with no beans or rice. The beans and rice usually go to the girls and they love it. The fajita meat is enough for multiple meals (two for me with left over tortillas), but for the second meal, I need to use the veggies and other toppings from home.

Chick-Fil-A
I can eat almost anything on the menu that isn't fried. I LOVE the Southwest Chargrilled Salad and I joked with my first two that they were made up of 1/7 of these salads. Darth baby hasn't gotten them once a week or more, but I still love these salads. I eat the whole thing, but it probably could be split into two if I added more protein for the second day.

McDonalds
That's right, the evil fast food empire. I get the Cheeseburger Happy Meal or the Double Cheeseburger Big Kids Meal with apples and I order a side salad for $1. The nerdlet gets the milk from my meal and a few bites of my burger and usually snatches apple pieces. Occasionally, I will order her her own cheeseburger meal (she won't eat chicken nuggets unless they are from Chick-Fil-A) if she tells me she is hungry enough ahead of time.

I cannot tell you how much I am thankful that I have McDonalds available to us. The nerdlet is 3 and scrapes 23 pounds. When she chooses she can eat a whole happy meal and I'm grateful for the possibility of it putting weight on her (so far no luck with that). I like that she gets a chance to work on her social phobia. I like that my bear cub finally was willing to try self feeding with their french fries (and I tried every other suggestion given to me before resorting to that one). The nerdlet will almost always choose the apples over the fries. So, yes, I am grateful for McDonald's. Suck on that, San Francisco!

Just a note for the judging out there. We are not eating out all the time, but we do eat out a bit. However, I gained 18 pounds with my pregnancy with the nerdlet, 12 with the bear cub, and am sitting around 12 so far with Darth Baby. I don't think that eating out is contributing to a lack of nutrition or to an excess of weight in our family. It is about choices.../end rant.