Day 6: GF, DF, EF Lunch Dates are Hard!

Day 6: GF, DF, EF.

Had a lunch meeting today and luckily they asked where I wanted to eat. But then I panicked. What could I eat out?!?!

Luckily my friend recently took me to Tractor Foods and their tag line literally says: Everyday Healthy Foods, so they probably have lots of options that would be ok for me right?

Wrong. Almost everything that looked or sounded good had dairy in it… so sad. I was basically down to 2.5 options for their side salads. The 0.5 is because the apple salad is DF if I don’t add on the amazing sounding herb & blue cheese vinaigrette, sad.

• Organic quinoa, kale, blueberries, butternut squash, mint, basil, white balsamic vinaigrette
• Roasted and fresh apples, arugula, endive, toasted pumpkin seeds, pecans, herb & blue cheese vinaigrette
• Roasted brussels sprouts, shredded kale, radicchio, Italian parsley, apricot mustard vinaigrette

I chose the apple and quinoa salad and topped it with two 2 oz pieces of albacore tuna steak because I wanted to indulge at least a little. Can’t say I was very excited about the apple salad, it was kind of meh. Probably because it lacked the dressing. The quinoa salad was only ok as well. The highlight was definitely the two pieces of tuna.

My lunch plate came to $12.50.

Mmm… Almond pesto linguine

I’m not one for big box chain shops and restaurants, but when it’s a work lunch and we need to go somewhere close, easy and agreed to by everyone, Tap & Barrel will do.

I’ve gotten a little bored of their menu because Tap is the go to place for lunch, I’ve been there too many times. Today I chose the Almond Pesto Linguine for $16.95 and was pleasantly surprised. I enjoyed the dish more than I thought I would – it helps that I like pesto 🙂

What I didn’t like about the dish was that there was a substantially large pool of oil at the bottom of my plate, so much that I started using the spoon to separate the pasta and chicken so the oil could drip down into the plate. Yes, that was a bit gross but overall the dish was tasty. Altho, I probably wouldn’t order it again.

The dish included sauteed chicken, handmade almond pesto, garlic shallot cream, grape tomatoes and feta.

 

UYU Soft Serve Ice Cream

Saw images of UYU’s soft serve on my Instagram feed for awhile before I finally found an opportunity to check it out. Usually I’m either too full or it’s too cold for ice cream. But today, I planned for it!

I brought my Japanese homestay student with me and we ordered the Earl Grey soft serve topped with granola and pecans with a raspberry drizzle. I thought it was so-so. My homestay student thought it was amazing and was super excited.

Chances of coming back again? Not that high. Too many ice cream places to choose from!