Saturday, July 25, 2009

It always pays to ask

This morning my sons wanted to go to IHOP for breakfast. It's not something we always do, we were getting a late start to the day, so why not? You can get breakfast there at any time.

I was being smart and I planned ahead. I looked up IHOP's menu so I could decide ahead of time what I was going to order. I already knew that I was going to skip out on the hashbrowns, the pancakes and the toast. I just really wanted a mostly-egg white omelet with veggies.

They have a spinach, mushroom and tomato omelet made with egg substitute, 330 calories. But the carbs were 37 gm! When I looked further into the menu, I noticed they add some buttermilk pancake batter to the mix to make the omelet fluffier. Well, that's nice, but not what I wanted. I don't like Egg Beaters. I can cut back in my own way, so I set out to see what IHOP could do for me.

I asked our waiter if the cook could leave out the pancake batter. Done. Then I asked how many eggs the cooked used to make the regular omelet. Are you ready to hear this? EIGHT! I have really good cholesterol levels, and even so, I felt my heart flinch when I heard that. So, I asked the waiter to have the cook make me an omelet with one whole egg and fill the rest in with egg whites.

(At the table at IHOP there was a chart that listed the nutrition for all their menu items. The original omelet was close to 1000 calories!)

The omelet normally has Hollandaise Sauce. I am a slut for Hollandaise. I kept that in the equation. And I didn't let him bring me any fruit to substitute for the pancakes, hashbrowns and toast. I've just calculated the damages...347 calories, and while I am decidedly above the egg-substitute omelet regarding the fat by 14 gm, carbohydrates came in at just 19 gm. I got exactly what I wanted, AND I was satisfied. I was actually quite full.

I think I might get one of those phone things that has calorie counting applications on them. I don't want to get caught uninformed again!

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