Tofu: It's better than you think :)

I've really been trying to be on track this past week. It's not coming from a place of hate towards my body (like "You're so fat!" "You need to lose weight!" "Ugh, you're STILL in that same size?") but rather from a place of remembering what is healthy and what isn't.

Anyway, last Wednesday, I went out to eat with a friend of mine. This friend likes very specific things and her favorite restaurant is Chili's...followed only by Applebee's. While there is nothing wrong with those restaurants, I'm finding that I really like to eat at different restaurants.

So we met up - as we do a few times a year - to talk and eat. The thing was, earlier in the day, I was so hungry...so I went through quite a few of my points. I had 11.5 points left - including those that I earned during my lunchtime run. That may sound like a lot of points...and in some ways it is.

It's just that we had already decided to meet at PF Chang's (aka Land o' Lard). In all seriousness...after counting the points for most of the meals, I figured out that each entree was around 56 points. That's over TWO DAYS worth of points (for me).

But I knew I was so hungry, that I couldn't just have a salad (even if they *had* salad). So I caved. I looked at the tofu options (which were much lower in points).

When we got to the restaurant, the waitress was eager to help. I asked her what the consistency of tofu was like (I'm a huge consistency person - the taste doesn't matter as much). Our waitress crinkled her brow and said, "You don't want the tofu wraps. You want the chicken wraps. They're a lot better."

So I asked, "Have you ever *had* tofu?"

And she replied, "No. But it's gross."

So after MANY questions, she finally offered to bring some of the tofu out so I could try it. And you know what? It was pretty good. It didn't have a lot of taste, but the consistency of the stuff that they put in the lettuce wraps was kind of like mozerella cheese. It wasn't bad.

The tofu that they had in the cup of hot and sour soup was more slippery and wasn't my favorite thing...but it wasn't bad either.

The total for the night was 11 points: 2 for the cup of hot n' sour soup, 2 for a small order of shanghai cucumbers (chopped up cucumbers with soy sauce and seasame seeds), and 7 for half the meal of the vegetarian lettuce wraps (I had them put in some mushrooms too). Actually, the total was probably less than 11 because all I had to look at was the nutritional info from the PF Chang's website - and that didn't have any fiber information.

So basically, I left there satisfied and happy that I got to talk with a friend for a few hours.

I'm learning that eating out doesn't have to feel like a diet. Eating out doesn't have to feel like a full on gluttony fest either. In fact, eating out is becoming more and more about the company that I'm with and about the memories that are shared.

Funny...but I think that that's what it's *supposed* to be about anyway.