RIDICULOUS portions.

I left the house in a hurry this morning so I didn't have time to pack a lunch.  I keep a small stash of good snacks at my office, fruit, almonds, cheese cubes, etc. but no actual lunch.  So I'm trying to find something decent to eat and I notice in looking at some restaurant menus online that one of the restaurants close by does "petite" salads.  PERFECT!  I call and order one and go pick it up and it was freaking HUGE.  This was a petite salad?  Seriously?  I could have made FOUR meals out of this thing.

And it wasn't even all that good.  I should have just stuck to making a lunch out of my snacks.

On the plus side though, I'm becoming a VERY cheap date.  This salad was seven bucks with tax and all and it would have fed me for 4 meals.  We went out for Mexican this past weekend and I ate ONE a la carte soft taco bringing my total to a whopping $1.49.  Do you think my husband will let me put all the money saved towards new clothes...? 

The big portions really are rediculous, but with my family it makes for a cheap night out. See there are 5 of us but my 3yr old and 6 yr old eat like birds. So we order two entrees and all 5 of us share with plenty of food. Sometimes since my 12yr old son has become a pretty big eater we need 3 entrees but we can usually make the 3rd a kids meal so its still super cheap. I save so much money since getting banded :)

Do you have a MiMi's by you? I went to Mimi's recently while my band was unfilled and got one of there "just right portions". It was a full sized dinner salad, a pretty good sized entree, a small desert, and a basket full of bread. Thank goodness I still had the sense to tell the server we were sharing. She must have reminded me three times that the portion was small, but even unfilled it was tons of food.

Sarah,

I'm so glad you posted this.  I too have 5 people in my family.  My hubby is a pretty big eater, but if I can share something w/ my 5 and 7 year old and my 15 year can get her own, that would be so much cheaper. 

Thank you so much....I'm so excited to get out there and be able to eat again!  Just got banded on 3/23! 

I know right!?!  Where's the "Just Right Portions for Lisa B." menu at?  LMAO

Yea, it really is an eye opener on how big portions have gotten.  I swear everytime we eat out I am amazed at the sizes!!  I never thought I would think this way again...lol....God Bless this band!!

I went to the cafeteria at the building next to ours and spent $4 for a beef burrito. I wasn't sure what all was inside, so said - ok, I can waste $4 if needed (the $4 was after tax btw)...

Nope, I ate about 1/4 of it for lunch as it was SOLID shredded beef. $1 per lunch - I can do that every now and then!

I'm usually bringing my lunch each day...

Yes, I'm now a cheap date and my husband thinks that pretty soon the band will be a cost savings..

Kim

Add me to the "cheap date" club!  Over the weekend DH wanted Taco Bell, so I asked him to get me just one soft taco.  I planned to eat just the insides out of it, and leave the tortilla.  Well, I only managed to eat about HALF of the insides.  Then I sat there for about 45 more minutes, debating whether or not I could eat the rest, and finally thought better of it and threw it away.  I am just amazed at how little banded people eat!  I am still trying to wrap my head around it!  But like you said, think of all the money we are saving! 

Kate did a post on here last yr. and mentioned how large the entree sizes are here as compared to the UK.

When I eat out, I make sure I get something that will hold up for leftovers because there is no way I can eat all of the food at once.  This past weekend, I went to Camino and got chicken fajitas.  I had one fajita and a little bit of the refried beans.  You could barely tell that I had eaten any of the grilled meat or veggies.  I made three more meals out of it by putting it on top of salad greens or with more veggies. 

I went to school in Murfreesboro!!  Tell me... is La Siesta still right there within walking distance of campus?  I lost many many many hours of my life there...