How to Eat Healthy Without Cooking

As someone that does not enjoy or know how to cook, I have had to seek out new and unsuspecting places to get a good, healthy meal when I am hungry. After three years of eating strictly vegetarian and more than that striving to eat wholly healthy meals, I have found a couple of staples in fast food eats (believe it or not) that are both healthy and tasty. Of course it should go without saying that unless you are cooking your own food you can not measure or control every calorie (including what is used to cook certain foods) and a large amount of the time what is one meal to an establishment should really be spread out into two meals by you (especially when it comes to pasta!), but this is just a general guideline.

1. Supermarket salad bars. They usually have both premade and separate vegetable and various types of greens as well as skinless meat, hardboiled eggs, as toppings. While not all offer fat free or low fat salad dressing options all offer oil and vinegar which most nutritionists will argue is the healthiest option anyway. Remember to stay away from cheese, high calorie croutons and meats (like saturated fat laden bacon), and full fat salad dressings. Some salad bars even have really nasty and healthy three bean and Mediterranean salads. I have found stop and shop, A&P, and Shop Rite to have the best (of course whole foods is by far the most superior but it is far more expensive and extensive than the later and Saladworks is also much more expensive.).

2. Chinese food. At almost any Chinese restaurant there is a "weight watcher" or "diet" menu and even if there is not you can simply make it yourself. All you have to do is order everything steamed. If you are vegetarian like me you can get steamed veggies or steamed veggies with bean curb or tofu. They usually also have chicken and seafood options with veggies you can get steamed. Most although not all Chinese restaurants offer brown rice in place of white or friend rice. Another excellent option that I like are steamed vegetable dumplings which considered "appetizers" is extremely cheap and being offered in a plate of six certainly constitutes as a full meal.

3. Believe it or not many pizza places now have healthy options. Many offer whole wheat pasta and if you get it with marinara sauce and veggies in the sauce (mushrooms are my favorite). Also, many Italian restaurants offer veggie wraps or grilled veggie subs that if you get without the cheese are quite tasty and or healthy. I presume if you eat meat there are even more healthy options such as grilled chicken garden salads, grilled chicken wraps, mussels, steamed clams, and seafood combos.

4. Most diners (including staples like Stewart's) have healthy options on their menus including low carb and low fat selections. All diners offer breakfast all day and you can usually get an egg beater omelet loaded with veggies (make sure you nix the cheese). Most diners have veggie burgers, veggie wraps, grilled chicken and turkey burgers, wraps, salads etc...