Thursday, November 17, 2005

goodbye salad

When we lived in NYC, my coworkers often liked to pick up lunch from Cosi. I'd tag along, but unhappily. Nothing ever struck my fancy and I think the food was rather, ohhh, meh.

In the last couple of weeks, however, I have discovered the Signature Salad. Lordy, is that sucker good. I joked yesterday that it was almost like they threw some crack in the salad dressing because it was delectable.

Well, today my salad didn't taste right because they put in the wrong type of lettuce, so I popped over to the Cosi website to make sure I wasn't crazy. Much to my chagrin, I clicked on the nutritional information page, and thus ended my love affair with the Signature Salad.

SALAD NUTRITIONAL INFORMATION**Note: Salad nutritional info DOES NOT include dressing**

Serving Size(oz) = 1 portion 10
Calories 375
Fat Grams(g) 21
Carbs(g) 40
Protein(g) 15
Cholesterol(mg) 38
Sodium(mg) 629
Fiber(g) 7

Please note that as mentioned above, this infernal mess does NOT include the salad dressing. Let's take a gander over to the dressings, shall we?

DRESSINGS
Roasted Shallot Sherry Vinaigrette (aka Signature Salad dressing)

Serving Size(oz) = 1 portion 2oz
Calories 308
Fat Grams(g) 31
Carbs(g) 8
Protein(g) 0
Cholesterol(mg) 0
Sodium(mg) 120
Fiber(g) 0

The basic fact of the matter is that I expect that when I eat a @#&^%# SALAD, I will not be ingesting 683 calories, 52 grams of fat and 749 mg of Sodium. I'm sorry, but for that, I will just have a pumpkin pie for lunch and wash it down with some eggnog.

I'm so sad, though. 'Tis very disappointing, the crack in the dressing was really tasty.


*****
Thanks for your kind comments to my post below, I actually have a reason for posting it which I will share in a bit.

11 comments:

Anonymous said...

Oh, that's disappointing! Today I said Screw the salad! I'm having the cafeteria's "Thanksgiving" lunch AND a piece of pie. Ha HA! I'm going to regret that when I look at the scale tomorrow.

halloweenlover said...

Oh Z, your thanksgiving lunch probably has one quarter of the fat and calories and sodium of this "salad". My stomach still hurts from thinking about it. You could have a big mac instead!

Phantom Scribbler said...

May I use this as a reason to feel superior the next time I go out to dinner with someone who never orders anything but salad?

Oh, wait. I can't. She always specifies the low-fat dressing -- on the side.

Gawdessness said...

That is so wrong! Salad should not have that many calories in it - unless it has bacon, avocado and chocolate.
Mmmm.
Now that would be a salad!

Andres said...

where does all that fat come from?? is it avocado (good fat)?? is it cheese?? is every item coated with butter? It looks like you are getting jacked by the pistachios (i think the second fatiest nut close behind cashews) and the gorgonzola.

Go for the greek salad.

Do you have panera out there. Bigger salads a little less on the calories.

Girl said...

We must work in the same neighborhood. I personally blame the signature salad for pushing me over the 200 lb mark. I think I ate it every day for lunch two summers ago...it is THAT good. And yeah...it is sickening to see how much fat is in it W/O the dressing!! Soooooo....unfair. Plus you add in the yummy bread AND the sample you get just waiting in line...throw in some chips...it is a wonder I am not 500 lbs!

Anytime you want to head to know.fat with me, let me know. :)

Piece of Work said...

What the hell do they put in a salad to give it over 600 calories? My god!

Running2Ks said...

Oh my gosh what is in that thing and how long do you have to walk to make it go away?

Anonymous said...

LOL! Might as well have a BIG MAC.

What was in the salad? What did it taste like?

Hugo A said...

anything creamy is going to be fat or high in sugar. Unless you ask for a low fat dressing in which case, a lot of chemicals /artificial thickeners will be added. On top of that the signature salad does have Cheese in it. And cheese is mostly fat. the other source of fat is the pistachio. Pistachio and all nuts are mostly fats, though they are the good kind. If you think salads shouldn't be above 300-400 then you need to stick to the basics: carrots/cucumber/tomatoes/peppers and salads. You can make a salad as healthy as you want, but you can also go the opposite way, think Caesar salad drenched in dressing and parmesan cheese. Bottom line, don't overthink what you eat, just go with what your stomach tells you it needs and what seem like "sound choices" - creamy dressing not included...

Anonymous said...

While the salad may be higher in fat and calories than you think a salad should be, it is still packed with disease fighting anti-oxidants and nutrients (compared to a nutritionally void and genetically engineered big mac). Counts towards your 9 servings of veggies even when covered in dressing :)