Strategy for a trip

(jketoscribe) #1

Don’t ask me why but I volunteered to drive and chaperone on my 16 year old’s drama class trip to a drama festival next week. I’m not generally a fan of “other people’s children” although this is a group of sweet, smart, and talented kids. Hopefully I’ll survive and only embarrass my kid a little bit. So I’m trying to get my food plans in place.

One dilemma is that everyone eats at a family-style Italian restaurant together on Saturday night. I’ve looked at their menu and I don’t see ANYTHING I can have–almost everything is breaded and what is not breaded I can’t eat for other reasons. I’m thinking of calling them to make special arrangements, but I’m a little worried about that because it will be me in a group of about 30 people. The drama teacher has been taking her class there for a decade, and I don’t want to rock the boat to make her group unwelcome in the future. This is in a smallish town far from the “gluten free” aware health conscious community I live in here. I hate to feel like they have to cater to the “special snowflake”–I honestly never run into any place where I can’t find SOMETHING on the menu around home.

I’ll be taking my own homemade “not oatmeal” for breakfasts and coconut milk to add to my morning coffee. I may take along a cooler with some HB eggs, or if it’s not convenient to do that I may skip lunches if I don’t find anything I can eat. I will have some “snacky” foods like nuts and parmesean crisps in case. I’m not into jerky and “purse bacon” isn’t an option for me.

There’s a Type I kid in the class. I’ve had to keep my mouth shut when I see her eat carby snacks, but she’s on a pump and knows how to bolus at least. She’s also gluten free, so I’m not sure how she handles this restaurant (she’s been on the trip before).

#2

Don’t be shy. Call the restaurant. Get whatever you want from the menu and ask them for the keto conversion. For example, if they serve breaded veal Parmesan on a bed of pasta, ask them for non-breaded veal cutlets, simply pan fried, and on a bed of sautéed spinach or other green leaves.

Unfortunately, the so-called italian restaurants in America are an affront to real italian food. It’s not italian, it’s fucking shit on a plate.

(Larry Lustig) #3

I’ve yet to run into a restaurant that had absolutely nothing I could eat. Still, I would see the options as:

  1. Not eat. I find it increasingly easy to do the odd meal. You can push some food around your plate if other people are uncomfortable.
  2. Ketoize at the table by removing the breading from the meat.
  3. Do your best with what you’ve got. Figure out how much of the least-bad thing you can eat to stay within your personal carb budget.
(Patty W) #4

Hang in there! I’ve played the salad card before. Basic green salad, olive oil & vinegar dressing (if you don’t trust their other dressing options), some form of cheese &/or grilled protein (chicken, steak, shrimp, etc)…maybe a hard-boiled egg? Bring some keto-friendly nuts/seeds. Good luck & have fun with the kids!

(Jo Lo) #5

Take a big avocado with you and add it to your salad. I’d take my own olive oil too, oil at restaurants often is heavy in cheap (toxic) seed oils.

Or get meat combo pizza and eat just toppings.

#6

Just ask for a bowl of melted butter at the restaurant…drown your food in it. Even the salad. No need to lug oil around…or at least that’s my strategy. I’d hate to get oil open up and spread everywhere.

(Jo Lo) #7

Carrying olive oil is no problem. Get one of the plastic flasks that runners use to carry gel. Mine has never leaked.