Hey, there, readers!
In honor of St. Paddy’s Day, we’re going to talk about Chili’s. And what does Chili’s have to do with St. Patrick’s Day? Absolutely nothing, except that it is a good place to hang out with friends, so you can go there if you are wanting to celebrate.
No, really, that was just a lame attempt to disguise that, once again, it is time for me to sell my blog space to corporate America. Actually, I’m not selling my blog, I’m trading it — for free food!
As part of Chili’s Guiltless Grill Bzz Campaign, I received coupons to try Chili’s new selection of entrees that are 750 calories or less. This sounded good to me — I like Chili’s, and I like the idea of eating relatively healthily when I’m out at a restaurant.
I’m not much for chain restaurants, preferring to eat locally, but Chili’s is a top choice when I do eat at a chain. Good prices and vast menu selection make the place great for groups. Plus, they recently fulfilled very important pregnancy cravings for me — one night after childbirth education class I was almost in tears with a desire of steak. A nearby Chili’s provided a terrific steak (and garlic mash potatoes!) quickly and yummily.
But I digress. Back to the Guiltless Grill. Paul and I stopped by Chili’s last week to give the entrees a try. Lots of “Guiltless” options — steak, grilled chicken, tilapia, salmon, black bean burger — ranging in price from $6.50ish to $14.50ish.
I tried the Grilled Chicken Sandwich. Meh. Nothing awesome. It just didn’t have very much taste. The menu describes it as including Ranch sauce, but apparently a teeny tiny dollop was all they could manage to stay under the 750 calorie mark. The steamed veggies that came with the sandwich, however, were absolutely incredible — broccoli and carrots with parmesan cheese. I was amazed at the tastiness, especially because I usually hate cooked carrots.
Paul had the Cedar Plank Tilapia. He thought it was okay, but wondered why they hadn’t spiced it up a bit more. He loved the rice pilaf on the side, though, as well as the aforementioned broccoli.
I would say that the Guiltless Grill options are definitely worth trying, especially for people who are trying to keep their diets to a healthy number of calories each day. While I think that the Guiltless options could have used some more flavor, I really didn’t feel like I was restricting myself by ordering from that section of the menu.
Of course, I probably didn’t feel restricted because um, we might have ordered chips and salsa as an appetizer…..and this ridiculously tasty dessert that involved chocolate chip cake with a milk chocolate center covered in ice cream. Heh. However, the dessert was more of a pregnant craving than something needed to fill me up (okay, it was ALL a pregnant craving, and now I really want a chocolate shake). The chips and salsa plus my entree definitely would have been a feast of a meal, and I think the entree would have been satisfying on its own.
You had almost EXACTLY what we did! Chips/salsa and chocolate gooey cake rounded it all out. :0)