P.F. Chang's

As I said this morning, even though Lori and I did not focus our weekend get-away on our food options, that doesn't mean we didn't find our way to a trio of favorites over the weekend. 

Friday night, we stopped at one of our favorite restaurants on the way up to Longmont...  P.F. Chang's.  We love the Chicken Lettuce Wraps.  We love the Hot and Sour Soup.  And I also love almost every item I have ever tried from their menu.  In the past, I would have had generous portions of the wraps and the soup and still found it easy to eat an entire entree' for good measure.  But, I can no longer eat that much food, even if every tray of food that crossed my visual path tantalized me.  It didn't help that they sat us near the kitchen... something that I had never experienced in all of my previous trips.  I could almost taste the explosion of flavors coming from each entree' as it left the kitchen. 

Lori and I ordered the Lettuce Wraps and the soup.  I added an iced tea because I love their iced tea.  What's crazy is that the wraps and the soup were not only satisfying and plenty of food, I actually still left the restaurant feeling a little full.  The food, like most of my exceptions, was... well, exceptional!  And, maybe an exception should be exceptional.  The longer I go without these treats, the better the experience is.  Even a Bud Light Lime now tastes like the best beer in the entire world on those few occasions where I imbibe.

The best part about our two appetizer meal was the bill!  Another byproduct of our healthier eating is the amount of money we have saved by not eating out.  Even on the nights we do go out, it is substantially cheaper than in the past.  When we got the bill, I laughed when I saw the total, $15.35.  If I had gotten water, which is what I usually drink now, it would have been about $12.75!   Even with a $5 tip, we still spent slightly more than $20.  A great meal to kick off a great weekend get-away all for a $20 bill.  Priceless... or, as I said above, $20.35.

While this was the first of three exceptions over the weekend, I still felt pretty good about my calories that night.  After about 30 minutes on the hotel treadmill, I was still feeling pretty positive and I imagine that none of my current five pounds gained over the weekend had joined me yet.   Here's to finding more healthy compromises at your favorite places and enjoying those meals as much as I enjoyed P.F. Chang's...