The Bar Scene

So, in general I'm super skeptical of salad bars - oh and if you thought I meant the drinking-alcohol-kinda bars, I'm generally skeptical of them too.  Buffets tend to scare me.  Too much food safety knowledge in my brain about microbial contamination and the like.  Plus, have you ever seen how some people behave?  It's like their at their own house, fingering the food and popping samples into their mouths, getting so close they could almost lick the food.  Yuck!


(Notice the bars in these pictures are not yucky...they are very clean.  And colorful.  And delicious.)

Plus a lot of the places that sell from salad bars or buffets are "all you can eat", which is always trouble.  There's something about buffets that makes people think they have to get their money's worth and eat until they have to unbutton their pants.  Oh, just me? Well, research supports that the more choices we have when eating, the more we eat (Thanksgiving, anyone?).  The average buffet has dozens and dozens of choices - opportunities to really overdo it. 

But it doesn't have to be.  My favorite lunch happens to be from the Whole Foods salad and hot bar near my office.  The options are also endless here and there are definite pitfalls - macaroni and cheese, gravy covered meats, desserts, just to name a few.  But there are also dozens of really nutrient packed options.  I love the kale salads, whole grain salads and beets!  There are choices of salad greens to use as a base, roasted and marinated veggies, tofu and fresh fruit.  They also have a fresh juice bar where they'll make me my favorite beet-apple-celery-kale-ginger-lemon beverage.  Plus, you have to pay by the pound - on the plate, not on your hips.  So,  you have to be careful or that salad could cost you $20!

Here's my plate.  Lots of color, combination of raw and cooked foods, a little sweet and a little savory...even a hint of sour.  Kale salad, roasted lemon carrots, roasted asparagus, marinated mushrooms, fresh mixed berries...and jalapeno macaroni and cheese.  There's always room for  a little indulgence.  Cost ~$8.  This is my kind of bar scene.

Do you eat at salad bars or buffets?  What's your secret for making it a nice, not naughty, meal?