Finding Healthy Food On the fly! FreeBirds & Tutifrutti

Kristin and I are often on the go, and finding healthy food or nonpoisonous food has become a lifesaving & life enriching skill set.  Eating out is expensive and potentially dangerous.  We refer to all food not prepared in our kitchen as "street food".  Street Food is unreliable, where its from, what water it was cooked with, cross contamination, undisclosed or misrepresented ingredients are common problems.  That being said, one has to eat, especially while traveling or living a busy lifestyle.  The more you eat out the more skillful you become at avoiding animal products and oils.

FreeBirds is a nation wide burrito chain.  A new one just opened up withing biking distance from us so we decided to give it a try last weekend.  They are famous for their super monster burrito...  Its intended to be split, but we saw people eating 10lbs of food on their own!!!

 

The good news is that their corn tortillas, black, pinto, roasted green pepper mix, salsas, do not have any oil, but the rice and wheat tortillas do.  We went with two tacos and a hybrid burrito, but the tacos are the way to go.  The fillings are the same and you save the fat from the tortilla, which isn't as good as the corn.  Additional toppings like lettuce, tomato & jalapenos are available, too.

 

Overall, I give FreeBirds about two stars.  I wouldn't rush out to eat there, but if there is one nearby a healthy meal can definitely be had for $5 (two veggie tacos).  I wrote corporate to beg them to remove the oil from their Spanish and white rice blends.  If the rice was edible I'd be really excited.

Next to FreeBirds I noticed a TutiFrutti with a large "Soy Bean Ice Cream" sign.  Always curious I went inside and asked for the ingredients and they handed me the bag of the mix and it was water, soymilk, sugar, guargum and maltodextrin (something to that effect).  It is also no fat according to the label, as well.  Not a bad treat for a long bike ride!  TutiFrutti's are worldwide so check and see if there is one in your area (over 580 stores as of their blog post).  They have other dairy free items, too, but read the ingredients.

Sticking to a healthy diet is difficult in a world full of temptations.  Having access to less deadly alternatives in you reach is a wonderful way to stay on course and really enjoy life.  Being adventurous isn't easy and w/o setbacks, but keep at it and you'll discover and perhaps create an entire healthy world at your fingertips.