HEALTHY CHOICES - Hardees

Hardees for me has always been a love/hate relationship. They have changed their branding so many times over the years, frankly it's been a bit hard to keep up with. Who remembers Carl, Jr? Or when they served fried chicken. I will admit their fried chicken beat KFC in my book and I loved their little peach cobblers. I don't know what they did to that crust but I could have done without the filling and just enjoyed the top layer of goo stuck to the underside of the crust.

I will commend Hardees for providing much better nutrition information than some of the places we'll visit over the coming weeks. I also love the fact I can create my meal and see how many calories I've racked up.

I encourage you to go to their site and Create Your Meal with what you would NORMALLY ORDER. The process will be a real eye-opener, I promise.

Case in point. Here's my usual Hardees lunch when I go (which is seldom, but still)
     1/4 pound new Jim Beam Bourbon Burger - 650 calories Yikes! (though it does offer 30g of Protein)
     Unsweet tea was not an option. But except for the Splenda, no calories there anyway.

So there's my dinner. I don't like french fries. Since I only eat 3 or 4, I usually just snitch from Bob's order.

And before I go any farther, if you think ordering the salad is getting you off the hook - you might be better off indulging in the double cheeseburger. Let's find out, shall we?

Let's start with the SALAD
A Side-Salad  - 120 calories.
   Add Ranch dipping sauce: 140 cal
   Add Honey Mustard dipping sauce: 180 cal.

So for a SIDE salad, (which usually comes in a 4" bowl) we're looking at around 300 calories depending on your dressing choice. You can shave this by doing what I do. If I know I'm going to be eating out, I carry a small bottle of homemade Olive Oil and Red wine vinegar in my snack cooler (along with my premade unsweet tea) Often times even if oil/ vinegar dressings are an option, they are not made with PURE OLIVE OIL, but rather a SOY/ EVOO blend.  Go for the good stuff!

If you need more than that salad and a beverage to carry you through until dinner, you're going to add a burger or something. What about:

3-Piece hand-breaded chicken tenders.
      260 calories AND 13g of fat.

1/4 little thickburger
      420 calories with everything.
Remember when I talked about the Meal Planner earlier. For things like burgers, you can add/ subtract the items you have on your burger and their calculator will adjust the calorie count.

Hardees does offer a Better For You Menu.
Whether you are Low Carb, Gluten Sensitive, Trim It or Veg It - they have items for you. Cool huh!

But it's tricky.  Remember our 1/4 little cheeseburger was 420 calories?
A Low Carb 1/3 pound burger is 470. On the Upside, because it's low carb, there's no bread so you can enjoy the calories in a bit more burger. The 'sandwich' comes wrapped in lettuce and a paper wrapping.

For a Trim It option, let's go back to the 1/4 pound burger. We already know what the regular burger in this is going to cost us. This one is only 220 calories! Presented just like the Low Carb version, but the smaller patty.

The Veg It Thick burger - Hold the Patty - is a whopping 510 calories!
What are you getting for this Veg It option?  Bun, cheese, pickle, tomato, onion, mayo, mustard, ketchup. A 1/4 Thick Burger WITH MEAT has less calories!

Finally, for the Gluten-Sensitive...You get the 1/3 pound Low Carb option for 470 calories

My Tip on this post...  Plan Ahead and make use of their Meal Planner. 

Make your choices and print those meal options out onto a small card to keep in your wallet. In fact... as soon as I get some creative time I have a key chain you're going to LOVE!  I might even give one away. So stay tuned!