Healthier Boca Spicy Chik'n Sandwich

Well, it's time to repeat a previous lunch and attempt to make it a little bit healthier by cutting back on the fat and simple carbs. There's not much I could do to the chik'n patty. The Boca Spicy Chik'n Patty is my favorite replacement for a chicken patty, and while they are FULL of sodium, it's basically all the sodium that is found in this meal. I always cook using No-Salt (KCl), and this will be the only thing like this that I eat today, so this may very well be all the sodium that I ingest today. Even though I sometimes eat a specific item that has a lot of sodium in it, like this patty, I think I am doing well at keeping my sodium intake below (usually WELL below) 1800mg a day.

The bun, on the other hand, WAS something that I could do something about. After comparing the nutritional info of the white buns and wheat buns that I used to buy, I saw that there was no difference. Since they were "wheat" buns and not "whole wheat" buns, they didn't contain any more fiber. I think all they actually did was add something to dye them brown so they would look healthier. Anyway, I have gotten into the habit now of making my own buns using my favorite pizza dough recipe and replacing 100% of the flour in the recipe with whole wheat pastry flour (I also modify the water amount to 1 1/4 cup, add 3 Tbsp. of Vital Wheat Gluten and use Olive Oil for the oil). This gives me a much healthier bun which is full of fiber and only contains 6 ingredients. Who knows what half of that stuff is that is in the storebought buns. And, as an added bonus, my homemade buns taste a lot better than storebought. I am still working on their size though, and I need to select something else that is a little bit smaller to use as my cutter because this batch of buns was just a tiny bit too large. That's the other good thing about making my own bread too... I can make items the exact size that I need so that everything will always fit perfectly into my lunchbox.

The little blue container holds some Grape Seed Oil Vegenaise. I used to buy the regular version made with Canola Oil, but Grape Seed Oil is supposed to be really good for you (I need to do a lot more reading on that) so I switched. Anyway, with the homemade whole wheat bun the sandwich became a little bit healthier, and a lot more tasty.

A simple little change that produced big results, as far as making the lunch healthier, was to leave out the onion rings that I had in my previous lunch and just replace them with some fresh raw broccoli. I was getting in the bad habit of eating french fries and/or onion rings all the time, so this time I just left them out and replaced them with veggies, only adding a smaller container of some herb roasted potatoes & onions to satisfy my potato craving. I DO love potatoes, but the small container of homemade potatoes & onions roasted with some olive oil, garlic, No-salt, pepper and rosemary on them is probably healthier for me than a large container of storebought french fries.

I also didn't pack anything like the bad-carb-laden brownie that I had last time. Instead I opted for a healthier dessert, that would fit into the small amount of space that was left, and threw in my favorite, an Apple Pie Larabar. GOSH! Those are so good. So there I've got 1 1/2 servings of raw fruit in that tiny amount of space. DEFINITELY better for me than a brownie.

Well, I guess that about does it for today. Today's lunch is certainly healthier than the last time I packed one of these chik'n sandwiches. I have been reading some more about raw food and am really starting to get interested in it, especially when it comes to making healthy snacks & desserts. I've got a huge recipe book on its way, and I have ordered an Excalibur dehydrator so I can start making things really soon. I'm still throwing all of this around in my head at the moment, but I am thinking that I would like to start making my lunches at least 50% raw. I don't think that would really be that difficult to do. I mean, even today's lunch is 50% raw with 1 big container and 1 small container filled with raw food. I guess we will see how this progresses, but I have been looking at a lot of raw recipes and it all just sounds so interesting. Hopefully, some of it will start showing up in the lunchbox in the next week or so.

Thanks for stopping by today. I hope everybody has a great Tuesday and I will see you right back here tomorrow!