Well right off the bat, I have to say…I LOVE food!!! For me, food is fabulous.  So when it comes to ordering, I have a style all my own.  I have been on a Qdoba kick for about a year now, and as I love the same things, I have not been afraid to try some new and different things. 

On a ‘normal’ day I tend to go for the old stand-by, the chicken burrito.  I start out with the flour tortilla, extra lime-cilantro rice and no beans.  I personally just don’t care for beans, although you do have the black or pinto option. 

Along with the chicken I decide on, there is also steak, seasoned shredded beef, or ground sirloin, and again I’m just a chicken kinda person. But don’t fret if you’re a vegetarian, they have that option as well. 

As I head over to the selection of salsas, I tend to gravitate towards the corn salsa.  It is advertised as medium, but I find it is more on the mild side.  For those who can’t decide, they offer a range of sauces and salsas for any range of tastes.  From mild to hot they are all great.  NOW, if you really wanna make your burrito special, add some of that 3-cheese queso to your order and you can see a small glimpse into happiness!!

Now, to my burrito I also add sour cream and lettuce, no reason other than I just want them in there. Now as far as cheese goes, if I’m getting the 3-cheese queso, I pass on any additional cheese, but if not, sure slap some in there.

As we come to the end of the line, you can also add some chips and salsa to your order, or the famed chips and 3- cheese queso. They also carry a small selection of bottled drinks, including a few types of beers, but as I’m always there for lunch, I don’t partake.     

All there’s left to do is sit back and enjoy the Qdoba experience.

I’m amazed every month at how much I spend on food. The largest parts of my costs are from eating out, because of the convenience. But when I really look at my finances and my budget, I try to figure out ways to reduce the food costs. The biggest way to reduce the costs are to not eat out. But I think old habits die hard.

However, I’ve figured out the reason my family and I eat out a lot. I think it’s because we get bored at home (not because we like to have people serve us). It’s because only one of us has been the cook. (That “one” is my husband. I’ve been spoiled.)

In order to stop the pattern of eating out I realized I have to start taking my turn in the kitchen. So some of the ways I’ve accomplished this was to buy some pre-made dinners (ex. pizza, lasagna, chicken nuggets). But all of those can get really old, really fast (then boredom again). So I’m back to real cooking and finding simple dishes to fix that require very little on my part.

One of my favorite simple dishes is called Herb Chicken. You take four chicken breasts (small to medium sized) put them in a baggie with a can of Cream of Mushroom soup, a little bit of basil and oregano, squish it all around. When you are ready to cook it put it in a glass dish, heat the oven to 350 degrees and bake for 30 minutes (or until chicken is completely cooked). While it’s cooking make a box of your favorite Rice-A-Roni. Add some green beans or a salad with the meal and it’s quite scrumptious. Nine times out of ten this is better than eating out and also reduces the gas necessary to get to another restaurant.

Lets just hope I can keep it up.

I went back to Wendy’s to try another one of their salads today. Trying new things has opened up some ideas on what I want to try for lunch. There are still two other salads I want to try at Wendy’s, but for today I got the Mandarin Chicken Salad. It came with those little chinese crunchy noodles, almonds and a packet of sesame salad dressing. The salad was really good with mandarin oranges, chicken, and lettuce. The almonds and crunchy noodles added a nice twist to the salad. If you are one to not eat dressing on your salad, there is enough flavor with out the dressing to make this salad worth getting.