Fast Food Salads

[MauEvig]

Am I the only person on the planet or perhaps just the United States who actually wants McDonald's to bring their salad's back?
I really miss their grilled and crispy chicken salads.
And they need to bring their old chicken sandwiches back too. I'm not crazy about the new ones with the pickles.
I actually liked their grilled chicken sandwiches too.
At least bring back the side salads!
I know Wendy's still has salads though. You can also get salads at Subway, but I usually like to just get a turkey sandwich on whole wheat and load up on the veggies! Maybe on occasion I'd get a salad though. Also Domino's has salads but...it would be REALLY hard for me to pass up pizza in favor of a salad. XD (I'm also not sure if Domino's qualifies as "fast food." But since they're mostly take-out I'll let that one slide. XD)
What are your thoughts on this? Y'all know of any good alternatives?

[Andybev01]

McD's had the Salad Shaker for a while but stopped selling them in America...go figure.

[Murfreesboro]

I think Chick Filet has salads, and I know Wendy's does, because their apple pecan salad is my regular order there. We don't do Mickey Ds much. I used to like their grilled chicken sandwich, though. I've fallen hard for Arby's Market Fresh, especially when they have their seasonal chicken salad sandwich, with pecans and grapes.

[MauEvig]

I liked Mickey D's grilled chicken sandwich.
I remember going to order a salad and asking if they had them. They said yes and gave me a sandwich. I wasn't too happy. Can't remember if this was before, or after they got rid of salads but it might have been after. Most of the news says it had to do with 2020 and wanting to speed up production.
I don't think I've ever had a chance to try the McSalad shaker. Going to McDonald's back then was a once in a while privilege. But when the dollar menu came out, it was nice. I used to like getting the McChicken and the McDoubles a lot, and even before that they had double cheeseburgers for a dollar. They made the McDouble to address costs by having one less slice of cheese. Well, so much for salads. But they did have side salads on the menu for a dollar too, so you could always get that in lieu of fries.
The fries are good though. If I get an order of fries it's not going to make it home.
I do like Wendy's salads sometimes though. There was one in particular I liked, but I can't remember which one it was. Might have been a southwest salad or something along those lines.
Can't say I've had the Arby's market fresh sandwiches, I can't remember. Our location actually serves breakfast though so that's pretty cool. I usually like to get the roast beef and cheddar or the reuben sandwich. But I should look into healthier options.
Not crazy about chick-fil-a but I might give them another chance one day. I ordered the chicken sandwich with the lettuce, tomato and mayo I think twice. And both times got the one with pickles at two different locations. So...yeah I haven't been back. But maybe the salads are good and worth trying.
Subway's nice because you can customize any salad and turn any sandwich into a salad. So there's plenty of variety as far as subway's concerned.
But I really wish McDonald's would bring salads back. Any kind of salad really, the shakers, the big salads, even just the side salads would be nice.

[Murfreesboro]

You are the only person I've ever known who dislikes Chick Filet ( I can't recall their tricksy spelling). Around here the lines are always two cars deep, wrapped around the building, and they have servers outside to take orders. I can't afford them or any other fast food nowadays. I used to love their Cole slaw, but they discontinued it. Once every summer I must have one of their peach shakes. That's as obligatory for me as the PSL at Starbucks each fall.

Arby's also has gyros, if you like those (I do).

[MauEvig]

Well it surprised me when I found out some people don't like pizza. There's also some people who don't like chocolate. But hey, to each their own I guess.
I found out though that it's actually the top fast-food place of New York. I didn't even know they HAD Chick fil a up there! It must be in the more metropolitan areas. My first experience of it was at a location in Waynesboro. I always thought it was just more of a southern thing.
I might give them another go one day. I'll admit I did like the waffle fries at least. I'll just have to make sure I'm VERY specific about what I order. A peach shake does sound cool and refreshing for summer time though.
It stinks when a favorite menu item is discontinued. I think KFC has Cole Slaw though. I get it sometimes, but more often than not opt for things like mashed potatoes and mac and cheese. I really miss their potato wedges though.
I'm going to have to try those gyros one of these days. They sound good.
I like fancy coffee chains like Starbucks, but they're pricy. Honestly though, McDonald's coffees are really good and probably half the price. They actually surprise me given it's McDonald's. My favorite breakfast items include the Sausage McMuffin with Egg, hashbrown, sometimes I'll get the bacon, egg and cheese bagel and either a mocha or a caramel frappe. The oreo frappes are really good too! But if I'm feeling cheap, I'll opt for the regular ol' coffee. Ordering on the app saves me some money and I wrack up points toward free food, so that's always nice.
...I'm getting hungry talking about all this food! They get after me at work for that.

[Murfreesboro]

Chick Filet started in Atlanta, so, yeah, it's a Southern thing, but I think now they may be #1 in the whole country.

If you've never tried their peach shakes, you must! They're to die for. Georgia peaches, and all that. They are as iconic for summer as Starbucks' PSL is for fall.

Around the turn of the century, McDonald's upgraded from a kiddy place to a young adult place. That's when their coffee went upscale, and, yes, it's quite good. As a mom, I was glad they hadn't done that when my boys were young and we were traveling through the country to visit relatives. I really counted on those play spaces they assiduously removed.

Dunkin Donut's has good coffees, too. A couple of years ago my daughter and I tried out all the pumpkin spice drinks in town, and we thought Dunkin's was as good as Starbucks, and cheaper, too

[Andybev01]

Starbucks makes a Christmas snack called Cranberry Bliss Bar.

It's a blonde with cranberry, orange zest and cream cheese icing with dried cranberry.

If you're not waiting by the door at opening you won't get one because they sell out immediately.

[Murfreesboro]

That does sound good, but I make lots of loaves of cranberry orange bread at Christmas--it's kind of my thing--so I don't seek out similar pastries at that time of year.

One year, when my older boy was a college sophomore, he came home for Christmas complaining that he'd been too swamped to think about Christmas, that he didn't have any holiday spirit. On Christmas morning, I handed him his piece of cranberry orange bread, and he just looked at it. I asked him what was wrong. He said, looking at his bread, "Wow, it really is Christmas."

[MauEvig]

I might break down and try some of those breads one of these days. I just haven't felt up to baking or doing anything much lately like that.

But the holiday bars at Starbucks do sound pretty good.

I do get a little excited when places come out with their pumpkin spice offerings though.

I'm still lamenting the loss of McDonald's salads. It was nice to have the option. Even just bringing back the side salad might make some people happy.

I hear they weren't so successful with their "McPlant" burger. But from what I hear, they put all kinds of chemicals in those faux meats to make them taste like the real thing. I have nothing against vegans personally, but that's a lifestyle I'm just not into. Give me a good cheeseburger any day!

[Murfreesboro]

I've heard that some of the faux meats taste really good, but I've never tried them. That stuff is usually more expensive, and, as you say, one wonders if all the fake stuff is really good for a person. I could see being vegetarian or maybe piscetarian, but I don't understand vegan. The whole point of dairy is that it doesn't hurt any animal. Even the eggs we buy at the store are unfertilized, so nothing dies when you eat them.

I could probably do a vegetarian meal once or twice a week, but my husband feels as if he hasn't eaten if he doesn't eat meat.

[MauEvig]

I think it has something to do with the living conditions/treatment of the cows and chickens. But if people are that concerned, there's always cage free eggs and you can look to see if you can get milk raised from cows that were treated well and didn't have hormones. Sometimes it's nice to get locally sourced meat, eggs and veggies at farmer's markets. Not only would the animals be treated better, but you'd be supporting local farmers and the local economy.

Farmer's markets might even have some interesting, obscure vegetables and fruits that you won't find in the local grocery store. So, it's always an adventure going, and it kind of reminds me of a miniature festival in a way.

I saw where they pick a bunch of nasty chemicals in the faux meat so...no thanks.

But I can understand why people would choose those diets.

I might have to go on a diet myself, but I have to get some bloodwork done first. Doc has to check cholesterol levels before putting me on a diet. But she wants me to drink more water.

[Murfreesboro]

We all need to drink more water.

My daughter read a book she passed along to me, written by a farmer in Georgia who has eschewed "industrial" farming for the more wholesome, traditional type. I can't recall the title right now. But some of the stuff he wrote was scary. He said that the chemical fertilizers and insecticides are killing the microbiome of the soil, so that even the vegetables produced on these large-scale farms aren't as nutritious as they should be. He's someone who was quite successful as an industrial farmer, but he has changed his whole operation over to more organic methods because he believes strongly in the healthfulness of that method. He also sells beef cattle. That's what actually caused him to change, because he saw the misery and trauma of his cattle as they were trucked off to some distant slaughterhouse. He still slaughters them, but he does so on his own property. He claims it is better for the cattle to live and die in the same place. His cattle are all grass-fed, too.

[MauEvig]

It sounds like he was a good farmer, and a smart one too.
Even if cattle are eventually raised to be meat, I think they should be treated well and with kindness and respect before they are slaughtered. It's got to be traumatic to leave one's home and never come back, only to end up as someone's steak dinner.
It sounds like that farmer does just that. I think I agree with the farmer. It's also better to grass feed them, I think that the corn they feed most cattle doesn't give them all the nutrients they need.
I did get some vegetable fertilizers, but it said they were organic. So hopefully they aide in making my vegetables nice and healthy. I will say this much, a garden grown tomato tastes 110% better than any store bought one. They're sweeter and full of flavor. Store bought ones are bland in comparison. But, any tomato will due on a burger. But a garden tomato is so much better. If only we could get good, fresh garden tomatoes year round.
I do technically have a hydroponics system my dad gave me, but I haven't tried it yet. I need to make some room for it. Maybe next year!

[Murfreesboro]

A Bold Return to Giving a Damn. That was the name of the book. The guy who wrote it was a 6th generation farmer.

Oh, and I utterly agree about the tomatoes. I've been told that the ones you buy at the store are picked green and subjected to some kind of gas that turns them red, but they aren't really ripe. That's why they taste like cardboard. You can get good ones at farmers' markets, though.