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Kind of a good news/bad news. There is a Mexican restaurant chain called Moe's with a very interesting interactive nutrition calculator. http://www.moes.com/food/nutrition/calculator/

If you want a burrito-in-a-bowl (sans tortilla -- called a Streaker) and choose your ingredients, you can get a semi-reasonable meal: Streaker with pinto beans, rice, shredded lettuce, cucumbers, grilled onions, grilled peppers, and pico de galllo -- result is 261 cal, 5 G fat, 590 mg sodium 12 g fiber. Not Novick-compliant on sodium, but not too bad for fast food.

The "fun" comes when you substitute/add/subtract ingredients. Black beans instead of pinto -- 779 mg sodium instead of 590. (Canned, compared to restaurant-cooked pintos?)

Calculator set back to pintos and add jalapenos. Sodium up to 1038 mg! Adding jalapenos added 448 mg sodium.

So, I have to applaud Moes for making the calculator available. Chipotle, a similar Mexican chain, has online nutrition info, but it is less easy to determine totals. Chipotle black beans aren't as heavily salted as Moe's, however. Again. not health food.

It just goes to show how difficult it is to get an acceptable restaurant meal. Variability is great and even well-informed customers can easily make a mistake. (And I've gotten jalapenos every time I went.)

There are two types of jalapenos at Moe's fresh and pickled. I would think the sodium would be in the pickled and not the fresh but they don't give an option on the calculator to choose between them. According to the calculator there is also fat calories in jalapenos too.

I guess I should go with the pintos next time I have to eat there.

You may want to ask how they cook their pinto beans at Moe's. At Chipotle they cook the pintos with bacon.

I think you may have a good point. The jalapeno rings are presumably pickled and the chopped jalapenos are presumably fresh. Good tip. I'll go with chopped in the future.
It may be an issue for ethical vegans, but the numbers are nearly identical for Pintos and Black Beans.

Chipotle's nutritional info --
Pinto Beans - 4 oz. 120 calories, 1.0 grams fat, 5 mg. cholesterol, 330 mg. sodium, 10 g. fiber.
Black Beans - 4 oz. 120 calories, 1.0 grams fat, 0 mg. cholesterol, 250 mg. sodium, 11 g. fiber
Source -- http://www.chipotle.com/en-US/menu/nutritional_information/nutritional_information.aspx

Chipotle says --
Moe's has a vegetarian menu and an allergy web page. Vegan isn't mentioned specifically.

I have been to Moe's in St. Louis in my SAD days, but we don't have one here. It seems that more Mexican restaurants are offering vegetarian options, but so far most of the ones with grilled vegetables are swimming in oil. Blech!

The rice and beans both have added oil, so not McDougall compliant.

Not sure how you came to that view. If I use their nutrition calculator and make a Streaker with rice, pintos, shredded lettuce, cucumbers, and pico de gallo, total fat is 0 grams.

If I add the grilled onions, I add 3 grams fat. If I add grilled peppers, it is 2 grams of fat. If I add grilled mushrooms, it is 0 grams fat.

So I can get a fat free vegan meal with 226 cal, 485 mg sodium, and 9 grams of fiber. Adding grilled onions and peppers adds 75 cal, 5 grams of fat, 105 mg sodium and 3 grams of fiber.

One weakness of the calculator is that it doesn't show sat/trans/mono/poly for the 5 grams; don't know why.

Moe's is not perfect, but it would be hard to find any other restaurant around here where I can eat that well. I'd have trouble beating that at Whole Foods Cafe.

I'm strict at home and don't eat out much. However, sometimes you just have to do the best you can.

I can count on one hand how many times I eat out in a year and it is usually at Moe's. I guess I get the Streaker but I don't remember the name. What I ask for is the romaine lettuce. I notice they only have the shredded lettuce sitting out so I have to ask for the romaine. The romaine is really nice and fresh! I have them put three times the amount of lettuce in the bowl until it is overflowing. I add rice and beans (both pinto and black are vegan according to the manager) and tomatoes and cukes. It is really enjoyable for a once in awhile treat.

I think all restaurants should have an interactive calculator like Moe's. After eating there for the first time, I came home and found the calculator online. I was shocked to see how much the values went up with their corn salsa. Won't do that again! I am very comfortable eating the bowl I get as a special treat.

I was looking at the allergens chart. It shows that the black beans and rice have soy.

I ate at Moe's once. It was okay. It's been a few years ago. I remember they had to special cook my tofu so I had to wait a bit for my food to be ready.

Here's some more specific info, if you're interested.
http://www.vrg.org/blog/2011/08/15/upda ... -tortilla/

Too much anal-eye-zing gives me a headache.

YMMV

According to Moe's napkins pinto and black beans served there are vegetarian.

All rice served that way has oil added. If it did not, it would stick. Period.

The beans have oil added as well (per call to home office). The black beans are vegan but have added fat. The pinto beans have lard in them I believe.

Thus the reason I skip eating out a restaurants. They can call their alternative choices "vegan" or "vegetarian" but chances are high there will be oil contained in how their vegan dishes were made. So while props might be in order for the calculator of having a plant-based option, I would not partake in it because of the oil used.

I agree and I think people are honestly fooling themselves and making excuses if they think they are getting a McD meal in 99% of restaurants. Unless they are cooking your rice right there on the spot, I don't think there is a restaurant that doesn't add oil to their rice. And the salt is ridiculous in most meals. I eat out 4 times a year at best and I go in knowing that I am making the best choice possible but it isn't compliant.