Poppy Seed Restaurant, Clarenbridge, Co. Galway

Meal time:
Late lunch.
Choice:
A good selection of healthy dishes.
What I had (as described on the menu):
Citrus garlic chicken on a pulse salad of mixed greens, peas and beans, pressed pumpkin seed oil and candied almonds.
Ease of figuring carbs: 2
(1 – 10, 1 being easy and 10 being hard to know how many carbs are in the dish)
- Lettuce is carb free.
- The peas and beans/lentils contained approximately 15g of good slow release carbohydrate.
- The word ‘candied’ almonds suggested that they contained a sugar coating, but they didn’t. A minute qty of sugar per almond would have been balanced out by the healthy fat in them and for a few as a garnish, no need to count for carbs.
- The salad was served with 2 slices of homemade bread on a separate plate (I like this). Approximately 36g of carbohydrate for the bread. It’s not possible to be 100% accurate when estimating the carb count of bread, but by being familiar with the carb count for the type of bread and approximate weight of the bread it makes it more accurate.
- Choice 1: Salad 15g carb. This is an ideal light meal to help achieve/maintain good blood glucose levels because it contains lean protein, healthy fat, slow release carbohydrate & green salad. There was no distinguishable dressing, so easy to carb count for insulin.
- Choice 2: Salad + 1 slice of bread = 33g carb.
- Choice 3): Salad 15g + 2 slices of bread = 51g carb.
Everything was freshly prepared, fresh and tasty. The presentation was excellent.