Well, I ate healthier.

Walt Disney World is known for its fine dining… and burgers. Huge portions that actually make the high price tag seem quite reasonable. When you eat at WDW, you have to get used to the idea of throwing food out if you don’t have someone to share with.

However, after many complaints from healthy eaters being unable to find anything suitable, and other complaints of a lack of variety in the counter service, Disney began to make some heavy changes to their counter service menus. I stayed at Walt Disney World for 8 nights with 7 days at the parks and had no hamburgers and only one hot dog (just because I wanted it).

So what did I eat?

My first smoked turkey leg ever. They’re in every park at Walt Disney World, sometimes in more than one place! While a whole leg for one person isn’t the healthiest, shared between two or more people can be quite healthy- particularly as most turkey leg spots are near the fruit markets.

All of the All Star Resort hotels seem to have this roast turkey dinner. You get several ounces of roasted turkey (I don’t know how much, but they weigh it), a dinner roll, and two vegetables. So the mashed potatoes and gravy aren’t healthy- at least I had the yummy yummy green beans instead of corn!

French toast itself isn’t a particularly healthy food, but having a single slice (the kiddie portion) with a serving of grapes isn’t too bad. And as a heads up? Any meal that comes with fries, you can substitute grapes or apple slices instead.

The vegetarian burger. Do not be fooled by its yummy appearance. This burger is thoroughly disgusting (in my opinion). I don’t know everything that’s in this burger, but it appears to be mainly mashed up broccoli, cauliflower, corn, and carrots. That shouldn’t be disgusting, so there must be something else that they put in it to give it that horrible smell and flavor. I don’t recommend it. Go to the fruit market instead.

Japanese Beef Curry from Yakitori House in the Japan pavilion at EPCOT. I don’t know how healthy this is or isn’t, but I’m sure that it’s healthier than a burger. And yummier, too. It tastes sort of like beef stew with a bit of curry powder mixed in.

Please disregard the chocolate cake- it’s my husband’s fault for talking me into that.

At Sunshine Seasons in The Land pavilion at EPCOT, you will find a wide selection of healthy foods and quite a few unhealthy ones as well. But being in The Land pavilion, an emphasis is made on vegetables, since they grow their own.

This dish contains Spicy Thai Chicken and Oriental Beef with rice and noodles. However, you can choose two entrees and two sides to make up the meal, and broccoli is available as a side. There’s also a vegetarian dish which is the rice, noodles, and broccoli. (Nice, bright green broccoli it is, too!)

Sushi! True, the sugar and starch in the rice isn’t all that healthy, but it’s much better than most convenience foods. Also found at Sunshine Seasons in EPCOT, the pre-made sushi is made with a variety of vegetables, imitation crab meat, nori, and sushi rice. Granted, 9 pieces is far too much for one person (in my opinion), but perhaps it’s meant to be shared?

This is actually my husband’s dinner from T-Rex Cafe in Downtown Disney. It’s Mahi-Mahi with shrimp, a wild rice mixture, and fresh roasted veggies. And absolutely delish (I tasted it)!

OK, so the mini mango pie from the Yak and Yeti counter service at Animal Kingdom isn’t exactly healthy, but it’s soooo yummy (think Key Lime Pie but with mango instead).

This entry was posted on Friday, February 20th, 2009 at 12:45 am and is filed under Healthy Vacations, Personal, Random Friday. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.