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Eating Out / Takeaways on Holiday = HELP!

MoroFenrir

Active Member
Messages
40
So for anyone who's not seen any of my other threads, my other half has been diagnosed T2, yesterday.

On Monday we go away camping for 3 days.

The plan had been to enjoy our holiday, and eat at various fast food / take away places (McDonalds, Chinese, Indian) whilst we are there, so we don't have to cook whilst on holiday (as travelling a LOT so don't have time or space to cook)

Now we are stuck as to what she can eat, as struggling to find low carb options commercially available, and as we're going camping (no electric) There's nowhere to store food or cook it.

So far we have thought that if we go to a fish and chip shop, She can just ask for a fish with no batter...but what other options are there?

The only other thing I can think of is a kebab but without the bread?
So just the meat, salad and sauce

None will be ideal I know, but looking to make the best of a bad situation, short term.

Maybe if we go to Mcdonald's she can a cheeseburger without the bread bun ? Obviously no fries either.

It will be easy enough to get sugar free drinks, it's just the food thats the problem.

We also do not have space to take food with us, (3 people, dog and camping gear in small car) , but probably could take some meat and cheese based snacks, was thinking babybel, pepperami, cheesestring ? Would these be ok ?

 
Yep I do fish no batter at a push.

Mac Donald’s do salads with chicken (not the battered one). You get more that way than bun less.

Chinese I’d head for foo yung as many sauces are quite sweet.

Indian I have butter chicken and mushroom bahjee. I’m wary of korma and masala as the description always says sweet sauce. I’m sure spicier curries could work but I’m a wimp. There are posts here about options for both of these.

Cooked breakfast without the toast or hash brown. (Be a bit wary of sausage so due to breadcrumbs. Gluten free for once helps here)

A deli will have cold cooked meats eg roast chicken, olives etc to go with cheeses.

A roast dinner without potatoes or parsnips in a pub.

Steak and salads in pubs too

Nuts cheese salami all good. a slab of very (80%) dark choc for dessert. I only need a square or two.

It gets easier with practice and familiarity
 

Indian I guess you could have the curry if you watch for the sweetness... but it's a bit hard to eat a curry with no chips, rice, poppadoms or naan so it would just basically be a sauce!

Chinese the same problem, you may get some cooked veg in sauces (Think my OH eats kung po vegs?) but then again not being able to have anything with it, like rice or noodles, it's hard to make it a full meal.

Any opinions on the donner kebab without the pitta?
Surely this would be the best option, filling wise, as more of a meal than just a sauce !

I'll look into the McDonald's salad
 

Indian you can get dry meat kebab type things as a side and other veg dishes. Those sauces have meat or veg in to you know.

Kung Po is quite sweet imo. Foo yung is an omelette in essence.

The problem I see you have here is considering a meal not complete without carbs. This will have to change or there’ll be ongoing frustrations. Meat and veg are the meal. Just have more and more variety. Fat will give the fullness carbs used to.

Ive had doners without the bread and been happy with that. Choose sauces wisely.
 
Also whilst it’s fantastic you are being so supportive your oh might benefit from joining the forum themselves for support practical and emotional and asking questions directly.
 
I’m type 1 but would choose battered fish with no chips as my option! Most kebab shops do salads? Lots of Chinese places will do omelettes (I forget the name sorry). I’ve always been told by medics not to stres too much on holiday, it’s short term and it’s more the day to day long term that matters. Good luck and hope you both get to enjoy your holiday.
 
When I gave up rice, that meant chinese and indian food needed a major rethink.

I ended up giving up on the chinese, but curries work very well. I now have any non-sweet, non-fruity curry (butter and shashlik are favourites), then I add one or two veg side dishes instead of rice or naan. Avoiding the potato dishes. Brinjal bhaji and saag paneer are firm favorites.
Interestingly, whenever I go out with friends they drool at the sight of my colourful plate, while they get piles of boring rice. lots of tasting and envy.

MacDonalds is easy. You can have anything from the burger menu, just say the magic words ‘without the bun, please’.
They provide it freshly cooked, in a cardboard ‘tray’ with a plastic knife and fork.
 

Please don't be lulled into thinking gluten-free anything is necessarily low carb. There are many, many gluten free options which loads of carbs. These Tesco sausages (just the first I came across on MySupermarket) are like this:

http://www.mysupermarket.co.uk/sain...reakfast_Smooth_Sausages_6_per_pack_400g.html




They don't have the nutritional info on the website, but they won't be too low carb.
 
Actually they are 1.5 per 100 so pretty good. It would appear in sausages they don’t replace the breadcrumbs with more carbs, just leave it out. ONLY in sausages have I found gluten free ok though. In most other cases gluten free is very carb heavy.

Edit. I got the wrong ones. The pictured ones are 3 carbs /100. The plain pork ones are 1.5, also labelled gluten free. In contrast their normal butchers choice pork ones are 12g/100. Still have to read the labels as things like caramelised (sugary!) onions and honey sneak in to many flavours
 
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I am gluten-free, so I've looked at lots of packages for it. For sausages, I just stick the the very high meat options which appear to be gluten-free without any flour etc. My usually excellent butcher doesn't make their own GF sausages, due to their fears for cross-contamination. A few weeks ago I bought some of their bought in GF sausages when my OH fancied sausages. They were highly flavour-free and bland. bland, bland. I keep thinking I should make my own.
 
Donner kebabs are a good choice, have it with mayo rather than some of the other sauces which may contain sugar and as you said leave the bread.
For a chinese I go for crispy duck, use the nearest smidge of sauce and only have one or two of the pancakes.
 
When away from home I often get a cooked chicken from Tesco a pack of salad and a tub of coleslaw. I do always pack a small stove and things for making coffee and tea, even for short trips. I have been known to take along a bag of frozen cauliflower, a chunk of cheese and a grater, a pot of cream and a steamer. The cauliflower keeps things cool, until it melts, and then it can be made into cauliflower cheese.
I do hate to be dependent upon being able to find things I like when off in somewhere unfamiliar.
 
You guys are all stars, she can be really funny with meat so the indian seems to be the best way to go, avoiding the fruity / sweet dishes, lots of mango and pineapple in stuff like kashmiri.

Great to find out there's lots of lowish carb veg options anyway, also something worth investigating for at home, may have to do a few veg curries in the slow cooker!

By the way @HSSS , a good Korma shouldn't have sugar in it , it should be korma spices and coconut milk mostly but a lot of less skilled cooks / takeaways just use sugar as it's cheaper, whereas proper chefs and restraunts normally do it the traditional way.
( Used to work for an indian takeaway)
 
If it’s an Indian, I usually go for a prawn vindaloo and a mushroom bhaji instead of rice/naan/whatever. With a poppadom and ALL THE LIME PICKLE it usually comes in at 12g carbs.
 
You're making good choices, and I'm jealous of your UK McDonalds' salads... They have a different supplier here, and they toss in a lot of corn and very, very sugary dressing. If I have 3 huge bunless burgers there I'm still well under the carbcount of a single Dutch salad. You still have the old style salads, which I love and miss. But yes, bunless, (no fries or batter), salad, eggy dishes, veggie based dishes are usually fine. And the snackoptions you came up with are good too. And keep in mind that if sugars do go up because of a miscomminucation with the kitchen, they aren't going to stay up for very long. (They gave me a sugary coke once and I didn't realise it until half of that half litre drink was already downed. If you get right back on the horse, no harm, no faul).
 
Wishing you a wonderful holiday! Sounds like you've got a lot of tips and tricks to tackle the fastfood, and please don't be too hard on yourself if you make a mistake or two, learning simply takes time
 
I have chip shop fish and scrape the batter off with a knife. It takes a couple of seconds. I don't have chips but I do have some peas. If the fish is small, she could have two.
 
Personally if that was me just diagnosed I would enjoy the holiday and the food and not worry to much about low carb. 3 more days of carbs will not make it any worse or better. Lowering carbs should be done gradually not all at once it is better for the body to adjust to it that way to much to soon and she could feel really unwell what they call carb flu. Better to start doing it when you get home
 
We're back off holiday !

Food wise my other half went with

Cheeseburger (Minus the bun)
Vegetarian Curry ( we went for rogan josh and asked for no potato , so there was nothing sweet and packed full of tasty veg!)
Kebab without the bread

Came home to find the glucose meter arrived, measured in at just 6.4mmol, and after tonight's dinner only raised to 6.5mmol!
 
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