Sunday, January 16, 2011

The lost days of brunch





Do you remember going out to Sunday brunch? It meant a leisurely meal. A latte. A mimosa. Smoked salmon, mixed greens with candied walnuts and balsamic vinaigrette. Sitting on an outdoor patio, making sleepy conversation or reading the Sunday paper. Remember? I do, although it is all growing a little hazy.






Of course these days, the mere idea of brunch is somewhat preposterous. When your day starts at 7am, waiting until noon for a breakfast-lunch combo seems pretty insane. So we often go out for just plain lunch on the weekend. But the kids idea of good food, and my idea of a nice meal are a little different. Where as I like gourmet salads and nice coffee, the boys go for any place that serves chocolate milk in a cheap plastic cup with a lid and a straw. The kids usually win. Subway is popular with the family. Tasteless sandwich "meat" on soft bread, masked with a variety of high sodium condiments, and of course chocolate milk. Everyone is happy. Yay.


A new restaurant on the radar is Fuddruckers, or Funruckers as Evan calls it. We happened by one on a recent outing and the kids are hooked. What's not to like? Zack loves the fact that he can top is hamburger with as many pickles as he likes from the endless condiment bar. Evan enjoys the creamy Velveeta like mac & cheese, and Daddy likes that it's cheap. I of course find myself scanning the menu for something that would pass as healthy and find the whole thing a huge exercise in will power.

Yes, I usually try and pick the lightest items on the menu, and it drives my husband crazy. He insists that I always get the worst thing possible and end up unhappy. I try and remind him that I am not nearly as bad as I could be. We used to have a diet-conscious friend who claimed to like Mexican food, yet she would always order a cheese quesadilla with "very little cheese please." So what's left? A toasted tortilla? Yum. I'm not that bad.


So today I ordered the basic grilled chicken sandwich and side salad. I topped off the sandwich with about a million pickles, banana peppers, tomatoes and salsa so that it looked like this:









Not bad. No baguette with freshly made raspberry preserves... but those days are long gone.

5 comments:

  1. Wishing I could eat one of those right about now! Brunch…in days of yore…at ye olde brunche shoppe…when I was but a lass…

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  2. See, this is another example of why my body's One Child Policy is actually a good thing. It's much easier to force one child to go to brunch or fancy meals. We've even taken him on date night where he's slept in a chair.

    Plus, I refuse to go to Subway.

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  3. Yum! We have a favorite restaurant like that. Chicken Tenders, Pizza as well as gourmet items for grown ups. Another slightly pricier go-to favorite is Cheesecake Factory.

    Cheap is good!

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  4. I remember the Sunday Brunch days fondly, but mine usually included a bellini. Great post!

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  5. Love reading your blog! It's nice to know that I'm not the only mom who doesn't force feed my children tofu and pureed veggies. At the moment, I'm just thankful that my three year old is eating after a month of barely touching any food....even if it is TV dinners.

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