If you’re near Gaithersburg then Ixta for tacos.

Anonymous wrote:Five Guys is notoriously expensive and not good.

If you want healthy options and can stick to them, Golden Corral before 4 pm is a bargain on weekdays.

It used to be a cheap meal. 3-4 burgers and a large fries and we were good. Now it’s quite expensive. 😞

Buy one whole pizza from costco. Eat with salad and fruits.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:This is OP. Thank you for these ideas! We both love Chipotle, and I love Cava but my kid really does not. And feeding her is 99% of the point. So unfortunately that's a no go. Same with Seoul Spice. I love it. She does not.

Get one bowl from chipotle with double meat and split it.

I do this with my kid often...not necessarily Chipotle, but any fast casual place. Even the more expensive ones, and I don't typically double the meat. The portions are usually huge at these places.

We aren't on a budget, it's just that I don't like wasting so much food.

We split chipotle bowls 2 ways, sometimes we even split it 3 ways.
Same with Cava bowls

Ghetto Chinese take-out.

Anonymous wrote:Mcdonalds is gross and Subway too..! It wss have been okay when we were uoung but it is not even real food and filled with chemicals and toxins. I don’t touch that crap with a
ten foot pole but that ia why I make all my food and snacks at home. No gross cancer causing chemicals..

+1. I side-eye all the comments on this forum when they recommend low grade trash. A lot of people claim to drink McDonald's coffee too. I wouldn't be caught dead in a McDonald's or their drive thru. Have some self respect.

Go to a diner.

We love Moby Dick's. Sometimes on Door Dash they have a buy one get one for a few of their meals. We do pick up to not pay delivery fees. It

Anonymous wrote:Go to the prepared dinner section of Harris teeter, it’s along the deli area. I believe they’re called HT Traders Ready Made Meals. They look like frozen meals - in a black container with a plastic lid, but they’re refrigerator. They are SO good and a quick microwave heat up. They taste like homemade cooking and are great portions and not crazy calories. I like the meatloaf, spaghetti and meatballs, chicken fajitas, etc so many good options! Try them!

Shhhh don’t tell people about these, I don’t want them to sell out of my favorites

Mcdonalds is gross and Subway too..! It wss have been okay when we were uoung but it is not even real food and filled with chemicals and toxins. I don’t touch that crap with a
ten foot pole but that ia why I make all my food and snacks at home. No gross cancer causing chemicals..

Plus one on the pollo Rico. Yum.
I do find that fast casual places have increased the most in price and now just are t a good value for what you get. Even though it’s ridiculously expensive, I feel like there’s better value at like chop’t because it’s a ton of veggies and veggies are expensive anyway. Most of these places are giving you carbs that are super cheap and then charging you $10 for it. I think the chipotle kids meal is a particularly bad deal for what you get — agree with PP that getting double meat and splitting a bowl is a better deal.
Also, this sounds really cheap but look at sides. Last time we got uncle Julio’s, I reared a bunch of extra refried beans and tortillas as sides. They were honestly better than the expensive enchiladas and were super duper cheap. I decided next time I will just order a ton of tortillas and beans to go! Every restaurant is different but at some you’re better off getting one entire and then fill it out with more sides (like a a side of extra meatballs—I think you can do that at mama Luisa’s for instance.)

Paisanos has excellent sandwiches and they are pretty decently priced but I guess it’s not particularly healthy. Maybe bring a bag of carrots in the car to even it out!

If you can access an oven, the prepared meals at grocery store or Costco are definitely more affordable. But understand that can’t always happen.

Anonymous wrote:Oh- also taking advantge of kids meals. The kid meal at Chipotle is pretty good. I'd go in and order two kids meals.

Or there aren't as many of these around anymore but Qdoba had some good deals - the kids nachos is the perfect size.

You could also dearch this on instagram. I see reels of people suggesting what to order and how to mix things to maximize what you get.

Oh yeah, I had the kids bowl at Mezeh and it was plenty of food for me. Since you’re doing takeout you don’t have to prove you’re 12

If you do go to McDonald’s use the app, they give you deals. And definitely collect points on apps everywhere. The Wendy’s biggie bag is a good deal.

MOD and split a pizza.
Subway and split a foot long sub.
Super Chicken or Moby Dick family meal
Panera soup with bread.

super chicken