As you probably know by now, I’m a breadslave, that meaning I work at Panera Bread. Panera has been voted the #1 for healthiest eating on the go in my area, but that’s only if you’re INFORMED of what our healthiest choices are. With Panera Bread taking the world by storm (everyone is obsessed for some reason), get informed and make healthy choices. With this information from an Associate Trainer insider, you’ll be on the road to eating healthy on the go at one of the most popular fast food restaurants in the nation.
BREAKFAST
While you want to get energy and a good start to your day, you don’t want to spend a ton of calories to get that boost.
Choose: Whole grain bagel (370 calories) & reduced fat plain cream cheese (130 calories). Get your coffee/juice and you have a breakfast meal for less than 500 calories and 15g of fat. Plus the whole grain bagel packs 8g of dietary fiber.
Ignore: Grilled Sausage, Egg, and Cheese Sandwich (550 calories and 30g of fat!!). The ciabatta bread doesn’t have much fiber and sausage is the fattiest breakfast meat. If you MUST have a breakfast sandwich choose the Breakfast power sandwich with a much more modest 330 calories and 14g of fat. The whole grain bread will keep you full.
LUNCH/DINNER
Lunch and dinner are a little trickier. If you’re going to have a heavy meal choose it for lunch so you’re not going to sleep after wards. Eating heavy meals after 8pm can cause weight gain. For dinner go a little lighter with a salad or soup.
Choose: Low Fat Vegetarian Black Bean Soup (200 calories and 2g of fat.) This is my go to meal when I’m working. It keeps you sustained and tastes great. Get a side of whole grain baguette (150 calories and 1.5g of fat) and you’ll have a fiber packed meal.
Choose: Smoked Turkey Breast Sandwich without Mayo (460 calories, 6g of fat). Getting rid of just the mayo saves you over 100 calories. The veggies will help to keep you full and the mustard gives some flavor.
Choose:Classic Cafe Salad (170 calories and 11g of fat). The fat grams come from the balsamic dressing. Add chicken on the salad for 110 calories (pepper mustard chicken).
Ignore: Baked Potato Soup (350 calories and 21g fat!!), Frontega Chicken Panini (860 calories and 39g of fat), Italian Combo Sandwich (1040 calories and 45g of fat), and Chopped Chicken Cobb Salad (490 calories and 35g of fat).
So, you can see that there are healthy choices and not so healthy choices. We might have gotten voted as #1 for healthiest on the go eating, but remember than nothing is healthier than brown bagging it, and it saves your money as well.
Pick the healthy choice options when you visit my job and you’ll get to keep your figure. Remember, anything titled “panini, creamy, cheesy, or breaded” tastes great, but is not the best option for you.
Wow, thanks for the info! It’s always nice to get more info on healthy(ier) eating. I’ve never been into a Panera Bread… bread is my weekness!! But I guess if I’m eating it, I might as well learn my best choices
[Reply]
I love Panera Bread! My favorite salad is the Greek Chicken.
I don’t know how many calories that has though. lol I haven’t been there for breakfast yet but I love bagels so I’ll have to hit them up sometime.
[Reply]
I see those commericals for Panera Bread all the time and their food looks REALLY good.
Those sound like some great choices you listed.
[Reply]
Ohhh it just shows how unhealthy I am. Hahaha. Sometimes I tend to eat after 8pm and grab a midnight snack coz I get super hungry on those hours. Sheesh. Thanks for this post, though… i’d have to keep them in mind to be in tip top shape
[Reply]
Yes, weheartit.com is only for photos:)
Thanks for the tips:) Great post:)
[Reply]
Thanks for posting this, i LOVE LOVE LOVE panera bread, now I have an idea what to get that’s somewhat healthy! (Though i’m not gonna lie, I don’t think i could ever give up the broccoli cheese soup..haha!)
[Reply]
Who cares if its the best for you, sometimes the bad stuff is just so much better that you can’t be bothered to eat healthy.
[Reply]
Oh Panera… today was my last day until I can pick up shifts again in the winter time.
Definitely ignore the clam chowder too. It has more than enough of your sodium daily needs and has 420 calories for each bowl.
Not only is the whole grain packed with fiber, it even has 13 g of protein. I love it but I tend to get the veggie cream cheese with it which actually has less calories and a smaller amount of fat in it
Great post thought! Being voted “healthiest” is a tad deceiving because people think that means EVERYTHING we sell is healthy. Not true. They still have to watch out… The Italian Combo is so incredibly unhealthy. I don’t think I’ve ever eaten it.
[Reply]
I’ve never been to Panera Bread before, they don’t have they in the UK, but I have noticed a lot of people on Twitter talking about it!
I think the best option, if you’re ever going to eat out, is to check the nutritional information on the companies websites (even if they claim to be ‘healthy’, because as you said quite a few of the options probably won’t be). Most fast food chains have them, although some are more well hidden than others. I rarely eat fast food because I don’t think that it’s worth the expense, but when I do I always check the nutritional info before so I know what to have
[Reply]
I love that someone actually spelled it out for me, in normal-people-speak! I looove Panera. Although I’m trying so hard to be healthy, it’s REALLY hard to ignore those bread bowls. I could eat the soup and the bowl in one sitting. TASTY!!
[Reply]
Great post, Christine.
I’ve never been to a Panera before.
I don’t even think they have them in Canada?
Some of that stuff sounds delish though!
[Reply]
I’ve never been to Panera before, but the vegetarian black bean soup sounds heavenly!
[Reply]
I’ve never heard of that store before. They probably don’t have it where I live. It sounds a bit like Subway though. I agree, people think because the media says some place is healthy people assume that it doesn’t matter what you buy there. But you always have to make the right choices or what you think is healthy may not be.
[Reply]
I admit I’ve never been to Panera (we don’t have it in Australia), but I think your advice is very useful in general as well. It seems so easy to convince people that every item on the menu at “healthy options” fast food joints is good for them when in fact some of them can be just as bad for you as McDonalds or Burger King! I shudder to think of what’s in that Italian combo sandwich though, considering the calorie count…for a place that’s supposed to be healthy that’s a heck of a lot of calories! Lol.
[Reply]
We don’t have one here
But with that freakin amazing list, I wish we did! I would totally be down 10 lbs! easssily, haha. I just need to be more informed on these sort of things.
Also, I’ve noticed that this post was created on Sept 24th. It’s now the 12th of October. What’s happenin’ woman??
:)
[Reply]
Too bad the other choices sound soo much more delicious though. =P We don’t have a Panera here though.
[Reply]
Hey there! ¿Sabe usted si hacen ningún plugin para proteger contra
los piratas informáticos? Estoy un poco paranoica de perder todo lo que he trabajado
duro. ¿Algún consejo? Hey there! ¿Sabe usted si hacen algún complemento a la
protección contra los hackers? Estoy un poco paranoica de perder todo lo que
He trabajado duro. ¿Algún consejo?
[Reply]
Hello! I just would like to give a huge thumbs up for the great info you have here on this post. I will be coming back to your blog for more soon.
[Reply]