A Tampa Lifestyle, Travel & Green Living Blog - Back to Calley

Welcome to Moe’s!

By:

Giveaway alert! Register to win a $25 gift certificate to Moe’s Southwest Grill at the bottom of this post.  ECO-ngratulations Summer!  You win!

Fast food? Sure we all have to endure it on occasion with the hectic lives we live.  What if fast food didn’t come with a drive-thru and was actually…well…healthy?  G-A-S-P, did I just fast food and healthy in the same sentence?  In a dream world there would be more places like Moe’s Southwest Grill; but even that has it’s downside.

Did you know that Moe’s food mission was to bring you and your family a more delicious and healthy eating option?  Their new menu is boasting with options like low calorie, gluten free, and vegetarian selections?  They don’t use any animal fat, lard, or MSG in the cooking process!  And with over 20 fresh ingredients prepared daily your family can enjoy organic, hormone-free, meat and vegetables. Here is just a glimpse into how Moe’s is turning the fast food market into a more healthy market:

  • Steak: grass-fed, no hormones added
  • Chicken: all-natural, cage and hormone-free
  • Pork: Hormone-free, steroid-free, grain-fed
  • Sour cream: rBGH free
  • Pico de gallo: handmade fresh daily from ripe tomatoes (not canned)
  • Guacamole: 100% Haas avocado’s (my favorite)
  • Whole grain tortillas
  • Black and pinto beans
  • Gluten-free: sour cream, chicken, steak, pork and a variety of other ingredients are all gluten-free
  • Tofu: organic and vegetarian

While Moe’s does a great job at integrating a healthier diet into our lives by making it more accessible and affordable there is one thing that caused me heartache on my recent visit…all that trash! Everything is served up fast food style which includes plastic (reusable) baskets lined with paper, burrito’s wrapped in foil, styrofoam cups and plastic lids for side dishes, paper cups, plastic lids, and straws!  By the end of our meal the mound of trash was enough to make me cry – and it all went right into the trash!! I’m sure they may be saving operating costs but there really has to be a better way, especially since they strive on their sustainability.

It’s not all about the waste though, Moe’s is doing good things in the food industry.  They have also joined forces with the Meatless Monday campaign to reduce our individual meat consumption by 15% each week.  Eating less meat helps us live a healthier life and treats the planet with a little extra TLC.  Eating less meat will help us reduce our carbon footprint, reduce our water consumption, and reduce our fossil fuel dependence.  Amazing what changing our diets one day a week can do for the Earth.  To learn more please visit Meatless Mondays where they have a ton of information on the movement along with a large selection of meatless recipes for your Mondays (or any day).

In honor of Meatless Monday, Moe’s and Earth Day I’m treating my family to a day with no meat!

Breakfast: Their usual – frozen pancakes or cereal depending on their moods.

Lunch: Lil’ B gets her lunch packed by me so it looks like a PB&J kinda day with some fruit and cheese.  Big B gets his lunch from school so I’ll let him decide how to handle that.  I’ll probably just grab a quick salad and the spouse – well he’s on his own!

Dinner: Black Bean Pasta Rollups (from our e-mealz <affiliate> recipes for last week)

Or we could just go to Moe’s and get one of their meatless burrito’s like the Art Vandalay!!!

GIVEAWAY!!! Win a $25 gift certificate to Moe’s Southwest Grill and enjoy your own Meatless Monday. Simply tell me if your family does a meatless day during the week – share a tip or two with the readers and myself.

ECO-NGRATULATIONS SUMMER! YOU WIN!!!

Bonus entries: (Leave one comment for each extra entry completed)

Giveaway ends on Monday, April 25th (2011) at midnight ET.  Contest open to anyone over the age of 18 who is a resident of the US.

 

Disclosure: I was provided a special prize package along with a $25 gift certificate good at Moe’s Southwest Grill.  The opinions expressed in this post are my own.





You may also like...

Default ThumbnailHealthier to you Potato and Ham Soup Recipe Default ThumbnailSquare One (Pumpkin) Mac-n-Cheese Recipe Default ThumbnailWaste-Free Lunch Containers – Fun With Lunch Series French Press 101 TheEcoChicFrench Press 101 – How to brew a perfect cup of coffee at home! Seattles Best Orange CoffeeFloridians add what to their coffee??

Comments

  1. I never was a big fan of Moe’s until recently… when I discovered how to make my already very weird food choices ever more my style and the guys who work there were totally cool about it. I LOVE LOVE LOVE how they offer whole wheat options and low fat, non meat choices for those of us who don’t eat meat products and are trying to maintain our weight!

    And, I don’t eat the chips (too many calories) so when I tell them that when I order, they always fill my taco with extra vegetables. But shhh… don’t ruin it for me though. It’s my secret! 🙂

    As for what we do to go mealtless once a week, we actually do this twice a week. One day a week, we eat breakfast for dinner — waffles or pancakes (with FAKE bacon and sausage for my husband) and one night is just a pasta night — something different ever week but just pasta and sauce with homemade bread (made by me — in a breadmaker) with a vegetable. Most other mights, I eat alone… I make soup for myself and they eat chicken or steak or meatloaf or something.

    Not very exciting but I never eat meat and it allows me to show the other people in my house it can be done — they can eat a meal without meat.

  2. We love Moe’s!

    We don’t do a specific meatless day, and not always one day a week, but I do try to incorporate meatless meals in our menu plan on a regular basis. Often around here that means we have pancakes or waffles for dinner (the kids love those nights!).

    Thanks for a chance to win the GC!

  3. We always have a meatless day during the week, though I never specifically plan for it. I just know that my low grocery budget will keep us eating well throughout the entire month if we have dishes like loaded omelets, bean burritos, and rice dishes a few times.

  4. I don’t think we have a Moe’s that I know of here in Portland, OR but sounds interesting. We do have meatless monday’s (well some weeks it’s not mondays) and I blog about it. I follow you and meatless monday campaign so it was kinda shocking to see the two brought together 🙂

    Soup has been great for meatless monday in the winter but now that spring is here I’m looking forward to grilled veggie burgers/veggies and iced sun tea or if we are in a hurry my go-to is just tofu and broccoli stir fry (my kids LOVE tofu). We love organic wheat soba noodles with veggies and they are great cold with veggie pot stickers… and most importantly egg-less crazy cake makes divine dessert!

    Good luck to everyone trying out or keeping up with meatless monday!

  5. We don’t do it every week, but I do try to sneak it in every couple of weeks at least 🙂 Usually in the form of soup (I love lentil soup!), non-meat breakfast foods, or bean & rice burritos.

  11. I don’t do a meatless day in my family I’ve actually never thought about it. I do have an agruement with a bit though coming from a cattle raising family I think like with veggies we could seek out local options also.

  13. I don’t specifically plan for a meatless monday meal. We do try and have one at least once a week cause I am a huge fan of pasta. We also like to have breakfast for dinner. I think every family should have that a few times a month. It is so fun and yummy.