Do you consider dining out “cheating” or do you just shy away from going out altogether when trying to eat well?
I’d like to introduce to you WooFood, a Worcester non-profit whose mission is to make the healthful option the easy choice when dining out. WooFood uses a restaurant certification process to ensure that dishes meet specific health criteria and offer the Dinner for Now, Tomorrow’s Chow program which provides the option to wrap up half your dish to go, before it’s served to you-making portion control easy!
Now that you know the basics, let’s take a WooFood certified dining adventure through the city. We’ll start the morning with the mouth watering Spinach-Feta Wrap at Nu Café. The whole grain wrap is packed with the delicious protein of eggs and the rich flavors of basil, scallion and diced tomatoes. After reading the paper and listening to the various languages that fill the café during the morning hours, we head over to the Tower Hill Botanic Garden.
Here, we explore the beauty of the gardens and catch up on some reading in their library. After taking in the sites for a couple of hours, we’ve worked up an appetite. We head to the WooFood certified, Café Manzi’s and we’re faced with a tough decision trying to decide which of their savory dishes to order. Finally, we’ve decided on the Grilled Vegetable Panini which offers a sensational mix of onions, roasted red peppers and zucchini and is sure to satisfy our craving! After lunch it’s straight to Elm Park to enjoy some fresh air on this crisp fall day. A game of Frisbee is underway and we’re quick to join the fun.
As the sun sets, we make plans with friends to meet at Flying Rhino for dinner. It’s hard to believe, but all that Frisbee playing and fresh has made us hungry again. I don’t know about you, but I am excited to enjoy a healthful night out with friends! Knowing that our plans include a sweet treat after dinner, we ask the waiter to wrap half our meal to go before it’s served. We’re thrilled that the Flying Rhino’s classic Ivory Tusk sandwich is available in a more healthful WooFood certified version because this is exactly what we are craving. It even includes a side of their famous broccoli slaw!
After dinner, we take the short walk up Shrewsbury Street to Alina Eisenhauer’s dessert bar, Sweet. Here we cap off the wonderful evening with friends by indulging in red wine poached pears. It’s a light treat that satisfies the sweet tooth.
Thanks to WooFood we were able to eat all three meals out in a healthful and satisfying manner. It’d be a shame to forget that we also have half an Ivory Tusk sandwich for tomorrow! While I know it’s unlikely you’ll dine out for all three meals in a day, you’ll definitely be missing out if you don’t check out a WooFood certified restaurant soon!
For a complete listing of WooFood certified restaurants or to learn more, check us out at woofood.org!
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