Clean Eating Choices at Denny's?

Yesterday was my son's kindergarten graduation. As a special treat, I told him he could pick what we were having for dinner. He opted for brinner, which called for a trip to Denny's.

The Peanut Butter Cup Pancake is not
necessarily a healthy choice

I chose the Grand Slam Breakfast, which I could share with the baby and thus avoid having to order another meal. I like the Grand Slam because you truly can make the best healthy choices that Denny's has to offer. Although, that's not saying a lot considering that at Denny's, they also have a Peanut Butter Cup Pancake, which can be ordered with a side of sausage, bacon, or both.

My choices were scrambled egg whites, harvest wheat pancakes, grits (hold the butter), and, the least healthy choice, hashbrowns. I ate roughly half of everything except the pancakes, of which I only had a total of about half of one. The toddler was well satisfied with her food, and the six-year-old and husband finished off most of the rest - except for the grits. For some reason, I'm the only one in my family that really enjoys them.

Something else I found about Denny's is that sugar free syrup is not advertised, but it is available. It is definitely not clean eating, though. I read through the ingredients list when the bottle was brought to me and found that the only pronounceable item was water. I used it anyway, because even half of a pancake without syrup is just wrong.

In the end, I found that it is probably not possible to eat totally whole foods at Denny's if you are there to order breakfast - and the kindergarten graduate told us all that we had no choice but to order breakfast last night - rules are rules! But I held as close to my plan as possible and managed to consume foods that were mostly healthy, pretty tasty, and reasonably priced.

As for the six-year-old, I'm proud to say that he made mostly healthy choices all on his own. He ordered the  Junior Slam, which allows you to mix and match three items, much like the adult's Grand Slam. Along with the so-not-healthy sausage, he chose scrambled egg whites and yogurt with fresh strawberries. That's quite an accomplishment when you consider that, at Denny's, chocolate syrup is available on everything.