Frugal Foodie: Healthy and Budget-Friendly Fast Food

Since the fire, our biggest focus has been on finding the right place to live, getting the kids back into a normal routine and scheduling times to meet with the plethora of kind-hearted people who have reached out to help us rebuild. 

That means cooking has really been on the back burner.  Even when we wanted to cook, we couldn’t because we didn’t have the right supplies—no pots, no seasonings, no dishes, and, until Tuesday of this week, no gas to power the stove!

Needless to say, McDonald’s, Wendy’s and even Chic-fil-a got old after the first few days.  This sent me on a hunt to find new and healthier, fast food alternatives.  I was pleasantly surprised to discover the following new-to-me restaurants that offered healthy, fast menu options that are also reasonably budget friendly.

EVOS

EVOS is a restaurant located in the Prado Shopping center on Roswell Road, right inside the perimeter.  It’s about a 15 minute drive down 400 for those of you who live near historic downtown Roswell and completely worth the drive if you’re looking for a healthier fast food option. The salads here are phenomenal, but if you have a taste for a burger and fries, EVOS has you covered.  They use something called an airbaking technique to create their burgers and their fries.  I don’t know what that is exactly, but it’s supposed to reduce the fat by 70%.  There may be less fat, but you still get all the flavor!  EVOS is also very environmentally friendly, using organics produce, naturally raised beef and poultry and fresh ingredients.  With careful selection, we spent about $30 to feed our family of 5.

Whole Foods

Okay, so Whole Foods isn’t exactly a fast food restaurant.  We don’t normally shop there because even though everything is organic, environmentally friendly, etc., etc., the prices are just not-so-budget friendly for us.  However, the Roswell Whole Foods was just a few miles away from the extended-stay hotel we stayed in on Hembree Road, so we wandered in to pick up some fruit for the kids to snack on and ended up picking up dinner from their “Prepared Foods” section.  I picked up a tomato soup that was amazing, hubby created a great salad from the salad bar and the kids had whole grain pita wrapped sandwiches that they really enjoyed.  We spent approximately $20 for the prepared food and we were all satisfied with our choices.  One note: the salad bar is sold by the weight so be careful how much you add to your container or you’ll end up with an $8 salad (like my sweet hubby).

Fishook Grille

Again, this isn’t a fast food restaurant.  It is, however, a budget-friendly restaurant that serves good-for-you food fast. Fishook’s serves a wide range of grilled fish entrees and none are over $10! I was happy to discover they serve fantastic fish tacos, while the hubby was pleased by their grilled tilapia.  I talked the kids into trying the sweet potato fries which were also a hit (along with the grilled zucchini!).  We spent slightly under $30 for the whole family and everyone came away happy, which is always a miracle with my family of picky-eaters.  An added benefit:  if you’re in a real hurry, you can place a to-go order online and it’ll be ready when you get there.