Mother-Daughter Date at Cafe Zupas

Before I write a little about my first mother-daughter lunch, I want you all to know that my goal is to provide others (parents or not) with ideas for healthy eating options outside of the home. I will try to focus on large chain stores and restaurants so it’s relevant to you, however, I am not going to eat some place if I can’t find something healthy for my daughter and I to eat. Our first lunch out, for example, is a very small chain restaurant. Because of this, I plan on providing insights in this post and others like it so that it can be as relevant to you as possible. In any case, you get to see pictures of my adorable daughter ;)

Speaking of my adorable daughter… now that she is a little bit older (she’s almost a year and a half!), I have decided to take her on weekly Mother-Daughter dates. I am LOVING our time together! It won’t always be centered around food, but when it is…I’m excited to share my finds with all of you!

I have noticed that is can be a little hard to find a place that we can go out to eat where we can find healthy food. I’m not looking for chicken nuggets fried in who-knows-what kind of oil (Mac & Cheese and/or Chicken Nuggets seem to be a staple for Kid’s Menus). I’m looking for real food that my daughter and I can both enjoy. It doesn’t have to be organic, but healthy would be nice, right?

First stop…Cafe Zupas! 

For those of you that don’t know…Cafe Zupas is a gourmet salad, pannini, and soup restaurant. It’s delicious food that is made fresh. If you live in Arizona, Nevada, or Utah…you might just be in luck to live close enough to a Zupas. For restaurant information, check out there website: cafezupas.com

Healthy Mother-Daughter Lunch Date

When my daughter and I went to Cafe Zupas, it was a late lunch for me and snack time for my daughter. I ordered the Nuts about Berries Salad and I ordered a fruit cup for my daughter . My daughter loved the fruit – fresh grapes and mandarin oranges. The mandarin oranges were…well, canned. Not ideal because of the possibility that it was soaked in sugar or corn syrup…but I realize it’s not the worst thing in the world either. I think the next time I go there I’ll ask for just grapes in the fruit cup or ask for a different fruit – anything that wasn’t canned!

My daughter ended up seeing the fruit in my salad and she recognized the strawberries, blackberries, raspberries, and blueberries and starting to grab for them! I ended up giving her some, which I didn’t mind at all.

Here’s a picture of the two of us when we were done eating. It was around this time that I realized we needed to do this more often!

Where do YOU like to take your little ones on a lunch date? I’d love to hear from you!

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