On Judging Books By Their Covers: Don’t.

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Lately, I’ve been keeping track of what I eat on the iPod Touch I received for my birthday last November (thanks, Jim!). Keeping track of every crumb that goes into my mouth makes me think twice about my food choices.

The last couple of days have been rainy around here, and instead of going on a nice, long walk while the younger boy is at indoor lacrosse practice (which is almost 30 minutes from my house and too far to run home in between), I’ve been sitting at Starbucks with my laptop, getting some work done on my book. Yesterday I found a Panera Bread location near the practice location and decided to go there instead.

I walked up to the counter to order a lemonade, and scanned the pastry items that were on display. I immediately honed in on my absolute favorite Panera treat, the chocolate croissant. (My mouth is even watering as I type this: THAT’S how much I love them.)

And then I took a pause and thought about how painful it would be when I got home and picked up my iPod Touch, to enter “Panera chocolate croissant” in my calorie-tracking program.

I stood there for a few minutes, trying to find another treat that looked good to me, that might be the lesser of two evils, finally settling on a cookie. The “chocolate duet with walnuts” cookie looked awesome, and it was “regular-sized”, so I figured I’d be safe with that. I asked the girl behind the counter if they were chewy or hard, and she picked one up with the bakery paper and replied, “Chewy.”

SOLD!

I took my cookie (on a plate) and lemonade to a table and enjoyed them over the next hour until it was time to go pick up the younger boy.

When I got home, I had an awakening of the worst kind. I pulled out my iPod, started up my calorie-counting program, and typed in “Panera Chocolate Duet cookie”. What I saw was HORRIFYING, and I had to check the website to be sure that my program wasn’t off.

It wasn’t. Check this out:

pbcookie
Yes, you read that right: FOUR HUNDRED AND FIFTY CALORIES for one cookie. ONE COOKIE!!!

Shocking, right?

Well, now I know. It just goes to show you, you can’t judge a book by its cover.

And by the way, that chocolate croissant? Only 440 calories. I should have treated myself to that, instead. Pfft.

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©2010 Suburban Scrawl

10 Comments

  • Huckdoll

    And 24g of fat! Shocking. I echo Kat's lard question.

    I love that nutritional info is so readily available in this day in age. Eating out isn't as enjoyable knowing I'm about to consume my daily fat and calorie requirement in one sitting. Yeah, it makes you think.

  • Mom24

    I had a feeling that was where this was going to end up. Wow! I hope it was a really, really, delicious, throw caution-to-the-wind incredible cookie.

  • Tara R.

    It is just so unfair that the foods that are so incredibly delicious are the ones that carry the power to pack on their caloric count in poundage. I want chocolate decadence that is both scrumptious and no-calorie. We have the technology! Or at least we should.

  • Mags

    Yowzers!!! That's craziness. I wonder what the heck they put in them! Was it super decadent and delicious? Wow.

    Today I marveled at how little I am craving on this diet. I think it's because there is a huge variety of foods and I get desserts and crunchy snacks AND I get to eat cheese, which is really my favorite thing ever. Today though, I totally wanted McDonald's fries-I can imagine the sound they make when biting into their salty, greasy goodness.

    OK. I gotta stop!!

  • WeaselMomma

    That's a dirty mean trick! What on earth can they possibly put in that cookie to get a calorie count that high!

  • Heather

    I'm with Weaselmomma, WTH did they PUT in that cookie? OH YUMMM though. I've been craving chocolate recently, and you know me– I can't HAVE any. FAIL. I hope you enjoyed it for you, AND ME 🙂

  • PJ Mullen

    Egads, that is my favorite cookie from Panera, oh well, looks like that is off the list too.

    When my son was first born I'd be so busy that I wouldn't eat all day. Probably once a week when I was out running errands I'd hit chickfila. I'd get a #1 with a diet coke and a vanilla milkshake. After getting diagnosed with diabetes I started reading up on things to see what I could occasionally 'treat' myself to once things got under control.

    Well, my little once a week indulgence was more fat, carbs and calories than I needed in two days, let alone one meal. It was nearly 2,500 calories in total. Needless to say I don't eat like that anymore.

  • Michelle

    Mmmm chocolate croissants. Did you say something after that? I got stuck. Mmmm. Yum. Flaky and chocolatey and just a little bit chewy. Mmmm chocolate croissants.