Day 79: McDonalds

     These past couples years McDonalds has gotten a bad rap from contributing to obesity in children and adults alike. Today I was browsing fast food sites to see if any of them unintentionally carried vegan friendly food, and was surprised to find that McDonalds not only offered an easily accessible list of the ingredients and nutritional information for all their food on their site, but they also had a couple vegan friendly dishes as well.

Vegan Friendly Foods at McDonalds


Sides: 
     * Side Salad - mixed greens tossed with grape tomatoes and shaved carrots
                 Salad add-ins: Chili Lime Tortilla strips, Diced Apples, Grape Tomatoes, Leaf Lettuce, Lime
                                         Wedge, Salas Mix
                 Dressings: Newman's Own Low Fat Balsamic Vinaigrette, Cilantro Lime Glaze
      * Low fat granola (has honey)

Breakfast:
      * Potato Vegetable Blend
      * Bagel
      * Oatmeal (request without cream)
      * Oatmeal with brown sugar (request without cream)

Condiments: Sweet 'N Sour Sauce, Barbecue Sauce, Chipolte Barbecue Sauce (has honey), Honey, Ketchup, Mustard, Grape Jam, Liquid Margarine, McRib Sauce, and Strawberry Preservatives.

Dessert:
     * Baked Apple Pie - spiced with cinnamon, and baked with flaky pastry
     * McDonalds Cookies - Children's cookies with the faced of various McDonald characters on them


Drinks:
         Sodas: Coca-Cola, Sprite, and Diet Coke
         Juice: Orange Juice, and Minute Maid Apple Juice Box
         Coffee: Premium Roast Coffee, and Espresso
         Other: Ice Tea, Sweet Tea, Powerade Mountain Blast, Hi-C Orange Lavaburst, and Dasini Water


    McDonalds employees are trained to accommodate customer requests to custom-ordered items without meat. So you can always ask for a salad without meat or cheese, and ask for it to be topped with Newman's Own Low Fat Balsamic Vinaigrette. For made to order here is a list of other vegan items on the menu that you can mix and match to your pleasing.

Made to Order:


       * Big Mac Bun
       * Crinkle Cut Pickle Slices
       * English Muffin
       * Four Tortilla
       * Honey Wheat Roll (has honey)
       * Lettuce
       * McRib Bun
       * Onions
       * Premium Bun
       * Red Onions
       * Regular Bun
       * Salsa Roja
       * Sauteed Mushrooms
       * Sesame Seed Bun
       * Shredded Lettuce
       * Slivered Onions
       * Southwest Vegetable Blend
       * Tomato Slices

     It would be interesting to see what would happen if I went in to McDonalds and demanded a hamburger without the meat or cheese, and just asked them to add a bunch of other things in it like sauteed mushrooms, sliced onion, lettuce, and tomato.One of these days I will have to find out.

    While McDonalds does not have veggie burgers on its national menu, I was informed after emailing them that a few locations are trying this option out on their menu.