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20th December 2016
12:10am GMT
I’ll be the first to admit that my eating habits are faaar from consistent, or healthy in the slightest.
I’m terrible for doing grocery shopping or meal prepping, and I eat out way more than my wallet is comfortable with.
If there was an Olympic gold medal for skipping meals, I would win it.
So when the opportunity to live on takeaway for a week presented itself before me, I leapt at the chance – naturally.
The challenge? Try and eat a healthy balanced diet without cooking a single meal.
The original plan was to order two meals from JUST EAT per day – lunch and dinner. But that was actually harder to organise than you'd think – I'm a busy gal after all.
I kicked off the week by trying out Mosa Sushi Burritos, a new concept to Dublin, and one that will undoubtedly do well. Sushi + burrito = a dream come true.
I tried the salmon avocado burrito, a miso soup and a carrot juice. I also ordered some noodles which was absolute overkill as I was stuffed after the sushi, so I kindly donated them to a coworker.
I fell asleep the second I got home from work – so no dinner for me.
I'm a role model for eating well, I know.
I worked through lunch without even noticing on Tuesday.
So by the time I got home I was starving and yeaaaarning for a takeaway – my stomach was beginning to make unholy noises.
My room mate was only thrilled when I suggested we order from Mao and chill on the couch with Netflix for the night.
I’m slightly obsessed with Mao’s pickles so I ordered enough to last me through the movie and I munched away on them like popcorn.
Lunch:
My bestie was leaving me to return to Kansas and I wanted to do something nice for her and two of our friends, seeing as I was off work for the day.
Soooo we got a sneaky bottle of prosecco and ordered an array of takeaways to be delivered to Stephen’s Green, no less.
Literal N O T I O N S. But I won't deny how lovely it actually turned out to be.
We opted for Klaw, seeing as we’d never tried it before, and I kindly ordered a Katsu from Wagamama for my fussier friend while the rest of us opted for lobster rolls, some salmon and our weight in mac ’n’ cheese.
It was all unreal. Until we were kicked out of the park several minutes after taking the artistically-arranged photo below. Who knew Stephen's Green closed so early? Not us.
Seeing as we'd ordered far too much food, and typical me in search of some good karma, I offered some to a bunch of hungry-lookin' bystanders as we all scooted towards the park's exit.
Dinner:
My mammy was in town for the night and so I made sure to avail of her comfy, spare hotel bed and in return treated her to some tasty Kanum Thai.
She opted for some noodles, and seeing as I wasn’t starving after the elaborate picnic, I got some fried tofu which came with an unreal dipping sauce with diced cucumber. I snook it into her hotel, which was an adrenaline-filled experience for sure.
She was beyond appreciative after a long day of driving and working. And sure didn’t I feel like a dote to be treating her.
Check out that slick chopstick technique – go mom.
By Thursday all I wanted was a home-cooked meal, and the novelty of eating takeaway for a week had officially worn off, but I powered through.
Lunch:
We were crammed in work so I quickly ordered Coppa’s salad of the day and a soup. I was beyond pleasantly surprised by the salads, having never tried Coppa before. There was a sweet potato feta and spinach one, a sautéed mushroom and broccoli one and the third one was a mixture of lots of greens. The soup was a tomato-y one and was still piping hot when it arrived, along with a slice of sourdough.
I also ordered a salad for one of the lovely gals in the office. ‘Cos it’s nice to be nice.
Dinner:
I was feeling pretty ravenous aprés-work, and hankering for some sushi. So I ordered food from Banyi and invited my roommate to join me. The hot and cold foods were separated when it arrived, I was pleased to see. Nobody wants warm sushi.
I'm all about that salmon-avocado combo but was mildly horrified by the fish eggs on top of one of the rolls. I always forget that that's the norm. My roommate scraped them off while I averted my eyes and we proceeded to devour the entire lot.
Banyi do the best gyoza and miso soup in Dublin – and that's just not up for discussion.
My evening was shaping up to be a hot date, and by hot I mean jalapeño-filled.
Me and bae took a long, rain-drenched walk out along the South Wall and were in need of some major grub on our wet return to the gaff.
We ordered the ever-tasty, and my all-time favourite, Diabolo (double check) pizza from Base. The weather cleared up and we inhaled the pizza outside in the humidity that Dublin was plagued with that week.
I was dreading the post-pizza food coma, but it never came, thank God. That would really have pushed me over the edge as I was already feeling like a wet slug.
I was werkin’ from home all day Saturday, and dodging my housemates as much as possible, so I ordered a burrito bowl from Burritos and Blues and hid away in my room for the day.
I’m probably the farthest thing from a burrito-lover. But this hit the spot perfectly. Plenty of guac, some rice and veggies, salsa, beans and a load tortilla chips.
I always think of burritos and an overload of fried, soggy and mushy foods. Which is probably the appeal of them to most people. But that’s just not how I roll. This was still really fresh and exceeded my expectations for sure, and I ate the entire thing on the floor of my room like an animal.
I washed it all down with a sparkling mango drink. Because when you’re out, you’re out.
After a long day of working I could barely keep my eyes open. And the last thing I wanted was another takeaway to be quite honest. But ya girl’s gotta eat.
I left the ordering up to my room mates – for one last hurrah. Two of us opted for Thai food, and the fussy eater surprisingly went straight for an Indian.
We’d never tried Diep before, and holy mole was it good. We got spicy soups for starters and they were incredible. The heating in our gaff was acting up and we were freezing to death – but the soups sorted us right out. We also got some fried potatoes to satisfy our need for a few fataí.
The fussy eater was happy out with her Indian and inhaled it right before our eyes.
By the end of the week I thought I would feel a lil bit like this:
But I was surprisingly fine, and lived to tell the endless tale of my week eating takeaways.
To conclude this journey, I will say that eating takeaway for a week is not practical nor is it affordable. But it actually can be somewhat healthy... if you have the willpower.
I’m a divil for going straight for the cheat meal when presented with any menu, but I tried my utmost to resist that urge with this week of takeaways.
With enough choice and self-control, sticking to a healthy diet when ordering a takeaway IS actually possible.
One thing is for sure though, I'll be heading back to the kitchen for the next few weeks.
Next up: I Drank Only Tea For A Week Straight And Here's What Happened
