Watch out Panda Express's high Calories

When studying abroad at the United States, I guess food is the thing I miss the most.  What make worse is that I do not have a car, so it is more difficult for me to go to some Chinese restaurants being far away from the campus.  So the Panda Express, located in the food court on campus, is my first choice when I miss the Chinese food.  However,  the food from Panda is more like the American Chinese food.  The sauces are usually too sweet or too salty for me.  What a funny story!  Once I was chatting with one of my American friends,  she was excited about telling me how much she likes the Chinese food.  Then I asked her what her favorite Chinese food was.  Her answer was the Orange Chicken! However, I never had the Orange Chicken for my entire life in China before I came to the United States.  The truth is that we do not really have Orange Chicken in China.

I usually have Panda Express as my lunch once a week for these three years.  So I do figure out some tips of choosing healthy Chinese food from Panda.  Let me share my tips with you all.  Hope you can pick healthier Chinese food from Panda later!

1. Rice/ noodles or Mixed Veggies 
Whether you are going to order a Panda Bowl and or a Two Sides meal, you can say NO to both rice and noodles.  You can pick mixed veggies instead of rice and noodles.  It helps you take out more than 300 Calories!!!!
Mixed Veggies:  Side: 70 Cal;  Entree: 30 Cal

2. Fried Rice or  Chow Mein or White Rice
If you are rice lovers or noodles lovers, you cannot have no rice or noodles for meals.  Please go with white rice! It has 120/ 150 less Cal than Chow Mein and Fried Rice.
Fried Rice: 530 Cal
Chow Mein: 500 Cal
White Rice: 380 Cal

3. Low Cal Sides/ Entrees
Chicken dishes, especially chicken breast dishes have lower Calories!  Go for it.
String Bean Chicken Breast: 170 Cal
Garlic Lovers' Chicken Breast: 180 Cal
Mushroom Chicken: 220 Cal
Potato Chicken: 220 Cal
Broccoli Beef: 130 Cal

4. No extra Sauces
If you the server asks you that do you want some sauce, please remember NO is the right answer!
Mandarin Sauce: 180 Cal (Watch Out!!!)
Sweet & Sour Sauce: 70 Cal

Hope all these tips help!!  Have fun for your next Panda Express lunch/ dinner trip.

Danlu