Healthy Chipotle menu, healthy fast food, and healthy eating are all related. Chipotle makes healthy chips and chic beans in a pot. And they make it all so tasty good.
These are the same type of ingredients used and eaten that the longest living people on the planet today enjoy. These folks are also some of the poorest which debunks the myth that you have to be wealthy to be healthy.
And one of the plant-based healthiest meals that’s full of protein amino acids is the 3 Sisters dish traditionally with corn, tortilla, and beans. Learn how to make your own easy lime treated corn tortilla below to go with. 🌽
When you’re not at home and making eating out food choices, eating whole grains and more plant-based is part of healthy eats, and the Chipotle menu is one menu to consider for a fast lunch.
I wish they were around when I was younger. For elementary school field trips, we were asked to bring a bag lunch to school (…you may have done the same).
Most schoolmates had white bread sandwiches (the magical Wonder Bread enriched white bread) and were less likely to stand out and be judged. For lunch hour, your pride and identity were wrapped up in 2 slices of bread, lol.
Today, bread shaming doesn’t cut it …but I know the feeling as my sandwiches were made of whole wheat. Back then, I guess that was better than the occasional super healthy alfalfa-stuffed and sprouting kind where apparently the parents were on a healthy agenda (and didn’t get the memo).
And once in a while we had Taco Tuesday lunches where they offered hard tacos. Some preferred soft tacos. It was kinda like white vs. other breads.
These days we’re open to anti-inflammatory variety, and being more planet and health-conscious. And that’s reflected in our visible fast-food options.
Besides just breakfast, lunch, and dinner, sugary dessert yogurts have been replaced by fruit smoothie energy-vit-enriched powders, as nice in-between options.
Growing up in the DC suburbs, we didn’t have healthy build-it-meal places like Cava, SweetGreen, or Chipotle, or fast food places that offer plant-based meals.
No fast food place offered salads or greens, or at least fresh ones you wanted to try. And that’s coming from an area considered a cultural mecca (and foodie hub). Many field trips were to the DC national museums where we only had time to eat what we brought.
And health-conscious calories and nutritional meal information weren’t anywhere to be found (heck, we didn’t have internet). We’ve made leaps and bounds to become a more health-conscious society.
Living past 90 and 100 is a higher probability than it once was. And from all the living longer information available to us, we know life expectancy and maintaining ideal body weight is mostly determined by personal lifestyle choices.
So thankfully our society and the food community are rallying to help this cause. Aligned to this, the Chipotle menu offers a line called Lifestyle Bowls for healthier eating habits (that end up as regular eating behaviors).
Our bodies are resilient, and we know we know we have some control and can restore our imbalances through the mind-body (or body-mind connection). We also know our thoughts turn to feelings and our feelings to thoughts that can help us most if we’re aware.
These concepts I’ve grown intimate with because I’ve learned they are keys to helping unlock happiness… why live a day here dissatisfied if you don’t have to? And what you store inside impacts your health, in the one body you’re given.
And today and every day is a new day that can be a fresh start in a healthy new year or new season. It can be a good time to welcome changes. Food is a great place to start. And I think we can learn a tip or two from the Chipotle menu whether we eat out or cook in…
At Chipotle, like most fast-food chains, you get consistency and know what to expect. Here are some Chipotle menu healthy ingredient inspirations (from building a lunch meal bottom-up):
You could start with a tortilla or with a bowl of rice, where you get to choose white or brown (kinda like the white or whole wheat bread kinds we’ve known since we were kids)… And in adult wisdom and healthy gratitude, we know choosing brown rice goes much further in the healthy zone! 🦷
Chipotle also offers beans (that are often found in Mexican dishes). They offer two types (black or pinto) for simplicity, but did you know there are over 16,000 types of beans (and 40,000 varieties if you Google it)? In a Western diet, you and I have probably only encountered or eaten closer to 16 kinds. 😊
And just looking around, our American diet isn’t a bean-focused society like other countries. Chili is the glorified bean meal we tie to social occasions and sporting events. But, on the Chipotle menu, you also get the choice to add beans as a rice topping, plus another protein choice that’s considered the actual meat or star protein.
The added beans on the Chipotle menu are subtle but may be your only bean source for the week or month if you don’t get them anywhere else. Just sayin’.
And if keep going down the build-it meal line, you can add guacamole that has tasty value. You don’t necessarily think of the Hass avocado source that’s the add-on’s main health benefit. From there, you can build in green lettuce, a corn mix, and other daily made healthy toppings with herbs like cumin, oregano, and thyme. And all kinds of mild to hot peppers.
That’s as close as it gets to healthy fast-food eating out. I compare that way to my restaurant event planning days where I was around exotically delicious food all day (Spanish, Lebanese, Italian, and North African cuisine), but not all of it was healthy. It was a mixed bag mostly from the fried methods or rich sauces.
In the Chipotle recipes, they make a point to use health-conscious sauces. Soffrito is a Spanish sauce and Chipotle has sofritas as a plant-based protein option.
And now they have a second-plant based protein: chorizo (plant-based inspired sausage). Seeing a trend emerging?
In my area, you don’t have to go far to go to places like Cava, where you’re getting fast-food metro- suburban Middle Eastern chickpea falafel. You can also go from bean to chickpea legumes on fluffy basmati rice that you can learn to make at home in a double boiler method.
Or choose Sweet Greens, a salad, and green-grain bowl place that loves heirloom veggies (like in their Harvest Bowl). Ordering can feel like you’re picking from a California leafy green and veggie garden (and even close to the ground with their Shroomami or Curry Cauliflower bowls).
Then when you’re ready for something sweet, you can find smoothie places with tropical fruits and powder infusions. In city-metro areas, there are many to choose from, and you can add your chia, flax, and sunflower seeds. These are all mainstream now, but once upon a time they were exceptions.
Maybe reflecting on your food journeys and looking around your neighborhood food options, you’re a bit more inspired to eat a little more healthy Chipotle menu-inspired.
That could be a healthy step forward in your home tortilla meal and bowls.
Easy Lime Treated Tortilla (Inspired by Longevity Zones)
Materials
- fresh lime
- package of soft yellow tortilla (healthier than white tortilla since yellow has beta carotene)
Instructions
- Squeeze fresh lime generously all over tortilla. Let soak into tortilla and flip to the other side and do the same. Enjoy soft or bake hard.
- For hard tortilla bowls, bake inside a heatable bowl. For taco shell shapes, use a upside down muffin tin, fold tortilla and lay "V" shape tortilla side by side in between muffin tin shapes to create the shape desired.
- Bake flat or in taco shape at 250°F until toasted for about one hour.
Off and on with my 20-year hospitality career, I worked behind-the-scenes in catering planning and event execution for Spanish, Italian, and Lebanese restaurants and fine hotels in the Washington, 
