What do you order when eating at a restaurant?

Rosemary, I think it would be just wonderful if you demonstrated how to safely and expertly cook blueberry pancakes 🥞 on our Transplant Recipient Culinary Arts Webinar series! 👩‍🍳

I eat the bread and my friends and family let me select my piece first. I am the official bread cutter a well as the permanent designated driver. If there is olive oil or any dipping dish, I ask for a separate dish. Of course I do to with a smile and a 'please' . (It is a wonderful opportunity to mention that I am a transplant recipient and do a bit of promotion for organ donation! I have even extended invites to Mayo Clinic Connect.
I never use any of the condiments on the table, even before Covid. I have even learned that fries without catsup taste good! Sometimes, I ask my husband to put some catsup on my plate when he gets his.
My choice beverage is unsweetened ice tea with no lemon slice.
I do like to use a straw, I always have. But even that can be tricky - wrapped, partial wrap, unwrapped, in a dispenser are all confusing. It is a judgement call based on where I am.
I am selective about ice in my drink. Early after transplant I drank everything at room temperature to avoid ice. I have eased up in my 'older transplant years'.
I do wipe silverware. I don't know that it does much good, but I feel better about it. On rare occasions, I have asked for a replacement.
My husband and I were in Alaska in 2008 and 2010, and all the water was from the well, except for the drinking and cooking water. That is where we found some of the cloudiest silverware and glassware I have ever seen. It was cloudy, but clean - and it accompanied the best salmon imaginable.

@hello1234, Let common sense guide your choices. You will find adjustments cumbersome at first, but it does get easier over time.
Did you dine out much before your kidney transplant? What do you look forward to ordering when you do go out to eat?

@athenalee, You overestimate my culinary skills! My level of skill(?) is equivalent to opening a box of Bisquick!

Thank you @rosemarya for sharing all your wonderful tips on how to navigate eating out at restaurants as a new transplant! I hate to admit this to you, but before my transplant and before covid, I ate almost every meal at a restaurant. I always worked long hours full time and one of my favorite treats was getting up super early and stopping for a hot delicious breakfast and coffee at my local diner on the way to work. Lots of early morning regulars having breakfast together. Very social and fun. (Before masks and social distancing!) At noon was lunch with the girls at the office. After work, was dinner out. Nothing fancy, just eating out as entertainment. Yep, almost every meal out!. Of course, now my life is the exact opposite. With covid and my new kidney, every meal has been at home since March 2020 when covid started. (My transplant was July 2020). I keep talking about restaurants and eating out because I look forward to the day when I can meet friends at a restaurant again. Not every meal, like the old days, but a few times a week would be wonderful. I am not sure if my favorite restaurants survived the pandemic. My neighbor ate out at a local restaurant last week and she said the service was terrible because they were terribly short staff, the restaurant floor was dirty, and the food was disappointing. She definitely made me feel better about not eating out during these current circumstances. It didn't sound like a pleasant dining experience at all. So for now, I will continue to enjoy my baked salmon and baked chicken at home and dream about what I will order during my future visit to a well-staffed, clean and yummy restaurant after covid! Thank you again for being so helpful to me and for sharing your tips. (I agree with you that french fries with no catsup sounds heavenly!) ❤

@rosemarya
I had some Bisquick and a bunch of other things that require ingredients and more time than I wanted to spend in kitchen so I gave it to the Boy Scouts food drive. I feel sorry for the people who ended up with it. Today I did go a little overboard and made a bunch of veggies in the oven. I had a friend here for a few days and he knew if he wanted to eat he had to cook for us. To repay him we went to one of my favorite candy stores and spend $120 and then on the way home in another town I just happen to spot another candy store which I’ve never tried so course we had to give it a try. I only spent $61 in there. Sure glad I didn’t get carried away.
Take care,
Jake

Jake, Thank you for supporting the Boy Scout food drive! My granddaughter, a cub scout and my son, the cub master were doing that last weekend, too. She is 8 and had a blast, especially the hot chocolate afterwards!

I’m of the mindset that as long as you like it and it suits you, then happy cooking! I just like sharing and learning about cooking. And, watching others make food. That’s why I love the Great British Baking Show! I don’t eat refined sugar for personal health reasons, but that doesn’t mean that I don’t admire the amateur chefs on the show and the beautiful food art they make!

Food is something we all share and it’s the perfect way to bring people together. Besides, Bisquick is a handy way to make all kinds of dishes and is as American as the blueberry pancakes that are made with it!

I don't mind cooking, and I love to bake [as long as the finished product is going out of the house!]. Due to my diet restrictions, my husband and i pretty much have separate diets. When it is my turn to cook, it is a meal following my guidelines. He sometimes will grumble. When it is his turn to cook, he fixes what he can eat, and I may be able to have a little bit of it, or here comes the stand-by of an awesome salad to my place at the table. He always says, "Your numbers are good, you can have some." But my response is, "My numbers are good because I follow my guidelines!" My husband loves to fix breakfast, and I rarely refuse his waffles or pancakes! A baking mix like Bisquick is delightful to work with, like @rosemarya and @athenalee have said.

Eating out is a treat, and I do watch the menus closely. We have only one little restaurant in town [Mexican food], and they often will delete the beans and give me more rice. Their homemade salsa is so yummy!
Ginger

Thanks for sharing Ginger! I’m glad you can have your husband’s pancakes and waffles. One of my favorite breakfast meals is pumpkin pancakes. I cook Mexican food a lot. Very easy to make the dishes with healthy ingredients and very versatile.

I had liver disease and my transplant during Covid, so I’ve done some takeout and a restaurant I like with a nice open patio. I won’t go into an inside restaurant though. There’s a dim sum restaurant I particularly enjoy though as I know the chef, so they’ll make my food low sodium. They use all local ingredients. And, they know my health issues, so I’m comfortable eating their food.

Hi i am not sure this is the right place to ask, but what is the biggest problem anyone has had after a transplant , meds, energy level , I am just curious because not sure could be in much more pain or problems I have , sorry if this is not the right place, thanks Mike