I had the day off yesterday because I had to work last Saturday and because Kim had a half day, we planned to head out to the Great Minnesota Get-Together, the Minnesota State Fair.

This is really all for Kim as I couldn’t care less if we went or not. She really enjoys a lot of the fair food and wandering around to check out the animal and plant exhibits.

I’m currently taking great care to watch what I eat, thus the lack of recent posts trashing the local restaurants so yesterday’s trip to the Fair was quite the exercise in self-control and careful planning.

I decided before I left the house (based on the Cub-purchased coupon book) what stands I would likely visit for “dinner”. I had earmarked a couple of pages that included grilled chicken, fruit and vegetables as well as lunch meat sandwiches.

I made sure to eat lunch before I left the house. I also brought my healthy snacks with me and planned to eat pretty much on my usual schedule for the day.

I met Kim at the Mall of America State Fair departure point and we got to the fair after crossing over several bridges in Minneapolis where rubbernecking douchebags were getting up and out of their seats to try and catch a glimpse of the wreckage. Morons.

We got to the fair and Kim headed straight for what she planned on having for lunch. I was trying to avoid looking directly at the blinking lights so as not to be sucked into the tasty and death causing foods served on a stick.

During the day I broke down for a pickle, a vegetable tray (where I ate less than one teaspoon of the dressing) that we got for free with the purchase of a $5 fruit tray after a coupon the stand was passing out right in front, and roasted corn w/no butter and only pepper. The corn was by far the funniest adventure as after I took an unbuttered one and didn’t add salt, a gentleman behind me said, “What the hell is wrong with that guy? He just took a piece of corn w/o butter and didn’t even add salt?!” Well, to be perfectly honest, it was just fine w/o butter, surprisingly so!

My dinner was going to be a piece of grilled chicken and a salad. I knew that Dino’s had a Greek Salad but that wasn’t going to work w/all the cheese and dressing — I also can’t stand black olives. We happened by the location that we had a coupon for that offered grilled chicken sandwiches and I asked for it w/o the bread. Kim noticed that they also offered small and overpriced salads. The cake topper was that they also had fat free ranch. For anyone else, groans would be heard across the Fair — why bother with fat free dressing when you are dipping everything in Bisquick or corn meal batter?! But for me, this was the holy grail of healthy Fair eating.

I drank a ton of water and also found an “80 year old root beer recipe” that was updated more recently to be diet. It was fucking fantastic and I returned again later for a $2.50 refill in my “souvenir cup”.

Overall, we spent entirely too much money but I still was able to eat healthy and not put myself in the hole…

See all the pictures from today here (mobile).

Related posts:

1. Favorite Thing About The Minnesota State Fair Poll
2. Best Values at the 2008 Minnesota State Fair
3. 2006 Minnesota State Fair: St. Paul, MN
4. Minnesota Scottish Fair and Highland Games: Farmington, MN
5. Saigon Vietnamese Restaurant and Bakery: St Paul, MN