She ate

During the holiday season, I relish my family’s food traditions. I savor my Aunt Peggy’s perfect buckeyes. I devour my Aunt Theresa’s perfectly spicy and savory Chex Mix. And on Christmas Eve, I painstakingly prepare a dinner for around 25 family members, starring a slow-roasted beef tenderloin served with basil-Parmesan aioli, horseradish cream sauce and Gorgonzola butter.

But as soon as Boxing Day rolls around, I’m ready to turn my attention back to my vegetables. I look around my house and see balls of wrapping paper, toy boxes yet to be recycled and gifts ready to be put away, and the last thing I want to do is haul myself into the kitchen and cook (although my new air fryer has admittedly made that a whole lot easier.) Enter Fuel’d.

As close as Fuel’d is to our Groesbeck house, I’d never been there before this assignment. I frequently find myself heading north for hearings in Clinton County and telling myself that I’ll stop for lunch on the way, but I never do. All of that ended after my first visit to Fuel’d. As I get older, I find myself heavily favoring vegetable-laden meals most of the time and searching for meals that will fill me up but also pack a nutritional punch. On our first visit, we needed takeout quickly. I went to the Fuel’d website, which is incredibly intuitive, and ordered Garlic Butter Noodles ($14.40) for Mr. She Ate and a Let It Grain salad ($12.95) for me. Fuel’d specializes in stir-fries and salads, with several signature items on the menu to choose from, but you can also create your own fully customized dish — think Subway, but about 1,000 times better.

Mr. She Ate’s whole-wheat-noodle-based dish was hearty without being heavy. He held the mushrooms and added green beans, which retained a snap when we bit into them. The steak was juicy and seasoned. The She Ates are a big broccoli family, so this was a bonus treat. The corn, however, tasted like it had previously been frozen and was a bit chewy. The meal was large enough to feed him three times, which we needed during those lazy days of Twixmas.

My salad wasn’t my favorite thing I’ve had at Fuel’d. I had the same experience with the corn, and the cheddar cheese and tortilla chips seemed conspicuous in such an otherwise fresh salad. I learned my lesson for the next time, when I read the item descriptions more carefully and chose the Honey Ginger Salad ($13.60). I could have drunk the honey-ginger dressing by itself, and I love a spinach salad with apples and candied pecans. I added hard-boiled eggs and ate an extremely large portion for lunch, then had a sizable side salad left to pair with that night’s dinner.

On a third visit, I chose to make my own stir-fry ($13.60). I picked a brown rice base and added roasted shrimp, kale, edamame, green beans, cilantro and garlic butter sauce. Mr. She Ate and I were enjoying a mental health day together, having just come back from a quick trip to Mexico for a wedding, and we were frantically running around on a quest to finish some post-vacation errands. Our lunch stop was a great time to slow down and really think about what we were eating, a lesson we’re trying to impart to our children, which is made a lot easier when the food is fresh, colorful and smells incredible. Mr. She Ate had the Sweet Kikkoman Soy stir-fry ($13.60) with no modifications, and while his was good, mine was better. I made sure to label the leftover containers so he didn’t “accidentally” grab mine when we took our lunches to our respective offices the next day