One of the things I really miss about living in the city is the restaurants. In Munich, there are so many different places to choose from. All sorts of ethnic cuisine, casual, classy, cheap, expensive, junk food and healthy. I thought it would make for a nice feature to blog about (healthy!) local eats every now and then.

Last weekend, I met up with a friend for lunch. I had told my friend about my PCOS & insulin resistance so she was on board with eating someplace healthy. We went to dean&david, a healthy fast food franchise that has spread out to all major German cities but originates in Munich. I had been there once before, just a couple weeks earlier and I thought it was great. Until then, I had sort of thought of it as a place that sells overpriced salads and sandwiches, but when you want to eat healthy food, it really is perfect.

I ended up getting a Tandoori Chicken wrap and a side salad. In hindsight, just the wrap would have probably been enough, but I thought the salad couldn’t hurt, after all salad doesn’t have many calories. Something I also love is that dean&david have published the nutrition info for their salads, sandwiches, and wraps on their website, so I was able to double-check that I was making a healthy choice.

The wrap was absolutely yummy. And only 255 calories. All their sandwiches and wraps are between 234 and 396 calories so you really can’t go wrong. The side salad was around 200 calories (including dressing & bread). Next time I go there, I will probably go with either just a wrap or one of their salads.

Lunch was really yummy, filling and super healthy. My only complaint? Their drinks were a little overpriced. Considering that you just grabbed the bottle yourself from the fridge, paying nearly €3 was simply too much.

Afterward we went to I love leo, a frozen yogurt place that just opened in May and that I discovered when I was in Munich for a week in July. Frozen yogurt is not really that well-known here yet, so I was super-excited to find out you could finally get it in Munich. And they use low-fat yogurt, which, it probably still has more calories than yogurt but it is probably one of the healthier desserts to choose.

They have so many amazing toppings to choose from. I have had a hard time picking just three (that’s the maximum you get) every single time I’ve been there. They have different kinds of fresh fruit, nuts, various sauces, and toppings like Oreos, Bounty, Kit Kat, and cheesecake.

I really love the decor of the place. It is very simple, yet chic and comfortable.

A very happy Karen post-froyo.

I ended up getting frozen yogurt with cheesecake, fresh strawberries and pistachio sauce. It was honestly the best combo ever (though admittedly not the healthiest). But this was the first time I was there and they had the cheesecake topping, so I just couldn’t resist. But you could absolutely pick three fruit toppings and make it a perfect no-guilt dessert. Well, to be honest, I had no guilt over this dessert either, because it was just that amazing. Worth every single calorie.

Both dean&david and I love leo are in the university quarter of Munich, a beautiful part of town. I don’t go there very frequently but whenever I do, my mind goes into ‘what if’ mode. Munich is my hometown, an amazing place, and home to two of the best universities in Germany, but I chose to study in Heidelberg.

Whenever I am in the university quarter I wonder what would have been had I stayed in Munich. I would be so much more familiar with that neighborhood – like most of my friends who stayed are. It would be this university that is my alma mater, not Heidelberg. Don’t get me wrong, I don’t regret that I left, my time in Heidelberg (and the States and Spain) was too amazing for that. But it does make me think what if … And it makes me a little jealous of the thousands of students who got and still get to know Munich in a way I never did.