Choosing Healthy Food when Dining out:

Before learning how to pick out "Healthy Options" from a restaurant menu, try to familiarize yourself with some cooking terminology so that you know how the food is cooked. I'm going to categorize it under "Red-Alarm bells" and "Green-Go ahead".
Red-Alarm Bells:

1. Deep fried: Deep frying is a cooking method in which food is submerged in hot oil (read:calories,calories).
2. Pan fried: or shallow frying uses lesser quantity of oil than deep frying using only enough fat to immerse about one-third of each piece of food.
3. Breaded: to coat a food with flour, beaten eggs and bread crumbs before frying.
4. Creamy/in a cream sauce: containing cream or/and butter,cheese.
   
5. Basted: to cook food by brushing or spooning with fat at regular intervals.
   
6. Crispy: food fried in such a way that it is very crunchy.
7. Batter dipped: food dipped in a coating mix before frying.
   
8. Scalloped/Gratin: refers to a preparation of a thinly sliced potatoes(or any other food) and a cream sauce topped with a crust of browned breadcrumbs and butter,often sprinkled with grated cheese.
   
9. Alfredo(used mostly in America):food made with Parmesan cheese,butter and heavy cream.
10. Au-gratin: Covered with bread crumbs and sometimes butter and grated cheese, and then browned in an oven.

Green-Go Ahead:

1. Steamed:food cooked by using steam by putting it on top of boiling water in a closed vessel.
   
2. Poached: Poaching is the method of gently simmering food in a liquid(usually water,milk or stock).
   
3. Broiled:food cooked by placing it at a measured distance below dry heat
   
4. Grilled: food cooked on a grill which is placed above the heat source.
   
5. Roasted: food cooked using dry heat which could be an open flame,oven or other heat source.
   
6. Baked: Baking is the technique of prolonged cooking of food by dry heat acting normally in an oven.
   
7. Braised: meat cooked by searing using a little fat then simmered in a covered dish in a small amount of moisture.
   
8. Tandoori: food cooked in a tandoor over hot charcoal.
9. Stir-fried/sauteed:food cooked in very little oil over high heat using light tossing and stirring motions.

Once you are familiar with these terms,choosing a healthy option from a restaurant menu will be easier.Check out this awesome slide show on WebMD titled "Healthy Restaurant Eating"