Since returning from our trip to Walt Disney World, our little family has begun having Disney movie nights on the weekends. We pick a Disney movie, put together (or purchase) a meal that is inspired by the movie, and enjoy a family date at home.

Because I work in the health & fitness industry and health and fitness is really important to our family, our little spin on it is that we swap the traditional buttery popcorn, pop, and candy for more health-forward meals instead.

I hope in sharing this new series on my blog, I can inspire others to take on the mindset that we can enjoy special family dates like this, still order take-out, and fill out plates with healthier options.

Disclaimer: I am not a competitive body builder, a professional athlete or on a journey to transform my body composition; and because of that, I don’t restrict my diet or follow a specific diet plan the way some athletes do to become the best at their sport. Rather, because I am an average Mom who loves to lift weights and fill my plate with more mindful choices, when I speak about “healthy food” in this series, I’m referring to looking at food on a spectrum and making more healthful choices, like prioritizing protein, fibre (especially fruits and vegetables), complex carbs, healthy fats.

Inside Out 2: Meal Inspiration

Inside Out 2 had just been released on Disney+ on September 25, 2024 and we hadn’t seen it yet, so we were so excited to put together a movie night for this past weekend!

Because we hadn’t seen the movie yet, we were going in blind with food references. However, we have seen the original Inside Out (multiple times).

While everyone knows the infamous broccoli pizza gag, we decided to steer away from pizza because we felt it would be a better meal to enjoy while watching Toy Story.

Instead, we opted for Chinese takeout inspired by the scene in Inside Out where Riley is eating Chinese takeout for dinner with her parents after her first day of school.

Because you cannot really see what’s in their takeout containers, we had some creative freedom for this dinner meal.

Our Inside Out 2 Chinese Takeout Meal

While many would have gone to a local Chinese restaurant to order takeout, we did something a little different.

We visited our local Asian grocery store - Bestco: Fresh Foods - and grabbed our meals from their hot table.

This is a really flexible option because:

Everyone can order exactly what they’d like (even if you all have different food preferences)
You have more flexibility around what/how much you put on your plate
Everything is charged by weight instead of a fixed price

Building Our Chinese Takeout Bowls

When building our bowls, we aimed to:

Choose 2 sources of protein
Choose 1 stir fry veggie option

We also enjoyed our meal with white rice, but because we are a half-Asian household, we always have fresh rice cooked at home already. I also like doing it this way because the rice won’t add to the weight (and overall price) of the bowls and we can personally choose how much rice we’d like on our plate instead of being given a large amount that we might not finish - which feels really wasteful to me.

In my bowl…

In my bowl, I picked some braised beef, bbq chicken, and stir fried veggies. Both the braised beef and bbq chicken had no breading and a nice thin sauce to them, meaning that I could also control how much flavour I wanted from the sauce. The stir fried vegetables were just seasoned with salt and pepper.

In my husband’s bowl…

My husband, on the other hand picked a breaded honey chicken, general taos chicken, and chop suey.

While I know some people tend to steer away from breaded and deep fried proteins, chicken is generally a leaner protein source compared to other protein sources with higher fat content. On top of that, one meal alongside a whole week of nourishing meals won’t make a negative dent in your overall health.

What our baby ate…

For obvious reasons, we didn’t feed our 9 month old Chinese takeout. In fact, she didn’t even really watch the movie with us. I nursed her for a bit - so I guess you could say she had breastmilk - and she napped through the whole movie.