Alive & Kicking

When eating out, the healthiest dishes to order typically include grilled or baked lean proteins like chicken or fish, steamed or roasted vegetables, broth-based soups, salads with vinaigrette dressing, whole grains like brown rice or quinoa, and fresh fruit for dessert. Avoid fried foods, heavy cream sauces, and large portions of refined carbohydrates like white rice or pasta. With that in mind, here are some dishes to try at eight of the area’s best spots.

Start your day off right with a nutritious breakfast at Ol’ South Pancake House in Fort Worth (1509 S University Dr, 817-336-0311) or Burleson (225 E Renfro St, 817-989-9090). Two items on the omelet menu have my attention. The Trifit Trainer ($11.99) is made with grilled chicken breast and egg whites topped with avocado, spinach, and turkey bacon, and the Veggie Delight ($10.99) features regular eggs (though you can substitute egg whites for a few cents more), mushrooms, grilled onions, spinach, and diced tomatoes. Or if your idea of “fitness” is “fittin’ these pancakes in my mouth,” then you should enter Ol’ South’s pancake-eating contest. For details, visit OlSouthPancakeHouse.com/Mega-Pancake-Challenge.

For salads, you won’t find one better than the Shack Salad ($14.49) at the Cook Shack (500 University Dr, Fort Worth, 817-367-9151). When this fried chicken eatery first brought the heat to town, our critic described each salad as a “chunky lunch that would not leave you hungry an hour later.” A generous amount of sliced grilled chicken is served on a bed of mixed greens with almonds, avocado, dates, corn, goat cheese, cherry tomatoes, corn, and a Champagne vinaigrette dressing. It’s also worth noting that the Cook Shack chills the salad chicken, because there’s nothing worse than hot chicken on a cold salad.

With locations in Fort Worth (925 Foch St, 817-885-7775) and Keller (251 Town Center Ln, 817-741-3665), Juice Junkies specializes in organic cold-pressed juices, superfood smoothies, and vegan bites. For a really fresh start to the year, try a Juice Junkies cleanse. To ease your way into a new nutritional routine, stop by for some fresh juice or an acai bowl filled with acai berries, blueberries, bananas, and almond milk, then topped with your choice of granola, bananas, blueberries, strawberries, or coconut flakes. If nothing else, stop in and grab some juice. You know you want to!

Not unlike Juice Junkies, Righteous Foods (3405 W 7th St, Fort Worth, 817-850-9996) is a place where almost everything is healthy or a healthier choice than the usual. Beyond basic nutritional value, this eatery in the Cultural District is focused on clean food using responsibly sourced ingredients. You can eat here for brunch, lunch, or dinner, and they even have options for those with dietary restrictions. The brunch bowls and lunch greens all sound delicious, but Righteous also got my number with the burger on the lunch “grinder” list. The Hemp Seed, Mushroom & Black Bean Burger comes with avocados, smoked gouda cheese, romesco sauce, house pickles, tomato, and piquillo, plus a side of yuca fries.

My absolute favorite dish at Tuk Tuk Thai (3431 W 7th St, Fort Worth, 817-332-3339) is the Drunken Noodle ($13.75), with my choice of chicken, plus flat rice noodles, bell pepper, tomato, carrot, broccoli, onion, and basil leaves at a medium spice level. Unfortunately, it’s a “sometimes” treat for me as it shoots my blood sugar levels through the roof. Not good, being diabetic and all. It’s a heavy dish for lunch, anyway, so my new go-to is the chicken lettuce wrap ($10.50) from the appetizer menu with mushrooms, green onions, brown sauce, and crispy noodles, with lettuce on the side. It’s guilt-free and quite tasty.

For this column, I also reached out to Jennifer Hurley, the creative force behind Arlington Foodies, a community group on Facebook with more than 23K members. I posed the question: When you think about the idea of eating something healthy for a change at your favorite local restaurants, what dishes/places come to mind? The next three ideas are hers.

“As an Arlington gal, I hibernate in downtown, so Amore Mio Trattoria for their salmon piccata and Bek’s and Division Brewing for a veggie pizza!”

Seeing as how my husband and I had our wedding at Amore Mio Trattoria (101 E Abram St, Ste 190, Arlington, 817-538-5553), I was already a big fan, so I’m glad to hear about a healthy option to consider. The salmon piccata ($25) on the dinner menu features linguine with white wine sauce, fresh mushrooms, Roma tomatoes, and capers, topped with wild salmon and a touch of lemon. For another nutritious touch, all pasta can be substituted with zucchini noodles for $4 more.

The Veggie Lover’s pizza at Bek’s (965 W Lamar Blvd, Arlington, 817-303-0000) comes with bell peppers, mushrooms, onions, sauteed spinach, and fresh tomatoes in a 14-inch size for $17.95 and an 18-inch size for $19.95. Green olives, jalapenos, pineapple, and sundried tomatoes, as well as fresh basil and garlic, can also be added for $1.50 or $1.95 per ingredient, respectively. Bek’s also sells pizza by the slice, so you can test drive this for a mere $3.95.

Until she brought it up, I had forgotten that Division Brewing (513 E Abram St, Arlington, 682-259-7011) is now Division Brewing Pizza Kitchen, having celebrated its first anniversary under the new name in November. All their pizzas are made with house-made dough that’s cold fermented for four days, plus house-made sauces and fresh cheeses, everything served tavern-style (square cut) unless you indicate pie-style (wedge). The Veggie ($18) is made with red sauce, bell peppers, black olives, mushrooms, mozzarella cheese, and onions. Other veggie ingredients on hand include basil, fresh garlic, olive oil, and pistachios (!), which appear on The Rob ($18), along with cream sauce, beef, onions, fresh mozzarella, and burger seasoning. (The Rob doesn’t sound particularly healthy, but trying new things should be a resolution, too, right?)

Hurley is also a musician who sometimes shares the stage with the local folk-rock group KatsüK as Savage Hurley. A true Arlingtonian, she can regularly be found at the every-Monday acoustic open-mic nights at Binions Ice House (205 N West St, 817-617-2088). This joint is also the home of the monthly Arlington Foodies Farmers Market in the months when it’s not cold as hail.