Even if you didn’t make a resolution to eat healthier in 2022, the New Year is a great time to try new things. Eating out can be a challenge if you’re trying to make better food choices. But several restaurants in Irving offer sizable menus of dishes made with fresh ingredients and superfoods. With healthy options as delicious as these for every meal of the day, you might decide to make that “eat healthier” resolution after all.
Sunrise Wrap at Original Chop Shop
The list of healthy options at Original Chop Shop is long, with bowls full of chopped veggies and proteins or fruits and superfoods to satisfy your sweet tooth. Breakfast is on the menu too, and if you want to start your day with a healthy breakfast, you can’t go wrong with the Sunrise Wrap.
Look to the Rise + Shines part of the menu for early morning eats, and that’s where you’ll find this wrap sandwich filled with egg whites, tomato, onion, sweet potato, white cheddar and avocado pesto. Other healthy options that sound delicious are the Nanner Crunch Chia Pudding and the Power Green Juice with kale, cucumber, celery, apple, ginger, parsley and lemon.
If you also want coffee to start your day, Original Chop Shop has drip coffee and cold brew options as well as protein shakes and seasonal lemonades for anyone who’s avoiding caffeine.
The menu offers something free of whatever you’re avoiding. Options include gluten-free, dairy-free, lactose-free, soy-free, vegetarian and vegan. Although no matter how hard you look, you won’t find anything pleasure-free.
Cado-Poke Bowl at Maui Fresh Grill
A bowl full of nutritionally dense ingredients can be as tasty as it is good for you. In other words, if you’re trying to eat right, poke (pronounced po-kay) is A-okay. At Maui Fresh Grill, you can enjoy Hawaiian flavors in 11 different signature bowls or in their Maui tacos. For example, the signature #7 Combo-Cado Poke bowl is a seafood lover's delight. Made with salmon, shoyu tuna, grilled shrimp and crab meat salad atop mixed greens and seaweed salad, this bowl gets flavor perks from red onion, mango, pickled jalapenos and avocado.
If you prefer, you can build your own bowls with yellowtail, sesame tuna, beef bulgogi, spicy chicken or one of ten other protein choices. There’s even grilled tofu for vegans, and all bowls come with your choice of white rice, brown rice or coconut jasmine rice to give you the flavors of the tropics. Add all the veggies and fruits you want as toppings, and then finish it off with your choice from more than a dozen sauce offerings.
For a fresh light lunch on the go, the Maui tacos are delicious with fish or shrimp, slaw with apple sauce, chips, pico de gallo and salsa. Since most of the choices at Maui Fresh Grill give you a ton of food without breaking the calorie bank, you can reward yourself with a milk tea to drink.
Maple Walnut Salad at Urban Eatz
Salads are a great go-to when you’re trying to get the most nutrition out of the least calories. But that doesn’t mean salads have to be bland or boring. Choose from nine different salads at Urban Eatz for a healthy meal full of veggies that will knock out whatever flavor cravings you’re facing.
Hungry for Italian? The Italian Deli salad has roasted red peppers, black olives and toasted pine nuts. The Asian Chicken Salad makes the most of mandarin oranges, carrots, cucumbers, green onions and edamame beans, while the Santa Fe Salad features avocado, roasted corn, black beans and cherry tomatoes.
If you can’t choose a favorite, go with their signature salad, the Maple Walnut. Mixed greens mingle with apples, mandarin oranges, red grapes and candied walnuts, all topped with feta and sweet maple vinaigrette.
Blueberry Pesto Sandwich at Modern Market Eatery
The surest way to make healthy eating fun is to explore a variety of options. If you’re focusing on plant-based foods but need some zing in your meatless menus, a sandwich might seem like an unusual choice. But the Blueberry Pesto sandwich at Modern Market Eatery is a choice that makes perfect sense.
This drool-worthy sandwich is a take on a Caprese salad. Sounds good, right? Now you’re thinking about mozzarella and tomatoes on ciabatta bread, which is not wrong. But this sandwich adds pesto made of basil (of course), parsley, garlic and parmesan cheese. Throw some arugula on there and finish with blueberry-balsamic jam made with chia seeds. It’s like they took a ton of superfoods and put them all together in one delicious bite.
The bottled beverages at Modern Market are a perfect accompaniment to this extraordinary sandwich. Go for the Blueberry Rooibos Iced Tea if you’re feeling matchy-matchy or get a Carrot Ginger Lemonade to change things up.
Red Snapper at Hugo's Invitados
While many of our favorite Mexican food and Tex-Mex options aren’t particularly heart healthy, it’s hard to give up those flavors we love so much. At Hugo’s Invitados, nothing is fried, everything is organic, and most of the meals are gluten-free. Tortilla chips are baked and served with house-made salsas, and you can branch out into many other modern Mexican dishes while still making healthy choices.
For a change from tacos and enchiladas, try the Red Snapper, which is as much a feast for the eyes as it is for your taste buds. On the lunch menu, the pan-seared snapper is served on a mound of avocado-lemongrass rice with a sauce made from heirloom Mexican tomatillos. If you order the snapper for dinner, it’s served with jumbo lump crab meat, squash blossoms, chayote, mango and fingerling potatoes in a white wine chilpachole sauce (seafood stew.)
Other lunch options include delicious bowls made with grass-fed wagyu flap sirloin, sustainable ahi tuna, or one of five other protein options. Choose a salad with kale and quinoa or one with tomatoes, mozzarella and baby cactus relish.
For traditionalists, there’s wagyu beef carne asada and cochinita pibil, along with numerous tacos and enchiladas on both the lunch and dinner menus. The Seafood Dynamite Elote is a must-try side, and cold-pressed juices, fresh lemonades or organic Margaritas make any meal a fiesta.
