I know. The blog is called Fashionably French FRIED. You probably didn’t come here to read about healthy food. BUT. You’re going to want to read this. As much as I hate to admit it, we all have to eat healthy to take care of our bodies. Even if it’s 10% of the time, at least it’s something. And if you’re going to eat healthy, you may as well eat something that is not only healthy, but delicious too. There’s no need to suffer over raw kale and bars that taste like cardboard. If you want to eat healthy and live in South Florida, here are 3 places that I highly recommend!
Raw Republic (Aventura and North Miami, FL) – When you say vegan, I say BLEHHHH. I have no interest in eating a fake chicken nuggets and I sure as heck will never give up my McDonald’s hamburger (though, are those really meat?) But after perusing the restaurant’s menu, I was intrigued. I visited this chain’s North Miami location and was blown away at how incredibly delicious the food was – I never would have guessed that everything was vegan!
We were immediately greeted by the friendly (and if I’m being honest, totally cute) staff who started off our experience by having us sample juices. I LOVE all kinds of juices and am always looking for a new favorite. There’s just something about cold-pressed juice that makes me feel like a unicorn of health.
One of the standouts was the Rise ‘N Pine, which tasted like a healthy Pina Colada. Pass the rum and you’ve got my new go-to post workout drink. (I told you I can’t stay TOO healthy).
All of the juices we tried were so good, but the standout to me was the Matcha Cookie. Indulgent but healthy, and it tasted like an actual Oreo cookie. Healthy Oreos?? SOLD.
BTW, Disclaimer: Yes, I know the above picture is upside down. I spent about 20 mins trying to fix it but it must be some kid of bug in my WordPress. Let’s just call it “artistic” and deal with it. For the past couple of months I have been on a huge acai bowl rampage. I literally crave them all the time. So of course we were going to try a few! We had the Hawaiian Punch, which is made with acai, mixed berries, banana, almond mylk, pineapple, and topped with dried coconut, pineapple chunks and goji berries. I had actually never had a goji berry before, and they were really good! We also sampled the Pretty in Pink, made with pitaya, coconut water and banana and topped with dried coconut, sliced banana, flax seed and honey. Pitaya, or dragonfruit as you may know it, is one of my favorites just based on the color alone. It’s just as fashionable as it is delicious.
Both bowls were delicious, but the one that really made me salivate like Pavlov’s dogs (see what I did there?) was the PB&A bowl, a peanut butter lover’s dream. It’s a known fact that I love peanut butter so much and put it on literally everything, from apples to pretzels, and even my egg whites (try it, it’s life changing). The PB&A bowl is made with acai, banana, almond mylk, peanut butter (duh), and topped with granola, cacao nibs and bananas. It was heaven, and although I was getting a bit full at this point, I couldn’t help but demolish – and I mean demolish – it. YUM.
Raw Republic also has a variety of unique grab and go options that we were able to sample, from main courses like the quinoa sushi, to yummy dessert bites like the cacao chia pudding.
2 of my favorite food options were perhaps the 2 most unique – the Quinoa Sushi and the Vegan Nori Roll. I’m a sucker for sushi and these 2 dishes are a great alternative for vegans who are too!
I love grab and go options because they make eating healthy so simple! The veggie curry quinoa salad was one of my favorites, because Indian flavors excite me. All-in-all, I gotta say that Raw Republic blew me away. And while I’m not rushing to throw away the 2 pounds of Jarlsberg cheese that I have in my fridge anytime soon, I do have a new appreciation for just how good vegan food can be!
Fit Food Express (Delray Beach, FL) – Fit Food Express’s goal is to make healthy food easy and convenient. The fact that it’s just a few blocks away from where I live certainly makes it super easy for me (this is the point where I have an intervention with myself and shame myself for making excuses of why it’s okay to eat like crap). The concept of Fit Food Express is pre-packaged, healthy, affordable meals. I like it because I don’t always have a lot of time to prep food. Or I’ll go to the grocery food store and buy healthy groceries for one, that spoil by the end of the week when I’ve only used up a third of them because dinner and lunch plans come up. I end up wasting so much money, so I love that I can go to Fit Food Express and spend $8 on one meal and it isn’t wasteful. I know so many people who do meal delivery services, and end up wasting meals because dinner plans come up, etc. At Fit Food Express, you buy as you need, and unlike meal delivery services who choose your food for you, at Fit Food, YOU make all of the decisions. Also, Fit Food puts all of the nutrition facts right on the packaging, so you know exactly what you are eating! (And unlike when I go to the McDonald’s drive thru and see their calorie count, with Fit Food I actually like what I see).
One of my favorite meals there is the Turkey Meatballs. Lean turkey breast meatballs with red pepper flakes over Asian stir fry vegetables. The Asian flavors are so intense and the meatballs are juicy and hearty, and at 298 calories and 27 grams of protein, you know you are enjoying something that’s good for your body!
They also have a variety of sweet and savory snacks. My favorite is the protein snack, which comes with organic chicken (ALL of their chicken there is organic and never frozen), carrots with beet hummus, and a hard boiled egg. It’s the perfect pick-me-up and great for re-fueling after a workout.
Fit Food Express also has a juice and smoothie bar onsite. The picture above was taken when I went in and couldn’t decide whether to get the Pretzel Twist Bowl or the Green Bowl, so I just yelled YOLO and got both (which is also ironically what I do when I’m dress shopping, and probably why I’m so broke.) I think that Fit Food has some of the most unique acai bowls in all of Palm Beach County. The Pretzel Twist Bowl is made with almond milk, açaí, cacao powder, banana and kale and topped with granola, coconut flakes, pretzels, cacao nibs, peanut butter, banana and honey. The Green Bowl is made with almond milk, açaí, kale, banana and spirulina and topped with granola, banana, hemp seeds, sliced almonds and honey. SO. GOOD. With places like Fit Food Express in the world, we don’t have any excuses to be fatasses! (Except french fries. French fries are a great excuse to be a fatass.)
3 Natives (Tequesta, Juno, Gainesville, Jupiter and Boca Raton, FL) – One of my favorite Instagram accounts to follow is @avocadotoast, because avocados are beautiful and something about them spread on toast and covered with toppings brings me inner peace. So you see that picture up there? That was a dream come true. 3 Natives’s avocado toast is made on multigrain toast and topped with avocado, mango, sunflower sprouts, cayenne pepper, cracked black pepper and Himalayan pink salt. Biting in to it, you just feel the freshness spread throughout your body like a healthy wildfire. It was delicious and perfect at any time of day.
Although 3 Natives is known for their variety of juices, I opted to try Alkaline Water for the first time after hearing about its health benefits. A few things Alkaline Water does for the body: it helps neutralize acid in the bloodstream, which leads to increased oxygen levels and improved energy and metabolism; it contains antioxidant properties (anti-aging and anti-disease); and it cleanses the colon. 3 Natives’s Alkaline Water is infused with lemon and lime oils to make for a light, refreshing beverage without being too heavy on the taste. Along with their juices, 3 Natives also serves a variety of acai bowls, but on this particular visit, I was craving one of their deliciously fresh salads.
On a previous visit, I had tried the Chicken Curry Salad which was pure heaven, and so I wanted to try something different. I have never had Salmon Salad, so I decided to be adventurous, plus I will eat just about anything topped with capers including my own left hand. The Salmon Salad, which is sustainably caught, comes with dill cream cheese, sliced red onion, capers, purple cabbage, carrot, red pepper, cucumber, sunflower sprouts, homemade pico de gallo, Himalayan pink salt, and is served over a bed of romaine and topped with homemade balsamic vinaigrette. Wow – that is a LOT of flavor for one salad! I love how the cucumbers were spiralized, it made the salad beautiful, and when something is presented so decoratively, it makes me want to eat it! I opted not to use the cream cheese as I didn’t really see where it fit in. The salad was huge, flavorful, and satisfying. I left feeling healthy, full, and like a fit badass. The way that healthy food SHOULD make you feel!
So while I’m still going to indulge in my french fries, I wouldn’t be surprised, with places like these, if you start to see more Fashionably FIT Fried posts pop up (okay, still working on the name. Just like my own fitness and healthy eating, it’s a work in progress!)
***I received complimentary noms in exchange for this post, however, you cannot bribe me with food, so all opinions are my own.