Healthy Eating and Drinking While Out: Part I

I've been engaging in healthy eating (and drinking) in some unexpected places this week.

First, I met a friend at Lil' Chef in Brighton, an institution that was closed in for a while and reopened in a new location. Healthy is not the first thing you think of this local hangout that, when I was the kid, was the only place open after going to a 9 or 10 p.m. movie on the weekends. Regardless, there are some good choices.

If you're in a mood for breakfast, the cooking will make pretty much any egg dish possible with the low-fat egg substitute (basically, egg whites, coloring and a stablizer). If you ask for your eggs with no salt, the staff there also will oblige. Special orders do not upset them. I have gotten a very healthy breakfast there once or twice. You just have to order it the way you want it.

I wasn't in the mood for breakfast, so I asked about the salad. Amazingly enough, when I asked, I learned there were three or four fat-free dressings from which I could choose. There were six salads (not counting your typical side salad) listed. I chose the Michigan Salad, which, strangely enough, didn't have dried cherries in it. I asked for it without the cheese (and should have asked for it without croutons, but I didn't think of it). What I got was salad mix, cherry tomatoes, turkey and evenly-spread real bacon bits with pretty good fat-free honey mustard on the side.

The second place was Starbucks in Milford. I was looking for something decaffeinated without sugar. I hit upon the Tazo Passion iced tea (Starbucks' only caffeine-free iced tea). If you drink it completely unsweetened, your mouth puckers up a bit, so I had my Venti ice tea sweetened with two Splendas. (Next time, hopefully I'll have the stevia packets in my purse.)