The Record Newspapers - Hometown News For Orange County, Texas

What a concept- healthy food that tastes good.

Two men in West Orange are attempting to do just that by opening Healthy Habits inside of Avila's Mexican Restaurant at 2613 Western Ave. Owners Thomas Warren and Pilo Avila said Healthy Habits is health food that counts macros (proteins, carbohydrates and calories) with pre-made food meals.

"It's for people who want to eat clean but have no time to cook. It's pretty tasty for being healthy," Warren said. "People can get a week's worth of food in containers. I was a personal chef and I got tired of going to people's houses and now I just have them come to us."

Their mission statement as a company is to bring healthy meals to people that are constantly on the go.

"In this day and age we all know how hard it is to cook and eat clean. We take the guess work out of what you should eat, how much you should eat, and what foods are good for you," the brochure read.

In addition to large container sizes, meals also come in medium and small sizes. They also deliver if the total is over $40.

Warren started off as a communication major at Lamar University. He found it wasn't to his liking. At this time Stan Holt took Warren under his wing at his restaurant in Houston and taught him the business.

Holt paid for Warren to attend Culinary Institute in Houston. While in school Warren wrote a paper to gain admittance on preparing healthy food.

No one else in Orange was doing this kind of food prep when he decided to locate back home.

Both Warren and Avila have second jobs in addition to Healthy Habits and are trying to get the business going.

The business now has a logo and a brochure designed and they can't keep up with the orders since the cat is out of the bag through social media and word of mouth.

"We ran out of containers," Avila said.

Plans are to expand the Avila restaurant to add a side building to house Healthy Habits if things keep going so well. Eventually they would like to expand to other cities in the area.

Some of the dishes listed on the menu include: spicy turkey spaghetti, chicken pasta, sesame ginger chicken wraps, Texas turkey chili, lemon pepper tilapia, chili lime chicken, ginger, garlic chicken and broccoli, tapas with turkey and zucchini and bulk orders and sides for bulk and custom orders.

Warren thinks they will keep the menu simple. They may possibly get with a nutritionist in the future and develop some special dishes and throw-in some specials every few days, such as stuffed jalepenos.

"The public wants to eat healthy," Avila said.

To contact Healthy Habits, call either 409-313-4106, or 409-670-0350. On Instagram at HealthyHabits2Go or by email at [email protected].

Photo - Thomas Warren and Pilo Avila have started Healthy Habits inside of Avila's Mexican Restaurant at 2613 Western Ave. Healthy Habits is health food that is pre-made for people on the go and food that is tasty too.

RECORD PHOTO: David Ball