Many things contribute to us being the happiest, healthiest versions of ourselves. Moving and nourishing our bodies plays a huge part in this, as does enjoying our favourite luxuries in life. It can often seem these two things are in conflict. Let me prove to you that is far from true!

Turn some of your sinful, luxury indulgences in to saintly treats with my devilishly good tweaks…

Clever Chips ‘n’ dips

The moreish social snack can be extremely dangerous when it comes to your clean eating resolutions. Wow your social circle with my danger-free re-vamp.

Feeds: 2-4

Cooking Time: 8-12 hours

For the chips:

Veggie chips

Ingredients

• 1 whole beetroot
• 1 whole swede
• Coconut oil spray
• Pinch Himalayan rock salt

Method

• Turn your oven on to its lowest possible heat setting, if you have a fan oven turn the fan on. You are aiming to dehydrate rather than cook the veggies.
• Slice the beetroot and swede very thinly; this is done best with a mandolin.
• Line a shallow oven dish with baking paper and spray to finely cover with the coconut oil. Lay the sliced vegetables on the baking paper without overlapping, sprinkle with the salt and place in the oven.
• Leave for 8 – 12 hours; turning the chips occasionally (every 2 hours or so).
• Remove from the oven and serve.

For the dip:

Spicy chilli and basil dip

Ingredients

• 40g Pine nuts
• 1 Tbsp Olive oil
• Handful fresh basil
• Pinch rock salt
• ½ Red chilli chopped

Method

• Add all of the ingredients to a food processor / blender and blend until smooth. Garnish with a basil leaf and serve along side the chips.

Top tip: Play around with the veggies you use. The above also works really well using pumpkin, parsnip and sweet potato.

Eggemplary McMuffin

Replace the fast food fail with this nourishing, tummy-pleasing winner.

Feeds: makes 1 muffin

Cooking time: 20 minutes

For the bun:

Ingredients

• 1 Large eggplant
• 1 Tsp olive or coconut oil

For the filling:

Ingredients

• 1 Organic free-range egg
• 50g Smoked salmon
• ½ Avocado
• 1 Large beefsteak tomato
• 1 Tbsp Apple cider vinegar

Method

• Preheat the oven to 180 degrees, cut the eggplant in to two (2) 1 inch slices and heat the olive oil in a griddle pan on a medium heat. To poach the egg, add the eggplant slices to the pan and cook for a few minutes on each side, then place in the oven for 15 minutes.
• While the eggplant is cooking through, prepare the remainder of the ingredients by slicing the avocado and tomato and bringing a pan of water to the boil. Add the apple cider vinegar to the boiling water and stir using big circular motions to make the water swirl, while the water is still swirling crack in the egg and cook to your liking (3-5 minutes for a runny egg).
• Remove the eggplant from the oven, transfer to a plate and layer the egg, smoked salmon, avocado and a slice or 2 of tomato on one half of the eggplant, top with the second half and serve with a handful of rocket leaves.

Top tip: Experiment with different filling combos. This also makes a mean steak sandwich!

Perfectly packed Pizza

Taste buds are never disappointed with pizza. Unfortunately, the rest of our body often doesn’t benefit quite as much from traditional pizza ingredients. Try my nutrient packed version to please the whole body.

Feeds: 4

Cooking time: 50 minutes

For the base:

Ingredients

• 350g Pumpkin
• 100g Almond meal
• 20g Coconut flour
• 1 Egg
• Pinch Himalayan rock salt
• Olive oil

For the topping:

Ingredients

• 8 Truss tomatoes
• Handful fresh basil
• 1 Small garlic clove finely chopped
• Green capsicum
• Anchovies
• Eggplant
• Kalamata olives
• Rocket
• Pinch black pepper and Himalayan rock salt

Method 

• Pre-heat the oven to 180 degrees.
• Place the truss tomatoes in the oven and cook for 20 minutes, remove and place to one side to cool.
• Steam the pumpkin for 5-6 minutes until soft; allow to cool fully before transferring to a nut milk bag or cheesecloth and squeezing out the excess fluid.
• Add the pumpkin along with the remainder of the base ingredients (except for the olive oil) to a blender / food processor and blend until a smooth.
• Sprinkle a clean work surface with a little coconut flour / almond meal and roll the base mixture out to form a healthy dough.
• Top a 91/2-inch baking tray with baking paper and brush with a little olive oil to prevent sticking. Now add your dough mixture to the tray and spread out to make a circle around 1/2 an inch thick and place in the oven (still at 180 degrees) for 40 minutes, carefully turning the over half way through.
• Add the cool tomatoes, garlic and basil to a blender / food processor and blend until smooth.
• Chop the green capsicum, eggplant, anchovies and olives.
• Once the base has cooked through, remove from oven and spread evenly with the tomato mixture, sprinkle on the additional toppings, season with the salt and pepper and return to the oven for a further 10 minutes.
• Finish with a handful of rocket and serve immediately or store in the fridge for up to 3 days.

Top tip: Get your creative juices flowing and pay around with toppings.

Not so Daim bar

This was my absolute favourite chocolate bar as a child. But there is good reason the term ‘You Daim bar’ became a playground insult – it really isn’t a smart bar when it comes to your insides. Not willing to give up this nostalgic treat, I transformed the sugary baddie in to a tasty goodie.

Feeds: makes 4 Bars

Time: 12 hours

Ingredients

For the centre:

• 3 Pitted dates
• 65g Rice malt syrup
• 10g Unhulled tahini
• Pinch sea salt

For the chocolate:

Ingredients

• 25ml Melted coconut oil
• 20g Raw cacao powder
• Coconut milk
• ¼ Tsp Stevia

Method

• Add the ingredients for the centre to a food processor and blend until well combined.
• Lay a sheet of baking paper on a flat surface, spoon the blended mixture on to the paper and use a spatula to flatten and spread the mixture evenly, forming a thin, square layer.
• Place a second sheet of baking paper over the top to sandwich the layer and place in the freezer for 4 hours.
• 10 minutes before you are ready to remove the centre from freezer, mix the coconut oil, raw cacao and stevia until well combined and runny.
• Remove the centre mixture from the freezer but DO NOT remove from the baking paper, using a pair of scissors cut into 4 bar shapes.
• Stir a dash of coconut milk in to the chocolate mixture and one by one remove the baking paper from each bar to dip and coat in a generous layer of the chocolate. You need to work quickly here because the centre will melt quickly and the chocolate will set quickly.
• Wrap each chocolate-coated centre in a single square of baking paper and place back in the freezer for a further 8+ hours.

Top tip: For a yummy dark chocolate option omit the coconut milk from the chocolate mixture.

Top Choc tops

The ultimate Australian movie snack no longer fits with the Australian clean eating way of life. My version is as clean as a whistle and super simple to make.

Serves 4

Time: 8 hours

Ingredients 

• 400ml Can of coconut cream
• 20 ml Melted coconut oil
• 15g Raw cacao powder
• 2g Stevia

Method

Mix the coconut oil, raw cacao and stevia together in a bowl until smooth and runny, add a teaspoon each of this mixture to 100ml ice-block moulds, top with the coconut milk and freeze for 8+ hours.

Top tip: For a double chocolate hit, mix a teaspoon of raw cacao in to the coconut milk too.