Improving your diet doesn’t mean you have to deprive yourself of your favourite foods. I think that instead of thinking about removing ‘bad’ foods from your diet, it’s easier to first try to add in healthy foods – lots of vegies and other wholefoods. By adding in good foods, you are filling yourself up with fibre and nutrients so you feel fuller, but you’re also increasing your stores of nutrients that if you are low in, can make you crave unhealthy foods.

One of the ways that you can start to add in more healthy foods in some clever substitions. Brittnay from The Nut Butter Hub has shared some methods for swapping in some healthy foods for less healthy recipes.

Ingenious Ways to Make Your Favourite Food Healthy

Educating yourself is crucial when it comes to eating well. Rather than denying yourself or overindulging just a few tweaks here and there won’t have you missing out on anything. Turn these ideas and behaviours into habits to ensure you lead the healthiest lifestyle possible (while still enjoying it)!

Healthy Fried Rice, That Still Tastes like Rice

Rice can be good in moderation however, if you find that when you cook it there is enough for the whole village (and you managed it eat it all) it might be time to find an alternative. 

Enter cauliflower rice.

All you need to do is roughly chop your cauliflower and throw in a food processor for a minute.  You will find that the texture is very similar to rice. Use this ‘faux’ rice can be used in any dish where you would have normally used white rice and it tastes just the same. One of our favourites is cauliflower fried rice, the family didn’t even blink an eyelid when I served this one up!

Make Your Own Chocolate Bars

If you find you a get a hankering for chocolate, try making it yourself. There is a huge difference between cocoa and cacao, so just by making the conscious decision to understand what is in your food, will significantly improve your health.

Cacao powder is packed with nutrients and tastes just as yummy as cocoa. We love making our own truffles, it only takes a few simple ingredients such as coconut oil, cacao powder and sea salt.

Don’t Step Away from The Hot Chips

The next time you want fries try baking them instead of deep frying them in litres of oil. When at home try tossing your sweet potato wedges in a bag with olive oil and semolina. This coating with ensure you get a crispy oven chip every time. You can also try using a healthy oil like coconut to help reduce your cholesterol levels.

Can’t Give Up Mac and Cheese?

Processed pasta is not a good thing to eat on a regular basis. Get rid of boxed mac and cheese and make some at home. You can make a velvety cheese-based sauce with added butternut pumpkin. This sweet taste on mac and cheese is sure to be satisfying, and the added pumpkin will provide lots of nutrients and fibre.

Take it a step further and replace your high carb noodles with a plant-based pasta made out of chickpeas or legumes. The texture may be a little grainier than regular pasta but it tastes almost the same.  

DIY Pizza

You have two good options when it comes to pizza. You can make a pizza bread crust with cauliflower, but if is the classic pizza dough is that you crave? Then why not make it from scratch at home and just switch out what’s on top of the pizza instead?

If you want add a real kick to your pizza, try smoking your veggies. Putting the veggies in a propane meat smoker will ensure you don’t have to load up on cheese or fatty meats to add flavour. Try using eggplant or mushroom as they hold a lot of flavour and texture.

We Scream for Healthy Ice Cream

Everyone loves ice cream and since more and more people are cutting out dairy, alternatives should be very readily available in your local grocery store. But if you would like to make your own ice cream then trying banana nice cream is very fast and easy.

To make banana nice cream all you need to do is freeze 3 to 4 bananas and blend in your blender. The result is a healthy version of ice cream. Use your favourite toppings such as nuts and dark chocolate to make this even more of a special treat.

Totally Tasty Pudding

Chocolate pudding is great for when you want something decadent and sweet for dessert. Usually this milk-based chocolate treat can get you into some calorie trouble.

Try cutting out some of the calories by using an avocado base instead of cream. Yes that’s right, you can make your pudding with avocados. You want to blend some cacao powder, non-dairy milk, avocado, and sweetener in your heavy-duty blender. Let the mixture chill in your fridge a few hours. The result is creamy chocolate which is also really food for you.

Now you know how to make a few small tweaks to some yummy dishes! You just need to put it into practice and create some new habits. You will find that these habits will quickly evolve and soon you will be coming up with some tasty tricks and alternative all on your own.

Brittnay is an Australian who lived in London for the past two years.  She managed to squeeze in 21 trips to Europe & Africa in that time. She is passionate about her health and her family, and you will find her healthy and delicious recipes on The Nut Butter Hub.

The post Ingenious Ways to Make Junk Food Healthy appeared first on Alison Mitchell Naturopath.

Pizza is super easy and fun to make and is a great way to get the kids to eat lots of veggies.  This pizza is high in fibre , vitamins and minerals and low in sodium.  If you’re not going overboard with the amount you’re eating, and your toppings are fresh and mostly veggies then pizza can be healthy.

I made my own base and sauce but you can get them ready made.  Try to avoid the bases and sauces with too much salt, preservatives and additives in them.  Lebanese bread is a good option as a base, or you can buy spelt and gluten free bases from some supermarkets or online. If you don’t want to use tomato sauce, you can use a pesto made with basil and/or coriander (again, avoid preservatives) or make your own pesto – below is the ingredients for both sauces.

Ingredients

To make 2 large pizzas

Pizza Base

1 7g sachet dry yeast

1 tsp honey

3-4 cups spelt flour or strong unbleached flour

Tomato Sauce

1 brown onion, finely chopped

2 garlic cloves, crushed

1kg tomatoes

Handful basil

Salt and pepper, to salt

1 tsp dried oregano

Pesto Sauce

2 cups packed fresh basil leaves

½ cup packed fresh coriander leaves

2 tbsp sunflower seeds

2 tsp capers

4 kalamata olives, pitted

4 sundried tomatoes

2 garlic cloves

1/3 cup extra virgin olive oil

Pinch of sea salt

Pizza Toppings

Add as many veggies as you can, this is a great way to get some extra veggies into the kids.

Choose from:

Finely chopped kale, Onion, Capsicum, Eggplant, Shiitake mushrooms, Swiss brown or button mushrooms, onion, thinly sliced sweet potato, thinly sliced and chopped radish, olives, chopped green beans, corn, broccoli, spinach, asparagus.

Top with mozarella cheese or a vegan alternative such as tofutti

Method

To make the dough:

Start this at least 90 minutes before.

Dissolve yeast sachet in a glass or pyrex (not metal) bowl with a glass of warm water and a tsp honey.  Add 1/2 cup spelt flour and stir.  Let it sit for about 10 minutes to activate the yeast, it should become bubbly and foamy.

Gradually stir in the rest of the flour until it becomes a good dough consistency (smooth and stretchy, a little sticky but not too wet).  Knead the dough for 5-10 minutes or let your food processor knead it for you with the dough hook.  If you’ve used the food processor, transfer the dough back to a glass bowl and drizzle with a little olive oil to stop it drying out, then cover the top of the bowl with a plate.  Let it sit somewhere warm for at least an hour until the dough has doubled in size.

Separate the dough into 2 pieces and pull into a rough circle shape.  Roll out so it’s a few mm thin.  If you’re talented you could throw it around like this guy.

To make the tomato sauce:

Cut a cross over the top of the tomatoes. Blanch them in boiling water for one minute so the skin is easy to peel off. Allow them to cool and then peel the skin off, discard the seeds and roughly chop the flesh.

Gently fry the onion over a medium heat until soft in a little olive oil.  Add the garlic and fry for a futher minute.  Add the tomatoes and oregano and bring to the boil.  Reduce to a simmer and cook for approximately 30-40 minutes.

Puree with a stick blender until smooth.  Season to taste and add the finely chopped basil.

To make the pesto sauce:

In a food processor, combine basil, coriander, sunflower seeds, capers, olives, sundried tomatoes, and garlic; pulse a few times.  Slowly add the olive oil in a constant stream with the food processor running.  Stop to scrape down the sides with a rubber spatula.  Add a pinch of salt to taste.

Assembling the Pizza

Preheat the oven to 200C.

If you are making the dough from scratch and like me you’re not amazing at throwing dough around so it’s crazy thin, you’ll need to precook the dough for 10min so that the dough isn’t soggy.

Once you’ve done that, spread on your chosen sauce, and layer on heaps of veggies.  Sprinkle with cheese and cook until it’s golden brown.

 
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