Eating healthy doesn’t have to be boring. It’s still possible to indulge in your favorite foods, while nourishing your body at the same time. Here we share clean versions of delicious recipes that will leave you feeling and looking incredible and not to mention, insanely satisfied!

Name: Juliette Bittner

Instagram: @juli_______ette

Job description: Private chef and menu consultant.

Favorite dish to serve at a dinner party: A giant platter of anything abundant, family-style, whether it’s a spread of falafel and all the dressings/toppings, a seafood tower, or a roast chicken cushioned in a great bed of root vegetables. I most love to make a display with variety where everyone gets to assemble their own dish with their favorite proportions and toppings. The family-style presentation is so lively and always feels luxurious but not stifled. Watching everyone’s hands enthusiastically dart about the table and pass things to one another is my favorite visual.

Favorite skin food ingredient and why: We live on Maui and are incredibly fortunate to have many coconut palms around, so coconut water and the meat blended together. It makes this light, fluffy cream that is a true delight. The drink is so unctuous and packed with good fats, nutrients, and antioxidants. It’s also very hydrating. 

Top three Instagram accounts for inspiration:

@cabincorn

@giorgiaeugeniaoggi

@julieannmarr

Must-have cookbook: I cook by taste and personal preference, which I find to be the most fun way to learn about food and how flavors develop, balance, marry, and layer. You see an ingredient at the store, and then your mind goes in all the different directions of what would complement it. Since baking is more of a science that I haven’t mastered, my go-to since being a kid is Ina Garten.

Top three kitchen supplies you can’t live without: A very sharp knife, a mandolin, a Vitamix.

Three things you always keep in your refrigerator: Fresh berries, fresh herbs, and homemade coconut milk (my husband makes it every couple of days for our two-year-old). It has so many uses, from curries to baking.

Favorite online shop for kitchen supplies and/or specialty food items: Vital Choice Seafood, for the best wild salmon and salmon roe.

Go-to quick, healthy meal: Arugula, avocado, and fennel thinly shaved on the mandolin; topped with olive oil, sea salt, and a squeeze of whatever citrus you have on hand. Then finish it off with some shaved Parmesan.

Favorite healthy treat: Right now, it’s a chai latte using whole spices steeped in simmering milk with a bit of maple syrup. Feels like you’re being transported to a slow boat that’s meandering down the lagoons of Kerala.

Skincare mantra: Minimal and natural. I find it pretty beguiling when the products you use on your face and body are so pure that you could eat them. 

Eat this recipe for: These little squares taste like the most decadent and seasonally appropriate treat that we all yield to during fall, and all the while, they are also incredibly healthy.  These days, my whole family has been eating them for breakfast and then again after dinner, for dessert. They are vegan, gluten and grain-free, refined sugar-free, and even Paleo. The crust tastes like an almond biscuit (as it is pretty much just that); it’s packed with plant protein and healthy fats that make your skin glow. Meanwhile, the pumpkin custard is high in beta-carotene, a carotenoid that your body turns into vitamin A.  Besides being loaded with Vitamin A, pumpkin is a great source of Vitamin C, Potassium, Manganese, Vitamin B2, Vitamin E, and Iron.

Recipe: Pumpkin Pie Bars

One of my favorite pastimes is to elevate a “homey” classic and make it healthy without losing any of the joy and comfort it brings. This is a little turn on a well-beloved treat that is light, delectable, and very easy to make.

Ingredients:

FOR CRUST

1 cup almond flour

3/4 cup coconut flour

1/3 cup coconut oil

1 teaspoon salt

3 teaspoons almond extract

1/4 cup maple syrup (or maple sugar) 

FILLING

3 cups pumpkin puree

1 cup coconut cream

3 tbsp cornstarch

1/4 cup maple syrup or sugar

1/2 tsp salt

1/3 cup cashews soaked in hot water for 20 mins

2 teaspoons vanilla extract

1/4 teaspoon cardamom

1/4 teaspoon nutmeg 

1/4 teaspoon ground ginger

GARNISH (optional)

Sage

Olive oil

Coarse sea salt

Instructions:

Preheat oven to 350 F

Grease a 9 X 9 square pan (you can use different size pans; it will just make the bars thicker or slimmer in height) with coconut oil and line with parchment paper

Combine all the crust ingredients well in a bowl with a fork; the substance should come together in clumps and have a tackiness to it

Press crust into the parchment-lined pan so it forms a smooth even layer

Bake for 13 minutes

Meanwhile, drain the cashews and blend all the pumpkin filling ingredients together in a Vitamix or blender until silky smooth.

Once the crust is baked, pour filling on top and gently tap the pan on the edge of your kitchen counter to eliminate any bubbles in the filling.

Smooth the surface evenly with a spatula.

Return to the oven for 40 minutes.

For salty/savory sage garnish:

Fill a small saucepan with about an inch of olive oil and put on medium heat. When the oil is gently forming tiny bubbles, toss in a handful of sage leaves. Remove leaves from oil when they stop sizzling and have turned a darker and richer shade of green. Sprinkle with coarse sea salt while hot.

Remove pumpkin pie pan from oven, allow to cool and then let set in the fridge for 3 hours or more before cutting into squares and serving. The longer you let the custard set, the more easily it will cut into clean uniform squares.