Happy New Year!

Hi everyone! I hope you all had a beautiful new year’s eve and that you’re enjoying 2013 just as much as I am! It feels like the beginning of something that will be incredible right? Though I still miss my grandma and she left us very sad, I’m very happy at the same time for everything that is happening around me. So many changes and exciting things coming!

First things first, I’m leaving tomorrow to Costa Rica!! I feel like I can’t really express how excited I am, finally I’m doing what I like and things are starting to flow the way I always wanted. I’m doing a permaculture design course and then I’ll be staying there for a month or so to learn more about permaculture. After that, I will come back home and start figuring out what I’ll do with school and which university I’ll apply for again, but first I need to decide if I want to stay in Mexico or look for something abroad like the US because I’m definitely not going back to cold Montreal. No, no.

I’m so looking forward for this! Remember I went to Costa Rica last year in March? Or my Costa Rican Dinner? Can’t wait!

Anyways, back into food… Our favorite part right? I made these Raw Caramel Bars for my mom 2 days ago and they disappeared in 1 day.

My sister, my mom and two more friends tried them and they all loved them, non of them are vegan, (except for my mom who is into veganism but no dogma or title, she’s just interested in healthy food choices), so that means these bars are really successful with everyone! Yes!

I basically was letting my creativity flow in the kitchen once again, I wanted to create something sweet and gooey, and I definitely nailed it! So you want to know what’s inside these gooey, sweet and delicious bars? You will only need 4 ingredients, it is extremely easy to do and you can make it either low fat or completely “fat free” if you don’t use the almonds for topping.

Gastrawnomica’s Raw Caramel Bars

Yields 8 medium squares

3/4 cup dried Mulberries

5-7 big medjool dates, pitted

1 cup dates, pitted and soaked 15 hours

Sliced almonds (optional)

Blend the mulberries and dates in a food processor until you get a gooey dough. You can substitute dates with raisins. Depending on the size of your dates you’ll need more or less. Prepare your caramel sauce by blending the soaked dates with some of the soaking water, add slowly until creamy. In a square pan put your Mulberry-Date crust and then top with the caramel sauce. Top with sliced almonds or substitute with crushed Mulberries for a “fat free” version. Refrigerate for 3 hours before serving. It will last up to 4 days in the fridge, but trust me, it won’t last that long before you eat them all! Super yummy!

I hope you all enjoy them as much as we all did in my house. And don’t forget to let me know what you thought about them, I’m sure they will be a success for you too! I won’t be able to write many post in the next couple of weeks because I’ll be busy learning in Costa Rica! But I promise to put updates and some pictures on my facebook page, so if you’re not following me on twitter or facebook do it today! You will be the first one to see what I’m up to in the “Happiest country in the World”.

Sending everyone lots of love and my best wishes for this new year 2013!! Blessings! TTYS.