Vegan Salted Caramel Bars

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These vegan salted caramel bars are so good they almost made me bust my macros!!!

Hello friends!  I’m now 2 days out from my upcoming bodybuilding competition, and today is my last day of carb and calorie depletion before refeeding tomorrow in final preparation for the show on Saturday.  I’m hungry!!  In every sense of the word.

The fun part of “peak week” for me is deciding what post-show treat I’m going to indulge in.  Lots of competitors eat donuts, but I’ve never been into them.  However, the advantage of donuts is that they’re store-bought, thereby eliminating pre-show temptation!  I can’t say the same for these rich, chocolatey, gooey, nutty bars…

They were my go-to after my show last year and oh! I was in heaven as I bit through 3 layers of pure decadence: first, the top crackling layer of rich dark chocolate… then into the chewy, sweet/salty caramel layer made from dates and nut butter, sweetened with a bit of maple syrup.  Finally, the dense crunch of nutty goodness that is the base: blended dates, nuts, cocoa powder, & coconut (leave it out if you don’t like it, it will turn out the same.)

Can you tell I’m drooling over even the thought of eating them again after this competition is over?? As I cut them into squares to pack up to take with us to the show tomorrow, I was overcome with an almost primal urge to devour the whole pan.  It seriously took all my willpower to do nothing more than take these pictures and then pack them carefully into Tupperware for the trip to Subic Bay. But I did, and I reckon that was my final little victory before my carb refeed begins tomorrow!

I do hope you make these and love them as much as I do.  They’re so easy and all you need is a food processor.  Well, that and the discipline to let them chill thoroughly… or in my case, stay out of them until after the show!

Enjoy, friends! I’ll keep you posted on the results of the competition.

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