Spiced Carrot Cake Bars: orange, ginger, caramel

 

 

 

I truly believe everyone comes into our lives for a reason: sometimes it’s positive, sometimes it’s negative, but it is always with a purpose and usually to teach us something.   I began going to a gym called “InLiv” soon after I moved to Calgary.  The trainers started out as these mean, torturous humans who reveled at the site of me struggling.   4 years later, they have become my close friends who have pushed me to new limits and opened my eyes to a whole new world of “healthy and happy”.  It doesn’t hurt that they are the perfect taste-testers for many of my recipes as well! 

I met one of my new trainers, Kori, last year and we quickly became close friends when we realized a similar passion: healthy food! My training sessions went from tabata training to tabata training while consumed in our latest farmers market finds or drooling over what we had for dinner last night.   We enrolled at the Canadian School of Natural Nutrition at the same time and have turned many holistic nutrition study sessions into wine nights with long talks of our future.  Kori is a beautiful soul and recently started lecturing at the local women’s shelter about nutrition and offering life coaching sessions there.  When she mentioned she was looking for a healthy but decadent treat for the women, I knew exactly what to make for them!  Spiced Carrot Cake bars with caramel drizzle and why not…a vegan vanilla cinnamon “frosting” as a second option.

The funny thing is I didn’t even try to make these raw or vegan – they just turned out that way! It’s always a good sign when everyone at the gym gobbles up my food experiments – and that they did! Dudes included.

Carrots are a great immune-boosting food along with the ginger and orange juice found in these bars.  Bugs Bunny’s favourite vegetable is the best source of beta-carotene which boosts the immune system  by stimulating the production of immune cells that protect the  body from infections and reduces the risk of many cancers.  With whole-food nutrition, it is the synergy of all the nutrients together in the food that provides these various benefits, as with carrots and the protection against certain cancers.  They also help protect against cardiovascular disease, slow aging, and even stimulate libido – yeah baby!

If you are looking for a post-workout snack, these are your guys.  The hemp seeds, brazil nuts and walnuts provide enough protein to repair your muscles after a workout while offering those essential fats I’ve been preaching about for brain health.  Hemp seeds are also an amazing superfood, providing all essential amino acids making it a “complete” protein; a great plant-based protein source. Yes, these are sweet, however, I used dates, which are a natural, whole-food source of sugar.  Unlike processed sugars like white sugar and agave, dates provide a steady stream of energy so as not to cause such a drastic spike in blood sugar.  The cinnamon provides a jumpstart for your metabolism as well as being a digestive aid.  Not too shabby for one little bar, right?!

 

Kori came into my life as a personal trainer, but has become a friend, a mentor and has given me motivation to start this blog.  She has been one of my biggest supporters and I am forever grateful to her for that.  Please go check out her facebook page for fun and interesting health tips: Move Eat Hug (I mean, how stinkin cute is that name anyway!) and stayed tuned for her holistic health and wellness business!

I hope the women at the shelter liked these bars as much as the trainers at the gym did! If you suffer from diabetes, cardiovascular disease or are watching your sugar intake, I would forgo the caramel drizzle and vanilla cinnamon frosting.  Don’t worry, the bars are delicious enough on their own!