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A Dairy, Gluten & Sugar Free Caramel Slice

This one is a truly scrumptious desert and so, so easy to make that it requires no skills!!

What is not to love?

Its calorific (um der, it is a friggin caramel slice) but using those nuts instead of butter and flour for a base is a total winner on the health front. The caramel is so totally gooey and sweet yet all from fruits not dairy and a shit tonne of sugar melted together. As for the chocolate, once you have made this and seen how easy it is you will be using it over ice cream (soy for me), mixing it in milkshakes and drizzling it over everything you bake.

Ok lets get to it..


Cashew Base

1 1/2 Cup (225g) Soaked Cashews
1/4 Cup (25g) Quinoa Flakes
1/4 Cup (25g) Desiccated Coconut
10 Medjool Dates
3 Tablespoons Maple or Rice Malt Syrup


1 Cup (150g) Medjool Dates
1/4 Cup (60ml) Melted Coconut Oil
1/2 Cup (120ml) Maple or Rice Malt Syrup
1/2 Cup (120ml) Almond Butter or Tahini or Cashew Butter - I used all 3
1 teaspoon Vanilla Powder
1/4 teaspoon of Salt

Chocolate Topping

1/3 Cup (40g) Cacao Powder
1/2 Cup (120ml) Melted Coconut Oil
1/4 Cup (60ml) Maple Syrup


Line a tin (around 30 x 30 cm) with some baking paper and set it aside.

Once you have blended the cashews in a food processor add all the other base ingredients to form the base and spread it across your lined tin evenly. Put that in the freezer whilst you start on the caramel.

For the Caramel, wash your food processor and simply add all the caramel ingredients and blend them until smooth. Again spread this across your cashew base and put it back in the freezer for a couple of hours...

2 hours later and its the last hurdle. Take your Chocolate Topping ingredients and whisk them together in a bowl. Pour it across your Caramel and Cashew Base and return that to the freezer for another couple of hours or until ready to serve.

Healing in to Happiness

I've had broken bones.
I've survived incidents that left visible scars.
I often wander around with cuts and bruises from day to day.
They heal, its all physical.

Invisible wounds are the hardest to heal, they take time and often involve the understanding of others alongside your own personal patience and acceptance. By expressing our weaknesses or even our wounds, we can work through them, heal them and even inspire others.

Oh hark at me. I say it as if it is a piece of cake. Just talk it through and its gone.. well no that is not quite it but the theory is there.

So many people chatter away about this confidence they have as they grow older, the can do attitude they suddenly possess when we all know it has always been there. I think it just comes into its own because by that stage most people have gone through or witnessed a few of the hardships in life and come out the other side.

The raising of children, the loss of loved ones, buying and selling property, starting businesses, failing businesses, divorces, illness.. all these things take so much from us and those we care for and rarely happen in our 20's.

I feel lucky that I learnt to share a good while back, it wasn't easy, in actual fact it felt quite awkward and pressured at first but the more I did it the easier it got. Thanks to my work I was booked for a fair few public speaking gigs and the more honest I was with the true emotions the more praise I received and unbelievable amount of people coming up to me after and saying how much my speech had moved them. Me? Moved someone simply by telling the truth about some of my low moments amongst my highs?. That felt special and made my realise that just by sharing I could be of service to others and who the hell doesn't want to be that?

The more open I was and on a grander scale (yes I actually started to share on my blog and social media, committing it to the internet forever)  the more I learnt I was not alone and again was actually  helping others as well as myself in managing to just speak my truth.

It's not comfortable to admit your faults out loud, its painful to share your raw emotions on private matters and it is nerve wracking to purposefully shatter the visions people have of you on your little pedestal and let them in on the secret that you too are just an average person who struggles with shit also. That said, once you do, holy crap does it feel amazing.

I recently re visited a moment in my life that had always troubled me. I had no idea if it did the same for the other person involved and after many, many years we tackled it. It was tough and it hurt, tears flowed, questions erupted between us and we both sighed a huge relief as we faced it head on and banished it forever. Of course the memories still exist but the fact that I thought I had hurt someone I loved in the past and always wondered if I actually had was now out in the open and able to be processed and put the the past.

For me it was a life changing moment.
It was affirmation that NOTHING is too hard to tackle.
The healing comes when you shine a light on the pain.
Pain loves the dark crevices and cracks.
Shine a light on it and stare it straight in the face to banish it forever by simply owning it.

How do you heal? Have you tried meeting your issues head on?