Key Lime Pie Raw-ra Bars

Ok, that's not food, I know this... But who can resist providing foot-love to a happy fat, tail-less cat?  Apparently, not Rod...

One foot as headrest + One foot as back rubber = One extremely happy cat

And now to the food!

You all know Lara Bars.  What, some of you don't?  Oh my, you should experience one.  Or better, you should make them and save money.  Laras can be rather costly, and when they are so freakin' tasty you think that buying one is torture.  The ingredients on the wrapper are things that make me go hmmm...  There are usually 3, maybe 4, tops, depending on the flavor.  So, mine has 4 ingredients.  Would be a different experience.  Want to know the other secret?  They're raw.  Now, I'm not a hardocre raw-food advocate, but I do enjoy adventures in raw food (incredible restaurants from the East Coast to the West Coast make me want a dehydrator so bad... but then waiting 18 hours for a tortilla makes me have second thoughts.  I'm enamored with the idea, but I fear the expense of a good dehydrator and whether I'll really use it...)

Anyways, back to the bars... I'm calling them Raw-ra Bars because a) they're raw, and b) it's so fun to say!  Makes me think of a Team America joke... hehehe...

Raw-ra bars prior to slicing :-)

The flavor of the day is Key Lime Pie.  Though I think technically it's just coconut lime because I didn't use real key limes, but I won't tell if you won't.

Key Lime Pie Raw-ra Bars

1 giant serving (hehe), or roughly 10-12 bars... Up to you.  You can also make Raw-ra spheres, Raw-ra blobs, Raw-ra heart shaped love nuggets... 

CONTENTS:

3/4 cup medjool dates, pitted and roughly chopped (which you may as well do while you're pitting them)

3/4 cup cashews (or other nut of your choice)

Zest and juice from 1 lime

1/3 cup shredded unsweetened coconut

FASCIST DIRECTIONS:

1. Pit your dates.  Roughly chop them.  It was approximately 8 dates in total, or 2.5 dates, roughly, per 1/4 cup.  I kept the pits to count after the fact.

2. Toss into a processor and add cashews.  Process away, and it will be challenging because it likes to glob up and stay above the blades.  Just be patient and persistent... smoosh it down and run again, both directions helps.

3. When you give up (I gave it a few more goes, you'll see below), zest your lime into the processor and squeeze in as much juice as you can. 

4. Process again, until you get the best mixture you possibly can from your processor. 

5. In a large bowl, dump the coconut...

6. Add the clumped up gooey lime date cashew gunk and mix well.  It'll be more fun here, promise :-) 

7. Spread into a pan of your choice (or drop spheres, clumps, etc).  I went with a base of wax paper in the hopes that it wouldn't stick so much... but it still kinda did.  Maybe later today it'll be better ;-)

Tah-dah!!!  I recommend leaving it in the fridge for about an hour so it melds and comes together before slicing...

I think the next time I will use 1/2 cup of coconut, mixing 1/4 cup into the goop (it's not batter or dough!), and the 1/4 cup will be for a base so that it doesn't stick as much... and it'll have a cool coconut texture.  I shall create more, oh yes, I will.

*24-hour note... The longer they stayed in the fridge, the better they held together.  I still think I'll try the coconut thing because it was sticky, but it really did hold together super well after about 8 hours.  The next morning I had some for breakfast and it was awesome.  Sliced it, and it peeled right up out of the paper.  Perhaps wax paper was the right thing after all!