That One Time When I Went All The Way With The Strawberry Oatmeal Bars. We're Married Now. I'm Mrs Strawberry Oatmeal Bar.

Every now and then - ok, it's totally all the time, but then all heck breaks loose, someone falls down the steps, the dog eats all the butter off the counter, and i get surprise attacked by the Jehovah's Wittnesses - i want to try and bake something different. Something that makes kittens fall from the skies holding tulips and Caramello bars. Something that would make Jillian Michaels cry but then EAT IT. Since i'm still into taking time off (i ran like 7 miles last May...muscles need to recover...) and apparently, i CANNOT eat anything remotely healthy if i'm not also doing crazy workouts and running, i decided to try the Pioneer Woman's Strawberry Oatmeal Bars (clicking that will take you to her blog and recipe) again. I say again, because the first time i tried, i was looking at my cell screen as i mixed and i missed the flour in the recipe. So it was sorta like strawberry oat butter soup. YES WE ATE IT ANYWAY. It could have been ice cream topping. AMAZING. Seriously. We don't waste in this family *shoving 2yr old's uneaten plate of pancakes from YESTERDAY under the bookshelf*.

Anyway, i'm being all foody today and i'll give you pictures.

 

That's step one - you smoosh half the buttery oats and flour into the bottom of a 9/13 pan, after you probably eat some. Then you take a 10-12pz jar of strawberry jam and spread it around. This may possibly have made me go all Ralphy's Dad about the heater cursing. It wasn't easy. The bottom kept pulling up, and with my mood i was VERY tempted to throw it out the window (i have already thrown 6lbs of burnt fried potatoes out to the dog in the last week...i know. I KNOW). Cooler heads prevailed, and i triumphed. Then you sprinkle the rest of the mix on top. Smash it down gently. I actually used this knock off Pampered Chef pizza roller dealy i had. Then you bake it at 350 for 40 min. Now, because i am me, i already had dinner baking and it was at 375. So i was like screw that noise, ain't nobody got time for that, and baked it at 375 for 40 min. I was going to pull it out before, but it still seemed soupy...I thought it was going to happen again, even with the flour. Ice cream topping, here we come.

It DID get golden brown! It smelled ridiculously amazing. I was still VERY sceptical it was going to cut into bars. At all. But i let it cool all the way - mainly because we had to eat dinner anyway, and that means we also "had" to watch another episode of Monk. We HAD TO. I love that show. 2 yr old sings the song. It's amazing. Anyway whatever. Let those bad boys cool, then cut them in time to watch The Middle. First bite, i may have died. I LITERALLY SAW THE LIGHT OK. And then Ree Drummond and Strawberry Oatmeal Bars were all, "It's not your time...come back...Target needs you...i mean your family does...".

 

I can't decide whether that picture of the cut bar is glorious or kind of gross. But trust me, if you want THAT dessert, this is the recipe. The one that will set your sweet buns apart from all the other ladies at MOPS. The one that will make your friends happy but secretly mad at you because you made them wreck their diet. The wife at Church where allllll the husbands and kids and grandparents are like, "hey there, what did ya bring to the covered dish?". This is the recipe. I think just to make them more fancy if when i make them again, i might tap powdered sugar on top like you do with lemon bars. But they do not need it.

If i have one "don't" for you, it's probably don't hide with the rest of them and eat them all because it's oats and they want to get out of your body at some point and maybe you won't feel so good anymore. You're welcome.