Easy Peasy Oatmeal Bars

I like shortcuts.

When I know a good shortcut I like to share it with my friends.

This recipe is one of those good shortcuts.

It's really easy peasy.

Oatmeal bars remind me of school lunches when I was a kid. In those days the lunch ladies served dessert with every lunch. My favorites either had peanut butter or oatmeal. I really liked oatmeal bars. Sometimes they were filled with fruit. Sometimes they had chocolate or butterscotch in them. Whichever way they made them, I always liked them. This recipe reminds me so much of those oatmeal bars and they can be changed up a number of ways, just like the lunch ladies did it so many years ago.

Over the years I've filled these bars with dates, chocolate, added nuts, lemon, butterscotch, and of course fruits. The neat thing about this recipe is the oatmeal crust stays basically the same. You can change up the filling and then drizzle a glaze on top or leave the glaze off. This time I decided to make oatmeal raspberry almond  bars.

Here is how I made this batch.

 For the bars I gathered these ingredients: 2 1/2 cups quick oats, 1 box of yellow cake mix, 1 1/2 sticks butter, 1 teaspoon almond extract, and 1 cup of raspberry jam.

I prepared a 9x13 glass pan by lining it with parchment paper and then sprayed the paper with PAM for baking. I preheated the oven to 375 degrees.

I put the oats and cake mix in a big bowl, then melted the butter in the microwave and added it  and the almond extract to the mixture.

 I combined all the ingredients until they looked like small pebbles.

 I patted half of the oatmeal mixture in the pan, then I warmed the jam in the microwave and then spread it over the oatmeal mixture. You can use more jam, according to your tastes.

Then I covered the fruit with the remainder of the oat mixture and patted it down slightly. Then I put it in the oven and cooked it for about 25 minutes until the edges started to turn golden.

This doesn't look much different ~ except for the slightly golden edges. I let the bars cool in the pan.

I decided to make an almond glaze, so I got 1 cup of powdered sugar, a teaspoon of softened butter, about 1/4 teaspoon of almond flavor and mixed them in a small bowl. Then I added milk until it became the consistency I wanted.

When the bars cooled, I pulled them out of the pan by the edges of the paper and cut them into bars. I separated the bars a little bit so the yummy glaze could drizzle down the sides of the bars.

And this was my end result. I really like the combination of raspberry, almond, and oats. Each time I make this recipe I think about ways I'd like to change it up for the next time.  I think the next time I might mix some sliced almonds into the oat mixture and then drizzle white chocolate over the top so it looks more opaque.


What was the taste tester's bottom line?
This is always a favorite. It is different each time so sometimes one person likes it better than another. This time it was GoodMan's favorite. People are always surprised with how easy peasy this recipe is.


The bottom line: It's always fun to share shortcuts with my friends. This one gets shared at family dinners, church potlucks, and bake sales.