Bento Desserts Part 3 - Strawberry Oatmeal Bars

I'm continuing on my quest to find yummy desserts for bentos that have some redeeming, healthier ingredients in them.  Enter Strawberry Oatmeal Bars!

Aren't they beautiful with the chunks of real strawberry peaking through?


Now, I'll be honest, these recipes are not health food. They do involve things like butter, flour, and sugar. I'm just looking for ones that also use fruits and veggies, granola, etc, so there is a little something good in them. We use these as a treat and not to take the place of fruits and veggies, but a little extra good stuff never hurt anyone, right?

Right now, I have a ton of fresh fruit in the fridge right now and a big bag of real oatmeal that I bought at Sprouts. I started out looking for an oatmeal muffin recipe to go with the strawberries, as all 4 of us like strawberries. Somehow, in the process of looking, I started seeing recipes for strawberry *bars*. That sounded even better, so the hunt continued for one that used real strawberries, not strawberry jam. I finally found a few, mixed and matched them together for the final product.  They did bake longer than I would have originally guessed, more like 40 minutes at 350.


Fresh Berry Oatmeal Cookie Bars:
1 cup packed brown sugar
2 cups all purpose flour
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon salt
2 cups oats
1 cup unsalted butter, softened
2 cup fresh strawberries, sliced

Preheat oven to 350. Spray a 9×13 baking pan with baking spray.
In a large bowl, mix sugar, flour, baking soda, salt and oats until well combined. Add butter to bowl and rub with hands until a crumbly dough is formed. Divide dough into two portions.
Press half of dough into bottom of pan.
Cover with sliced strawberries in an even layer. Sprinkle with cornstarch.
Sprinkle remaining dough over the top, and lightly press.
Bake 40-45 minutes or until golden brown and set.
Allow to cool before cutting into squares.

We have a full 9x13 pan of bars, so the yield all depends on how big you cut them.

My note - For the top layer of dough, I rolled it out on the counter with a rolling pin to flatten it, then scooped it back in with a spatula. Much easier and I didn't dislodge our nice rows of strawberries.

Check out the dessert tag for some of our other experiments!

Comments

  1. Looks delicious! We've got three pounds of strawberries to use, so we may try this!

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  2. Crystal, Aldi has strawberries on for 99/lb through today. I've got to run get some more.

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  3. I am going to make these for the workers tomorrow coming to put in our new air conditioner

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  4. Wow, those look awesome! Thank you for sharing that recipe, I might have to try those :)

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  5. Ooo these look amazing thanks for sharing the recipe! Love that you used fresh strawberries instead of a preserve.Yumm!

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  6. These would be great for a healthy energy bar. Maybe substitute some of the sugar with some applesauce? Do you think that would make them to mushy?

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  7. I happen to have a huge bag of rolled oats, also from sprouts! I will be making these today!

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  8. These look really good! I was a little sad that my strawberries were all used up...I may have to go buy some more. Are the oats rolled oats, or quick cooking oats?

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  9. Rolled oats. I usually buy steel cut at Sprouts.

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