Week 1: Granola Strawberry Bars

New year, new cooking challenge for myself.  I guess you could also call it a blogging challenge too since it will involve a weekly post just on something I've cooked.

Last year, I pushed myself to create better meal plans.  Ones that had one crock-pot meal per week.  I feel like I've really gotten better about having balanced weekly meal plans and structured grocery lists.  As a result, Scott is actually very comfortable doing the grocery shopping.  It might be because I have the list in order of the aisles.  It might also be because he started taking Sean and letting him ride in the car shopping cart, which apparently is a barrel of fun for the both of them.  Enjoy boys!

This year, I've decided to do a weekly post that challenges me to cook one new item a week.  It doesn't always have to be a full blown meal.  Like, for example, this week I chose to start with granola bars.  I'm making a conscious effort to make some homemade, wholesome snacks for Sean since we've snuck into the habit of crackers, crackers, and crackers since Evan entered the world.  I may choose to do a dessert, an appetizer if we're going to a party or get together, or even a drink!  Thanks to Pinterest and thanks to my new found love of The Pioneer Woman's show on the Food Network and her cookbook that the boys bought me for Christmas, I think it will be really easy to find some yummy meals!

So, for week 1 of the new year, I chose Granola Strawberry Bars that I saw on The Pioneer Woman's show last week.

It was a Friday night.  Scott was in the kitchen making one of his beer kits that he got for Christmas.  Yes, one of many.  He received two for Christmas and already had one that I had given him a few years ago.  I wonder what this says about you, hunny...

We had a play date the next morning with Trisha and Reese so I figured this was a great snack for the kids!  I love that you can use any kind of fruit preserves!  And I love that it's not one of those super hard, crunchy granola bars.  It's soft and gooey; something Sean will love!

The recipe seemed very simple.  Only a few ingredients, all of which we had on hand.  Except I used strawberry jam instead of preserves.  It was a little tricky getting the jam to spread across the dry mixture without the dry mixture pulling up.  In fact, at one point I wanted to launch the pan across the room and throw in the towel, but I stuck with it and it came out fine.  I would highly recommend heating the jam up for 30 seconds so it's a little easier to spread.  Or use preserves like it called for.  ;)

• 1 3/4 sticks salted butter, cut into pieces, plus more for greasing pan
• 1 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
• 1 1/2 cup oats
• 1 cup packed brown sugar
• 1 teaspoon baking powder
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• One 10 to 12-ounce jar strawberry preserves

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F. Butter a 9-by-13-inch rectangular pan.
Mix together the butter, flour, oats, brown sugar, baking powder and salt. Press half the oat mixture into the prepared pan. Spread with the strawberry preserves. Sprinkle the other half of the oat mixture over the top and pat lightly.

Bake until light brown, 30 to 40 minutes. Let cool completely, and then cut into squares.

Um, delicious!  Flaky, fall apart, gooey, wonderfulness packed into a tiny square!  I helped myself to quite a few during the play date.  Hey!  Moms need fuel during those events!