Easy Oatmeal-Caramel Bars

Wow!! Things have been crazy around here lately!! It seems like things are always CRAZY around here. Maybe I'm just crazy!! My allergies have been getting the best of me, but seem to FINALLY be letting up. I have never had allergies until last spring....ugh!! I have a lot more sympathy for my husband now! We have started our garden. That is always fun! We have carrots, peas, lettuce and spinach seeds in the ground. I am hoping to see some green coming up soon!

On to some yummy dessert! I found this recipe in my 'stash'. I'm not sure where it came from. I cut it from some magazine YEARS ago. The recipe calls for Pillsbury refrigerated chocolate chip cookie dough, but I used this cookie dough. These are yummy. I enjoyed them even more the next day:)

Easy Oatmeal-Caramel Bars

Ingredients:

• 1 roll(16.5 oz) Pillsbury refrigerated chocolate chip cookies or two cups of this
• 1 cup quick-cooking oats (I used old fashioned and they were still yummy)
• dash of salt, if desired
• 2/3 cup caramel topping
• 5 T all-purpose flour
• 1 t vanilla
• 3/4 cups chopped walnuts (I didn't use)
• 1 cup semisweet chocolate chips

Directions: Heat oven to 350 degrees. In a large bowl, break up cookie dough. Stir or knead in oats and salt. Reserve 1/2 cup dough for topping; press remaining dough into an ungreased 9-inch square pan.

Bake 10-12 minutes or until dough puffs and appears dry. Meanwhile, in a small bowl, stir together caramel topping, flour and vanilla until well blended. Sprinkle walnuts and chocolate chips evenly over crust; drizzle with caramel mixture. Crumble reserved 1/2 cup dough mixture over caramel.

Bake 20-25 minutes longer of until golden brown. Cool 10 minutes. Run knife around sides of pan to loosen. Cool completely, about 1 1/2 hours. Cut into 4 rows by 4 rows. Store tightly covered.

Blackened Salmon

I LOVE this blackened salmon!! This recipe is an adapted from a recipe that I found at realsimple.com.

Blackened Salmon

Ingredients:

• 4 salmon fillets, ~1/2 inch thick
• 3 1/2 T butter
• juice of one lemon
• 2 1/2 T paprika
• 3/4 t cayenne pepper
• 1/4 t ground thyme
• 1/2 t garlic powder
• 1 1/2 t kosher salt
• 1 t fresh ground black pepper, or course ground

Directions: Melt butter in an oven safe skillet(I used cast iron), add lemon juice. Mix all seasonings together in a bowl. Dip each salmon fillet(both sides) in the butter and lemon juice. Dip both sides in seasoning until well coated. Cook the salmon fillet for about 2 minutes per side in the skillet, until blackened. Remove salmon and place on a plate. Repeat with the remaining salmon until all are blackened. Place the salmon fillets back in the skillet. Bake at 400 degrees for approx. 8 minutes, until cooked through. My fillets were a little thinner and didn't need 8 minutes.

Peanut Butter Fingers

I haven't made these in SO long!! My sisters and I used to make these with my dad's little sisters. Yes, my dad's little sisters are my aunts, but they are younger than me and we grew up more like sisters or best friends, so I have a hard time calling them my aunts:)


These are SO good!! We all LOVE them and so did the girls that I made them for. Normally, I would neatly drizzle the peanut butter frosting, but my three year old had a blast swirling it on top. He is a WONDERFUL help in the kitchen!!

Peanut Butter Fingers

Ingredients:

• 1/2 cup butter
• 1/2 cup sugar
• 1/2 cup firmly packed brown sugar
• 1 egg
• 1/3 cup peanut butter + 1/4 cup for the frosting
• 1/2 t baking soda
• 1/4 t salt
• 1/2 t vanilla
• 1 cup flour
• 3/4 cup oats(I used old fashioned)
• 1/2 cup powdered sugar
• 2-4 T milk
• 16 oz. chocolate chips(I used milk chocolate)

Directions: Cream together butter, sugar and brown sugar. Add egg, 1/3 cup peanut butter, baking soda, salt and vanilla, mix well. Stir in flour and oats. Spread batter in 9x13 ungreased pan. Bake at 350 for 15 minutes. After baking,but while still hot, sprinkle with 16 oz. chocolate chips. Spread chocolate evenly. Drizzle with peanut butter frosting.

Frosting: Beat together 1/2 cup powdered sugar, 1/4 cup peanut butter and 2-4 T milk.

Red Enchilada Sauce

I know I've posted about bean and cheese burros with red sauce before. Here is the recipe for red sauce that we use. It is adapted from a recipe that came from my uncle(Thanks Kurt and thanks Nicole for sending it to me:)).

If I was only making this for myself and my husband, I would add some cayenne. The kids don't like it as hot so, I stick with only chili powder. I usually sprinkle a little cayenne pepper on top of my husband's burrito.

We really love this meal it is cheap and easy! I cook one pound of beans in the crock pot and then add the beans, cheese, some chili powder, garlic powder, onion salt and jalapeno to the food processor and blend away. Then the beans are all ready to spread on the tortillas and roll them up.


Check out the burrito in the top part of this top picture. Almost every time I make tortillas, I forget about the last one, leaving it to cook on the griddle until crisp. It is hard to get a crispy tortilla to roll nicely around the beans.

Red Enchilada Sauce

Ingredients:

• 1/2 cup vegetable oil
• 4 T flour
• 6 T chili powder (I used 3 T reg. chili powder and 3 T pasilla de ancho powder)
• 2 (14.5 oz) cans diced tomatoes, pureed in blender or food processor until smooth
• 1 (14 oz) can of chicken broth (or just under two cups)
• 1 t ground cumin
• 1 t garlic powder
• 1 t onion salt

Directions: Heat oil in a skillet over medium-high heat. Stir in flour and chili powder, reduce heat to medium, cook for 2-3 minutes, stirring constantly to prevent burning the flour. Gradually stir in pureed tomatoes, chicken broth, and spices into flour and chili powder until smooth. Continue cooking over medium heat approximately 10 minutes, or until thickened slightly. Season to taste with salt.

**This makes a large batch. I used it to make a 9" x 13" pan of bean burros with red sauce and had 1 pint left over. The sauce is so yummy and really good mixed in with the pureed beans and served as a bean dip.

Chocolate Chip Cookies

We love this recipe for chocolate chip cookies. I usually only get to bake a few cookies when I make this recipe because....we LOVE cookie dough at our house. This recipe is delicious, baked....or not:)

Chocolate Chip Cookies

Ingredients:

• 1 cup granulated sugar
• 1/2 cup firmly packed brown sugar
• 1/2 cup shortening
• 2 eggs
• 1 t vanilla
• 1 t baking soda
• 1 1/2 t salt
• 2 cups all-purpose flour
• 1 1/2 cups chocolate chips (I use semi-sweet chocolate chips)

Directions: Preheat oven to 375 degrees. Cream together sugar, brown sugar, shortening, eggs and vanilla. Add baking soda, salt and flour. Stir in chocolate chips. Bake @ 375 for approx. 10 minutes.