Thursday, September 27, 2012

Blueberry Oatmeal Bars (With Hidden Spinach)

Once these bars cool, you cannot detect the stealthy spinach.  At all.  
The bars are delicious and have no added sugar.

They are lovely for breakfast, snack, lunch, and dinner.  

One day last week while my husband was traveling for work, I consumed nothing else.

I do not regret it!

Blueberry Oatmeal Bars (with Spinach)
Makes 12 bars


2 cups old-fashioned oats
1 1/4 cups whole-wheat flour
1 teaspoon cinnamon
1/4 teaspoon baking powder
1/4 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1/2 cup honey
3/4 cup unsalted butter (1+1/2 sticks butter), cut into small chunks
1 cup blueberry preserves
1/2 cup spinach puree*

Preheat oven to 375 degrees.  Grease an 8 x 8-inch baking dish and set aside.

In a large bowl, combine the oats, flour, cinnamon, salt, vanilla, and honey.  Using a pastry cutter or two forks, "cut in" the butter into the dry ingredients until the mixture resembles coarse crumbs.  Do not over mix; chunks of butter will be visible. 

Set aside half of the oat/flour mixture.  Press the remaining half firmly into the prepared dish.  Bake until lightly browned, about 13-15 minutes.  

While the crust is baking, mix the blueberry preserves and the spinach puree together in a small bowl.  

Spread the blueberry mixture over the partially baked crust layer.  Then top with the remaining oat mixture and return to the oven for another 20 minutes, or until the topping is lightly browned.  Allow to cool completely before cutting into 12 bars.  


 *To prepare the spinach puree, add several large handfuls of baby spinach to a large skillet.  Add a few tablespoons of water to the skillet and cook the spinach over medium heat until it has lightly wilted.  Then puree the wilted spinach in either the blender or a food processor fitted with a steel blade. 



1 comments:

Caneel said...

I'm definitely trying a gluten-free version of this. Yumm!