Clean Eating Strawberry Oatmeal Bars

Makes 16 servings
This is a great recipe that tastes like a dessert but actually packs a lot of whole grains, protein, and vitamin C. At first glance, it will seem like this dish is high in fat but most of it is from the olive oil, which is actually high in essential fatty acids like Omega-3 and Omega-6, otherwise known as “good fats”.

This is slighty gooier than yours will be since I read my OWN recipe
incorrectly and used a whole pound of strawberries instead of half, LOL

Ingredients:

• ¼ cup of mashed strawberries
• 1/3 cup plus 1 Tbsp honey, divided
• 1/3 cup olive oil
• 1/3 cup sucanat (can use brown/turbinado sugar)
• 1 ¼ cups whole wheat flour (I use King Arthur White Whole Wheat)
• ½ tsp baking soda
• ¼ tsp salt
• ¼ tsp cinnamon
• 1 ¼ cups rolled oats
• ¼ cup pecans, chopped small
• ½ pound strawberries, sliced

ONE: Combine mashed strawberries with 1 Tbsp honey. Set aside.

TWO: Mix the olive oil with the sucanat, remaining 1/3 cup honey, flour, baking soda, salt, cinnamon, rolled oats, and pecans until it resembles a coarse meal (I throw it all in my food processor and pulse it a few times).

THREE: Preheat oven to 350. Press 1 ¼ cups of the oat mixture into the bottom of an 8x8 inch baking pan. Spread the mashed strawberry mixture on top of the oat mixture followed by the sliced strawberries. Crumble the remaining oat mixture on top. Bake until golden brown, about 30 minutes.

Allow to cool completely and cut into 16 squares. (Seriously cool it completely or even refrigerate before slicing if you want bars... or eat it warm and it will taste divine but will be a bit crumbly.)

Refrigerate for 5 to 7 days and freeze fusing the flash freeze method to feed your freezer stash.

NUTRITION INFO:

Per serving - 174 Calories (59 Calories from Fat), 7g Fat, 1g Saturated Fat, 0mg Cholesterol, 76mg Sodium, 26g Total Carbohydrates, 3g Dietary Fiber, 8g Sugars, 4g Protein, 1% DV Vitamin A, 20% DV Vitamin C, 2% DV Calcium, 7% DV Iron