Chocolate Oat Bars Recipe-No baking required

This weekend I have been busy in the kitchen trying to come up with make ahead dessert and appetizer recipes for bunco on Tuesday night and family visitors next weekend.  For those not familiar with bunco you have 3 tables of 4 women and usually at each table you have some sort of snack or two.  Well I am not sure how much time you all have between dinner and 7:30 pm with children but anything I can make ahead I am all over it.

As I was breezing through my cookbooks I found a printed recipe given to me by a friend several years ago.  I have not made it in a while and when the directions stated: freezes well, no oven needed to be turned on;and I had all the ingredients at home already, I started right away.  Thanks Colleen!

This is not stated in the original recipe but I lined the pan with tin foil so I could easily pull out the entire pan and cut it without worry about scratching my pan.

Chocolate Oat Bars Recipe

• 1 cup ( 2 sticks) butter or margarine  3/4 cup( 1 1/2 sticks) butter or margarine*
• 1/2 cup of firmly packed brown sugar
• 1 tsp Vanilla
• 3 cups uncooked quick oats
• 1 cup semi-sweet chocolate chips
• 1/2 cup crunchy or creamy peanut butter
• 1/4 cup mini chocolate chips–Optional

*I felt the original recipe mixture had a lot of butter at the bottom of the pan and could use a little less butter.  This is not tested just a thought.

1. Grease 9 inch square baking pan. Melt butter in a large saucepan over medium heat.  Add sugar and vanilla;mix will  Add the oats to the pan.
2. Cook over low heat 2 or 3 minutes or until ingredients are well -blended.
3. Press half of the mixture into prepared pan.  Use back of large spoon to spread mixture evenly.
4. Melt chocolate chips in small heavy saucepan over low heat, stirring occasionally. (or just microwave, I used a  2 cup liquid measuring glass)
5. Stir in peanut butter.
6. Pour chocolate mixture over oat mixture in pan;spread evenly with a knife or back of spoon.
7. Crumble remaining oat mixture over chocolate layer, pressing in gently.(you can add the optional mini or regular chocolate chips now too)
8. Cover and refrigerate 2 or 3 hrs or overnight.  Bring to room temperature to cut into bars.

(Bars can be frozen;let thaw at least 10 minutes before serving).

This is a very rich bar so I cut them fairly small.  My husband tried one and agreed.

Stay tuned to other make ahead treats.  I  cooked up some bell peppers this evening for savory treat.  The best part I found a frozen bag of cut of peppers at Trader Joe’s and they worked out great.  Plus it was much cheaper than buying 3 different peppers.

 I also made and froze Cranberry Scones but used Barefoot Contessa’s Recipe this time.  The dough was much stickier than the recipe I recently posted  but I baked up a few and my family enjoyed them.

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