- PBJ
Friday night we celebrated the housewarming of our dear friend PJ. He just purchased a great house for entertaining and invited about 15 people over for dinner. He and his girlfriend BJ had an eclectic menu planned: boneless buffalo wings, steak and chicken fajitas, Spanish rice, eggrolls, salad, and oatmeal carmelitas. So I decided to show up 2 hours early, take notes and photos while they cooked, and feature them as guest chefs for my blog. Now I know that is a lot of dishes, and I lost sleep at night thinking about how to organize this blog post with so many dishes to cover. So I decided to cover my three or four-ish favorites: the boneless wings, the steak fajitas with Spanish rice and the oatmeal carmelitas–starting with dessert, of course.
(Disclaimer: This menu is not recommended for marathon runners in training the night before a long run. I barely made it to the port-o-potty before finishing mile 7)
Oatmeal Carmelitas
Oatmeal carmelitas are basically the best invention ever, combining melted chocolate, gooey caramel and a buttery, oatmeal nut crust. I’m not sure if it’s accurate to say that carmelitas are the best thing ever or is the best thing ever. I think carmelitas are meant to be cut into individual-sized bars, which would mean that they are the best thing ever, in plural form. But when I eat them the whole thing remains intact…in a fork-direct-to-pan fashion. So I think for me it’s more accurate to use the singular form and say that oatmeal carmelita is the best thing ever, even if it sounds funny.
But ANYWAY, back to the point. I love oatmeal carmelita. I love it warm with a scoop of vanilla bean ice cream on top. The problem is I love it too much that I eat it until I feel sick. And then there’s regret…
So my advice is: Give them/it a try. But if you’re like me and inherited the Sweet Tooth Disease from your dad, make sure to actually cut them into small bars and just eat one or two. Not out of the pan. Put it on a plate, then leave the room. Maybe the building. And yes, I think STD (as in “Sweet Tooth Disease,” not the sexually transmitted kind) is a real disease. Lol.
Ingredients
1 cup all-purpose flour
1/2 tsp baking soda
1 cup quick cooking oats
3/4 cup packed brown sugar
3/4 cup melted butter
6 ounces semisweet chocolate chips (I really like them with dark chocolate too)
1/2 cup chopped almonds (walnuts or pecans would work great too)
3/4 cup caramel ice cream topping (BJ is pretty liberal with this)
3 tablespoons all-purpose flour
Directions
Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Grease one 9×9-inch square pan. Combine the 1 cup flour, baking soda, oats, brown sugar, and melted butter. Mix to combine, mixture will be very crumbly. Press half of the mixture into the bottom of the prepared pan.
Bake at 350 degrees F (175 degrees C) for 10 minutes.Let cool slightly then sprinkle over the crust the chocolate chips and chopped nuts.
Mix the caramel ice cream topping with the 3 tablespoons of flour and drizzle over the chocolate chips. Top with the remaining oatmeal mixture. You will need to break it into small pieces to cover. Bake at 350 degrees for 15 minutes. Let bars cool before cutting (or eat warm directly from pan with ice cream on top if you don’t have to go running or leave the house the next day). Enjoy!
mealsbymisty 