#52 When Life Gives You Lemons

In an effort to make my blog more well-rounded and make myself into a lifestyle blogger, I'm determined to learn how to bake and to cook. Granted these are skills that I'll be needing for life in general so I would've had to figure it out eventually, but my desire to learn right this second basically comes from my selfish wishes to become a lifestyle blogger. I may write about my life, but I feel that adding some recipe blogs every now and then will add another facet to it! Hopefully I don't burn the house down in the process, but hey, practice makes perfect!

Two trips to the grocery store and hours later, I, with a very large amount of help from my friends, have managed to make oatmeal lemon bars. Well, I should say they did most of it while I walked around my kitchen confused as to where to find everything and what the heck to zest a lemon with. Basically they took the reigns, but I was in fact involved in the painstaking process! I was present!

We decided on oatmeal lemon bars because 1) I absolutely love lemon as I mentioned in my last post and 2) I absolutely love oatmeal, which I didn't mention, but now you know! I'm a complete sucker for oatmeal chocolate chip cookies, oatmeal creme pies, just plain oatmeal, anything really. So when we found the recipe for a dessert that combined lemon and oatmeal (two of my favorite things in the world) we had to go for it! I'll share with you the not-from-scratch version I used cause I won't even lie and say that I made it from scratch. I'm not that domestic yet!

Ingredients:

• 1/2 cup cold butter
• 1 pouch (1 lb 1.5 oz) Betty Crocker® oatmeal cookie mix
• 1 egg
• 1 can (14 oz) sweetened condensed milk (not evaporated)
• 2 teaspoons lemon zest
• 1/4 cup lemon juice (about 2 lemons)

Directions:

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Spray the bottom and sides of an 8-inch square pan with non stick spray.
2. In a large bowl cut the cold butter into the cookie mix with a fork or pastry blender.
3. Stir in the egg until the mixture is crumbly.
4. Press half of the dough into the bottom of the greased pan and bake it in the oven for 15 minutes.
5. In a small bowl mix the sweetened condensed milk, lemon zest, and lemon juice until thick and combined.
6. Spread lemon mixture over baked crust and evenly crumble remaining dough on the top.
7. Bake another 25 minutes or until the top is golden brown. Let cool and refrigerate for 30 minutes or until set. Cut into bars and store in the refrigerator.

And here we have the finished product!

Give baking a try! You never know what'll happen! Now will whatever I do next come out well? Stay tuned!
Morgan