Rolled Oats = Granola and Pie!

I am a lover of Oats!

I just love the flavor SO much and enjoy anything and everything with Oats in it...
from our Steel Cut Oats for breakfast,
cooked oatmeal, baked oatmeal,
oatmeal cookies, cake and bread,
Apple Crisp, Granola Bars, Dutch Apple Pie...
you name it...It's all good

I have two more great recipes that have Rolled Oats as one of the ingredients.
Granola Bars and
Dutch Apple Pie.
These two recipes have become keepers for me and something that will be made often at my house!

GRANOLA BARS

I made this recipe when I was dating Tracy (which he just loved), however, haven't made it since...that is until I needed to make Granola bars for our yearly backpacking trip. I found a different recipe and made it up and it was really sticky, very sweet and didn't fare well when Tracy and I took them on our hike into Darby Caves.
SO,
I came back to my original recipe
and did a little tweaking and they were absolutely delicious...
not too sweet, a great texture,
basic recipe that can be customized to your liking and a BIGGIE...they used
ingredients that I have in my food storage.

Chewy Granola Bars
1 cube butter
1/2 cup peanut butter
1/2 cup brown sugar
1/2 cup honey
Mix the above ingredients together in a large sauce pan on LOW heat until blended.

Then add in:
1/4 cup wheat germ
1/2 cup sunflower seeds
1/4 cup chopped nuts (peanuts or almonds are the best)
2/3 cup raisins (or other dried fruit)
3 cups rolled oats

Mix all together and bake in 350 degree oven for 20 minutes (stirring twice).

Take out and add in:
1/2 cup chopped Peanut M&M's, OR, 1/2 cup chocolate chips

Stir well and put into 9x13 pan and let cool for at least 4 hours.

Cut and individually wrap bars in plastic wrap and store in air tight container in the fridge.
Great for lunches, afternoon kid snacks, OR, energy bars for hiking,

Enjoy!

DUTCH APPLE PIE

Tracy and I enjoy a good homemade pie
and hardly splurge on getting pie to eat when we occasionally eat out because homemade tastes SO much better than anything you can get at a restaurant.
However, I have never been able to replicate the
"Caramel Apple Pie" you can get a Perkins Restaurant, which is one of Tracy's favorite pies!

First off,
I LOVE apple pie made with FRESH apples straight off the tree.
There is nothing yummier to me!!

I have always struggled with bottled apple pie filling because the apples seems really soft and they're sometimes too strong with too many spices and until last year I have never bottled up any apple pie filling.

I came across this recipe last year from one of my Blog friends Mel.
It sounded delicious and so I decided to use her recipe because she gave a great recipe for using the filling to make Dutch Apple Pie and I wanted to try and make a yummy pie for Tracy that made us feel like we had gone and had dessert at Perkins.

This recipe definitely DELIVERS,
tastes better than anything you can get at a restaurant
and best of all, it was a perfect hit with both my hubby and kids.

Dutch Apple Pie

2 cups unbleached flour
2/3 cup packed brown sugar
3/4 cup rolled oats
1 cube melted butter
1 jar bottled Apple Pie Filling

In large bowl mix flour, brown sugar, rolled oats and melted butter. Mix until well combined. Save aside one cup for topping.

Press remaining mixture into a large pie plate (going up the sides).
Pour bottled Apple Pie Filling onto crust and then top with reserved crumb topping.

Bake 350 degrees for 45 minutes until golden brown.
Let sit 15 minutes before cutting.

Delicious topped with ice cream
and drizzled with Caramel Ice Cream topping.

Enjoy!