I am falling hard and fast for the basic of the basic-est STRAWBERRY JAM right now. I know, I know I know I know. It’s so 4-year-old of me. But you guys, have you even let a spoonful of strawberry jam touch your lips lately? It’s a kiss of sweet strawberry love that I had all but forgotten about. For breakfast these last few weeks, I’ve been on a kick with English muffins. And do you know what? A toasted English muffin with plain salted butter and plain strawberry jam combo is crispy and salty and sweet in all the right places (those English muffin crevices!! gah) and is a valid reason for that my life is worth living. Have we all just forgotten about the jam basics in our quest for fancy roasted vegetable poached egg sun dried tomato pesto Parmesan cheese avocado toast? Major fail. I don’t know why jam has disappeared from my life, but today I am bringing it back with a new kind of fired-up passion. Let’s rekindle those jam feelings, right here, right now. It’s jam bar time. These are juicy, sticky, happy strawberry jam bars – more specifically, strawberry oat crumble bars – and they also happen to be allergy-friendly (no nuts) and vegan (not joking). This recipe is from a nutritious and bright new cookbook published by a food blog(ger) called Oh She Glows. It’s called Oh She Glows Every Day, and psshh, please, as if I am making any sort of introduction here. If you don’t know Oh She Glows already, you maybe have been living under a rock. or five rocks. This blog (and related cookbook) is very awesome, even for us non-vegans of the world 👋🏼 who just occasionally like to play around with the plant-based lifestyle. I don’t even know how she does it, but Angela, you keep workin’ those food miracles, girlfriend, and I’ll just be over there in a corner eating the rest of your jam bars k byyye. I think my favorite part about this recipe is the caramel-like sauce that you make to bring the whole crust together. The world says: vegans, isn’t it sad to not eat caramel? Vegans say: don’t you know you can make caramel with coconut oil, maple syrup and maybe some brown rice syrup, and a dollop of nut or seed butter? Wait tho – WHY HAS THIS BEEN KEPT A SECRET FROM ME. I literally could have stopped at this moment in the recipe and died happy. The Jammy awesomeness of these bars is big, guys. B-I-G. Everything about these screams sweet and nutritious after-school-snack – they have a little bit of a peanut butter and jelly taste to them, but super subtle because SUNFLOWER SEEDS. Not peanuts. You still get that creamy nuttiness that compliments the sweet lil pops of jam, but in a way that makes you go, YUM. What is that. I need more. And then somehow you find your fingers at the keyboard typing in o-h-s-h-e-g-lo-w-s-.-c-o-m because you have tasted and seen. You are a believer. Thank you to our vegan food blog hero Angela for another great cookbook, and for a yummy, sticky-sweet jam bomb to make our afternoons a perfect ten. ♡
MORE DELICIOUS DESSERTS:
No Bake Salted Caramel Cups
5 Ingredient Peanut Butter Cup Nice Cream
Raw Salted Chocolate Snack Bars
Addicting Caramel Apple Crisp Bars
Chocolate Raspberry Almond Butter Bars
4.8 from 4 reviews Lindsay’s notes: I cheated and used almond butter instead of sunflower seed butter because that was all I had. Still super delicious! I also baked mine in a 9×5 loaf pan because, again, I was under-resourced at the moment. But they turned out great! Just a little thicker and more begging for a glass of milk to seal the deal. I meannnn ALMOND MILK! You do you, friends.
