Simply delicious Strawberry Oatmeal Bars using only a handful of easy ingredients (cake mix & strawberry jam!) to make the fastest and yummiest dessert! This is my go-to dessert recipe!
I admit it. I’ve been holding out on you.
I have the easiest, fastest, best dessert recipe ever and I haven’t shared it with you.
It’s one of my very favorite recipes because it’s so dang easy and I usually have everything I need for them. I feel bad about it, I do! So I’m sharing them today with you!
A quick shout out to my hubby who is the most generous guy ever. He is always inviting people over to our house. Specifically to dinner. It’s always cute to hear him tell our guests “Yeah, Jen is a food blogger. She’s always cooking and she’s really good”. It’s like, no pressure Jen. Just make sure to throw together the best meal ever! Ha!
It’s great that my husband wants to help others out by inviting them to dinner at our house. The not-so-great thing is when he gives me little to no notice that they’re coming over!! I’m learning to be more prepared by always making a little extra dinner, and I’m learning to keep the ingredients for these bars on hand so I always have a delicious dessert I can whip up.
These are seriously the most delicious crumbly fruit bars ever. They have so much flavor packed in but they only have like 4 main ingredients. My sister originally gave me this recipe and I switched out the butter for coconut oil. You can also use any jam you have on hand. I like seedless strawberry or raspberry jam.
Whenever I serve these to guests, I always get rave reviews. No joke! Everyone loves these!
Strawberry Oatmeal Bars
Ingredients
- 1 18.5-oz pkg yellow cake mix (the sugar-free kind works great!)
- 2 1/2 cups quick cooking oats
- 3/4 cup coconut oil melted (or butter, melted)
- 1 cup seedless strawberry jam
- 1 Tbsp. water
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 375º F. Spray a 9x13-inch pan with cooking spray. In a large bowl, mix together cake mix, oats and coconut oil so that it's clumpy.
- Press 1/2 of the oats mixture evenly into the bottom of the prepared pan.
- In a separate bowl, mix the jam and water and spread over the crust.
- Sprinkle the remaining oat mixture evenly over the top.
- Bake in preheated oven for 18-23 minutes or until top is lightly browned. Cool before cutting into squares to serve. Enjoy!
Blueberry Oatmeal Muffins
Oh yay! I’ve been wanting to try a recipe similar to this one. I love the idea of cake mix!!
Oh my word, Jaren. They are so good! You have to try these!!!
Love this recipe! I use the sugar free cake mix all the time, and it has never disappointed me. Hubby won’t touch strawberry anything (silly man!), so I would use a peach or apricot jam. Very versatile and easy recipe, thank you!
Deb
Yes, Debbie! You can definitely switch out the jam to any flavor your hubby likes! I hope you try these, they are so yummy!
Love all these oat bars! These look amazing and so easy too!
Thanks so much Ashley!!
These look delicious Jen!
Thanks Rina!! They definitely are one of my favorite desserts! Thanks for stopping by!
What a great recipe!! I used to make bars like these, but yours is easy and less ingredients which is a win-win for me. Thanks so much 🙂
Thanks Crystal!! I love a good recipe with only a few ingredients! These are amazing!
If I use butter instead, how much would I use? Thank you – thinking of taking this for a snack to a Bible study (hope it’s no fail – my cooking skills are a bit lacking!)
Hi Jenny! Just use 3/4 cup of butter or margarine instead of the coconut oil! These are no-fail and your Bible study class will LOVE them!!! Let me know if you have any other questions!
Oh jeez, that sounds like my mom. She loves to invite people over when I’m home and have me make dessert for them haha. On the bright side, it must mean someone’s proud of you if they want to show off your skills :). These look delicious–I’d love to try them out using butter since I’m not really a coconut oil kind of girl.
These look delicious!
YUM! These strawberry oatmeal bars look so delicious, and I love how easy they are to make! Awesome recipe Jen, pinned 🙂
I wish there were not so many calories they look amazing
Yeah, not my skinniest dessert Gina! But they are so easy and really delicious – perfect for when you have last minute company come over and you need to make a quick treat! Thanks for stopping by!
These look amazing and I can’t wait to try them. Just one question about the nutrition information. Are the totals for the entire dish and then you divide it by however many bars you end up with once you cut them? Thank you for sharing your recipes!
Hi Kelly! I wish the nutrition info was for the whole batch, but it’s for one large square serving. Not my skinniest recipe, but still not as bad as a normal dessert, lol! Thanks for stopping by! Let me know if you have any other questions!
Ugh I hate that pressure! It’s like if I bring something somewhere everyone expects it to be TO DIE FOR!?!?! These do look like they would pass with flying colors though!
These are deceptively simple! They look amazing!
I love how easy these are to make…and they look delicious, Jen! Perfect for last minute guests (I can’t imagine if my husband invited people last minute!!)
Can you use old-fashioned oats instead for this recipe??
Janelle
Hi Janelle! I would say old-fashioned oats are too big for this recipe. I’ve never actually tried them though. I would stick with quick oats. Thanks for stopping by and for the comment! Let me know if you have any other questions!
Oh my gosh, LOVE them! They look amazing! Thanks Jen!
The Cheap Chef
Thanks Kristin! You’re so sweet!! xo!
Nice recipe. Thank you, Jen. Have a Great Week.
I made these today!!! They were a HUGE hit. Mine were not nearly as pretty as yours, but there wasn’t a bite left when the party was over!
Will this recipe work if using the new & reduced size cake mix? These bars look & sound delicious, so I don’t want to mess them up.
I just made these and I was so skeptical that they would form bars with just butter and a little liquid from the jam holding them together. But they work! I like how the jam bubbles up and makes chewy bits. I think strawberry is too sweet so I would use raspberry next time (or maybe even chocolate and caramel sauce?). I doubled the recipe and baked it in a half sheet pan and snuck in about twice as much water in order to activate the cake mix. The box mixes at my store were smaller (15oz?) but it worked. I also want to mention I pressed 2/3 of the crumbles in the bottom and sprinkled the rest on top. Thanks for this recipe- I needed a quick, inexpensive recipe to serve 50 at our local Teen Feed.
I’m so happy you liked it, Kirsten!! Thank you for the comment!