Oatmeal Butterscotch Bars

I have super exciting news to share today! Today, I woke up and decided to go for a run.  The weather was gorgeous, I was in a good mood, and I have been wanting to try out this run for a while.

I really wanted to run along the lake, but in order to do this, I would need to run about 7 miles.  I had never ran this far before, the longest run I did was about 6.25, and I had not run that far since last summer.  However, I felt like I needed to do something to excite me and make me feel great.

And...I did it! I ran the entire time, no stopping, and it was great! I ended feeling amazing about myself.  Also, the crazy part was that I felt like I could keep going! This whole experience made me feel so strong.  I think I might even go for 8 soon...

Of course, I also have a fantastic recipe to share with you all.  My friend, Casey, came back from spring break with a "surprise" for me.  Turns out, his uncle works for Nestle and his mom thought I would like a ton of chocolate chips! He brought me back EIGHT bags! Dark, milk, semi-sweet, white, and butterscotch! With only a month left of school, I knew I had to get baking to use up all this deliciousness.  I didn't have any good recipes saved that called for butterscotch, so I asked Casey for some suggestions.  He said his favorite butterscotch recipe was for oatmeal butterscotch cookies.  I took his advice and went on a search for some fun recipes.  I found a great one from Sweet Treats & More!  The original calls for a brown sugar glaze, but I decided to just make the cookie bars.  They were super delicious and they smelled soooo good.  My room still smells like yummy butterscotch...I love it.

Oatmeal Butterscotch Bars (adapted from Sweet Treats & More)

Ingredients:
1 cup flour
1 tsp baking soda
1/2 tsp salt
1/2 tsp cinnamon
1/2 tsp nutmeg
1/2 tsp cloves
1 cup butter, softened
3/4 cup sugar
2 eggs
1 tsp vanilla
3 cups old-fashioned oats
12 oz butterscotch chips

Directions:
1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees and grease a 9 x 13 inch pan.
2. In a medium bowl, whisk flour, baking soda, salt, cinnamon, nutmeg and cloves.
3. In a large bowl, beat butter with sugar until light and fluffy.  Beat in eggs, one at a time until well combined.  Mix in the vanilla.  Slowly, incorporate the flour mixture until just combined.  Stir in the oats and butterscotch chips.
4. Pour the batter into the prepared pan and spread evenly.  Bake for about 25 minutes.
Enjoy :)