Blueberry Crumb Bars

You should see my freezer. It is absolutely full of virtually every type of frozen fruits and vegetables I can find. I much prefer using frozen over canned, and often times, even over fresh. The problem with us buying fresh fruits and vegetables is that our schedule is so unpredictable that some days we are home during the day, some we are home at night, and some we barely make it home in time for bed! By time I am able to use them all, they are going bad. More often than not, half of what I buy goes to waste. Not on purpose, but still, that's a lot of money I spend going into the garbage!

Anyway, I'm always looking for recipes that call for or can easily use frozen fruits and vegetables, and this recipe was one of those. These bars were pretty amazing. But pretty unhealthy too, with all the sugar and shortening. And pretty messy to eat. I ate one (ok, two!), then packed the rest of them up for Mr. Z to take to work tomorrow, because I know exactly what will happen if I leave them around my house!

Blueberry Crumb Bars

from AllRecipes.com, written as I made it

Ingredients:
1 1/4 c. white sugar, divided
3 c. all purpose flour
4 c. frozen blueberries
1 tsp. baking powder
1 c. shortening
1 egg
1/4 tsp. salt
1/8 tsp. cinnamon
3 tsp. cornstarch

Preheat oven to 375 degrees. Grease a 9x13 inch pan with cooking spray. Stir together 1 c. sugar, flour, baking powder, salt, and cinnamon, until well mixed. Add shortening and egg, then use stand or hand mixer to blend. Dough will be crumbly. Divide dough in half.

Pat half of the dough into the bottom of greased pan. In a separate bowl, mix remaining 1/4 c. sugar and cornstarch together. Add blueberries, and toss to cover all blueberries. Pour blueberries over the crust in pan. Crumble remaining half of dough over blueberries. Bake for 45-50 minutes, or until top is starting to brown. Let cool before cutting into squares.