I don’t understand why it’s considered ignorant to be uninformed about current events.  Current events cause me stress and anxiety.  I don’t watch any news.  I don’t read anything that has to do with national or world current events.

Some people may even consider my attitude to be unpatriotic and irresponsible.  I consider my attitude to be a nice favor to the people around me and a favor to society as well.  If I remain uninformed I’m content.  If I’m content I’m nicer to the people around me and I’m more productive and positive at home, at work, and on this blog.

Occasionally I’ll read something my sister or brother posted on Facebook about politics and the world and I’ll pipe up to Ben about it but I usually try to keep it to myself.  One of the drawbacks to staying uninformed is that you look really stupid if you try to talk about politics or the injustices in the world because you really don’t know what you are talking about.

But, there are a few things I’m clear on and I don’t have to be up to date on current events for them to make sense.  There are distinct differences between love, hate, fear, and education.  I may not be all informed but I do know when I’m in the presence of people who love, people who hate, people who are scared, and people who are educated.  I tend to naturally migrate toward people who love.

And speaking of love, here are some chocolaty toasted oatmeal bars you should bake for someone you love!

For weeks I’ve had the idea to toast raw oatmeal and then toss it into something sweet.  When I ran across this recipe at Pinch of Yum I knew I had to try it (or something like it).

These bars are sweet, chewy, toasty, and best of all easy!

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Triple Chocolate Toasted Oatmeal Bars

Ingredients

• 1 1/2 cup all purpose flour
• 1 1/2 cup rolled oats toasted
• 1 cup dark brown sugar
• 1 tsp. baking soda
• 1 tsp. salt
• 1/2 cup unsalted butter melted
• 1 cup each white chocolate chips, milk chocolate chips, and semisweet chocolate chips
• 1-14 oz. can sweetened condensed milk

Instructions

1. Line a cookie sheet with parchment or foil.
2. Sprinkle the raw oatmeal evenly across the lined cookie sheet.
3. Place the oats about 4" from the broiler.
4. Toast the oats for 1 to 3 minutes keeping an extremely close eye on them (they can begin to burn in an instant, trust me)!
5. Line a 9"x13" baking pan with parchment and turn your oven down to 350 degrees F.
6. In a large mixing bowl combine the flour, toasted oats, brown sugar, baking soda, and salt. Stir until well combined.
7. Drizzle the butter into the flour mixture and continue to stir the mixture until the butter is well combined with all the dry ingredients (the mixture will be somewhat dry and crumbly).
8. Transfer 2/3 of the flour/oat mixture to the parchment lined pan and press it evenly over the bottom of the pan.
9. Bake this bottom layer for ~10 minutes (until just beginning to brown).
10. Remove bars from oven and evenly sprinkle on all the chocolate chips.
11. Drizzle the sweetened condensed milk evenly over the top of the chocolate chips.
12. Evenly crumble the the remaining flour/oat mixture over the condensed milk.
13. Bake bars uncovered for another 20 minutes or so.
14. Remove bars from the oven and let them cool completely.
15. When the bars are cooled completely cut into squares and EAT!!!
16. Recipe Adapted from Chocolate Caramel Bars on Pinch of Yum