nutty chocolate caramel bars

This recipe has been in my stack of "haven't tried yet" recipes for years. It came from a bag of Diamond walnuts and I like to try recipes from product packaging. I figure they try a lot of recipes to come up with something really good to sell more of their product.
 
It calls for caramel ice cream topping, so last week, when I realized I had 2 open jars of caramel sauce in the fridge (from a mark down sale), it seemed like a perfect time to try these...

Nutty Chocolate Caramel Bars
2  cups flour
2 cups oatmeal
1 cup packed brown sugar
1 tsp. baking soda
1/4 tsp. salt
1 cup butter, melted
12 oz. package semi sweet chocolate morsels
1 1/2 cups chopped walnuts
1 cup caramel ice cream topping

Combine 2 cups flour, oats, brown sugar, baking soda,and salt in a large bowl (I used my stand mixer).

Add melted butter; stir until all ingredients are moistened.

Reserve 1 cup of this crumb mixture; press remaining mixture into bottom of ungreased 9"x13" baking pan.   ( I used the buttery side of a butter wrapper to press the mixture).

Bake at 350 degrees for about 15 minutes. 

Remove from oven; sprinkle with morsels and walnuts, Drizzle with caramel sauce.

Sprinkle with remaining crumb mixture and bake at 350 degrees for 20 minutes. Cool in pan then slice in small squares or rectangles.

We had these for dessert after our Sunday dinner of Italian Beef, macaroni salad, sauteed cabbage, potato cakes, and cauliflower casserole with added zucchini...and 3 varieties of sliced cucumbers that the Sasquatch brought from his garden.

The bars were pretty rich  - probably a better winter time dessert.  My family liked them okay, but not a favorite. 

All day it was cloudy here and looking like it would rain any minute but just a few drops fell off and on until nearly dark. Then we got a nice thunderstorm!