This summer I have the honor of interning with The Nashville Food Project, an organization in Nashville, TN that provides meals to high risk families and individuals. For my internship, I am able to experiment with the donations we get from various farms, local grocery stores, and other food vendors to make kid friendly meals for the "kiddos" I cook for at the St. Luke's Community House in West Nashville. Which, is where the inspiration for this weeks recipe came from. For snack time this past week, I found a recipe about strawberry oatmeal bars (http://www.wellplated.com/strawberry-oatmeal-bars/; outcome is posted below), which was a big hit from the toddlers through pre schoolers we serve at the St. Luke's Community House.

However, I remade the recipe to fit our busy college schedules to make a nice little pick me up on the go breakfast. These are super easy to make during our busy college schedule but are also great for your summer babysitting job. Kid-friendly, easy to make and nutritious? What else can you ask for in a breakfast bar... More fruit to add and it still taste good? Oh yeah you bet! This recipe is great to use a diversity of fruits: frozen or fresh; peach, strawberry, raspberry, blueberry. You also can make it into a bar or roll them into a ball, whichever works best for your convenience.

Ingredients:

1 C Rolled Oats

1/2 C All Purpose Flour

4 Tbs Unsalted Butter

1 tsp Ground Ginger

2 tsp Ground Cinnamon

1/2 Lemon, juiced

1/2 C Blueberries, halved

1/4 C Protein Powder, vanilla preferably (optional)

Instructions:

1. Preheat oven to 375 degree F. Line pan with parchment paper and place the pan in the oven to heat up for about 5-10 minutes.

2. In a small mixing bowl, mix rolled oats, flour, ginger, cinnamon and protein powder. Add butter slowly while continuously mixing the dry ingredients.

3. Once oat mixture is completely mixed together, add blueberries and lemon juice; feel free to add more flour to the mixture if the oat mixture is more sticky. The consistency of the dough should be moist enough to roll into a ball, but dry enough that it does not stick to your hands. Scoop out about 1 Tablespoon of the blueberry oats, roll into a ball, and slightly flatten. Place on the pan. Let cook in the 375 degree F oven for about 25-30 minutes, or when the cookies are golden brown and fruit is bubbly.

4. Let cool for about 5 minutes. Then, serve with eggs or just eat on the run.

If you are more of a bar person than a ball person, do not fret; the process is still easy to do. Split the oatmeal mixture in half after pouring the butter into it. In one half dump the rest of the flour mixture until the oatmeal and butter is crumbly. When the pan comes out of the oven the first time, press the non-floured part into the sheet pan until it is pressed and smoothed out to be a little less than 1/4". Add the fruit on the pressed oatmeal mixture and then sprinkle the crumble toppings. Bake for the same amount of time at the same amount of temperature. Pull out of the oven and let cool before cutting.