Tip: Eat Oatmeal Cookies, Build Muscle

People are strange, especially bodybuilders and gym rats. Tell them to have some oatmeal with protein powder, a handful of nuts, and a little fruit for breakfast and they'll do it. After all, that's about the best breakfast you could eat if you like muscle.

But tell them to have cookies and they'll freak out. Like eating cookies for breakfast is bad or something...

Okay, I get it. Most cookies are tasty little disks of Type-2 diabetes. But not these. In fact, these contain pretty much the same foods as the above muscle-building breakfast, with the added bonus of being portable.

High-Protein Vanilla Oatmeal Cookies

Ingredients

• 2 Cups old-fashioned oats
• 1 Cup unsweetened apple sauce
• 1 Soft banana
• 4 Scoops (120g) vanilla Metabolic Drive® Protein
• 2 Teaspoons vanilla extract
• 1/4 Cup Splenda (or equivalent sweetener of choice)
• 1 Teaspoon baking powder
• Cinnamon and powdered ginger, as much as you'd like
• Pinch of salt
• Optional: 1 Cup walnut halves

Directions

1. Preheat oven to 325 degrees.
2. Line a baking sheet with parchment paper for easy cleanup.
3. Mix all the ingredients together in a bowl.
4. Using a cookie scooper, medium ice cream scoop, or a spoon, place 8-12 mounds of dough onto the sheet pan.

5. Bake for around 20 minutes, depending on your oven, elevation, and size of your cookies. Larger cookies will require an extra minute or so, smaller cookies a minute or two less.