Today’s recipe comes courtesy of Gina @The Fitnessista. If you haven’t checked out her blog, make sure you do! Not only is she a Zumba instructor, she’s a young mom, military wife, and all around healthy-living guru. I’d been on Gina’s site many time and read about her famous breakfast cookie. It wasn’t until school was starting and I needed a make-ahead, protein-packed, stick-to-your-ribs kind of breakfast. I loved my green smoothies throughout the summer, but let’s face it, you can’t make them the night before, and I need every precious moment in the morning on weekdays. So, after reading many rave reviews, I decided to give the Breakfast Cookie a try.
The Fitnessista’s Breakfast “Cookie”
Nutritionals: Because the cookie ingredients can vary so greatly, the numbers will differ, but for the one that I made in these photos:
Ingredients: This is where you can customize it to your liking. There are so many possibilities that this same base recipe could be eaten every morning for breakfast and never get tiresome. Monday night I made the cookie with canned pumpkin (instead of banana) and pumpkin pie spice (instead of ginger) and it was delicious. Seriously, the combinations of flavors and add-ins with this is endless.
1/3 cup oats
1/8 cup unsweetened vanilla almond milk
1 scoop BSN Lean Dessert, Cinnamon flavor
1 TBSP nut butter of your choice (I used pb)
1 banana, mashed
cinnamon, nutmeg, and ginger to taste
- The original recipe called for stevia, but since the protein powder I use is sweetened, I left it out. Again, know your ingredients and add the right amounts to suit your tastes.
- The original recipe also called for a dash of sea salt to brighten the flavors, but I find that my pb has plenty of salt already. Modify this for your diet and tastes.
- I was really thrilled to see the cinnamon in this recipe, because it meant that I finally found a use for the cinnamon-flavored protein powder I bought and decided wasn’t great for smoothies. It’s IDEAL for this type of recipe. (I bet it would be great in a protein pancake, too).
Directions: This recipe really couldn’t be simpler, but just in case you’d like a step-by-step, here goes.
Mix all dry ingredients in a bowl. Stir so that the spices are well
oats, protein powder, cinnamon, ginger, nutmeg
Add the peanut butter (I forgot this step until the end, which is why my photos don’t quite match up) and incorporate with the dry ingredients until crumbly.
Add in almond milk.
Next add mashed banana (or canned pumpkin, or applesauce, etc).
The pb that I’d forgotten in the earlier step. It doesn’t make a huge difference when you add it, as long as you have it in there.
Empty “cookie dough” onto an appetizer-sized plate and smooth out with the back of a spoon until it looks like a large, thick cookie:
It already looks great, doesn’t it? Yum!!
Cover plate with plastic wrap and leave in fridge overnight. Doing this allows the oats to soften and the spices to become fully potent.
The finished product looks much like the pre-refrigerated cookie, so I didn’t take another picture (well, that, and it won’t be “done” until the morning and I wanted to write this up Monday night). The cookie doesn’t really harden, but remains gooey. Definitely something to eat with a spoon or fork. The idea of eating a cold mass of ingredients may not sound appealing, especially on a crisp morning, but one taste and you’ll see just how delicious and satisfying it is. I haven’t tried heating the cookie up in the microwave, but I’m sure you could for 20-30 seconds, any longer and it might get really runny. I just left mine out at room temperature for about 20 minutes before eating it, while I was still getting ready.
The “cookie” kept me satisfied for HOURS! I ate it at 6:45 and it held me through lunch at 12:15. That’s the staying power of 30g of protein along with some good carbs.
I enjoyed the cookie so much that I plan on eating it most weekday mornings throughout the school year. Try it, I think you’ll really like it.
Bella on the Beach 