These super easy-to-make vanilla healthy protein breakfast cookies are clean, tasty, have only six ingredients and are done in 20 minutes. This recipe is sponsored by Premier Protein.

Maybe it’s a marketing ploy, but whenever I see “protein” in the title of a recipe, it instantly gets my interest more than something that doesn’t. Why? Because we all need protein to maintain and grow our muscle mass and to live a healthy life, and protein keeps you fuller longer, just like fat. Also, whenever I feel like making something from scratch, I find myself adding the words “easy” and “simple” to my Google or Pinterest search for the right recipe. I’m not into using a ton of ingredients, and I am perhaps, the only healthy lifestyle blogger around who doesn’t own a food processor — so simple is the way to go.

But that doesn’t mean I don’t like to try new things. This past long weekend, when our schedule was pretty free and clear, I decided to pop into the kitchen and put a few of my favorite healthy ingredients that I already had on hand in my pantry to use. And what came out? Some totally delicious protein breakfast cookies, which are very clean in the ingredients department. And I am calling them breakfast cookies, only because you could definitely eat these puppies for a light breakfast with some coffee or tea and be satisfied for a few hours. Or you can eat them as a healthy dessert or a pre-workout bite. Your choice!

Vanilla healthy protein breakfast cookies

Here’s how it all goes down, with a printable recipe at the end …

Ingredients:

1 ripe banana
1 cup of oats
1 scoop of vanilla protein powder (I used Premier Protein Vanilla Milkshake)
2 tablespoons of raw pumpkin seeds
2 tablespoons of organic raisins
1/2 cup of coconut milk (I used the canned organic kind, but you could also use almond)

Directions:

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees.
Mash up your banana with a fork.
Mix all the ingredients together into a bowl, including the mashed banana.
Put some cooking spray on a foil-lined baking sheet.
Scoop one spoonful at a time of the mixture onto the baking sheet, then smash down into circles.
Bake for 15 minutes, until you reach desired “done-ness.”
Take them out, and let them cool.
Enjoy.

Recipe notes:

This recipe yields six big cookies.

If you aren’t a fan of pumpkin seeds or raisins, you could definitely substitute those things for sliced almonds, walnuts, peanuts, goji berries or whatever else you fancy. And also, make sure that your banana is brown enough to mash up. You could even try topping the cookies in nut butter after cooked, if you were feeling crazy.

One more thing, if you want to make your cookies a bit more decadent, you could mash up a second banana into the mixture and perhaps add some coconut oil too. Your choice!

Nutritional information:

What you should really know is that the ingredients in these vanilla healthy protein breakfast cookies are good — with some valuable protein, fat, magnesium (yay pumpkin seeds) and fiber (yay oats). But if you love to know the numbers, I estimate that each cookie is 150 calories with about 9 grams of protein each — mostly thanks to the nice 30 grams of whey protein from the Premier Protein Vanilla Milkshake protein powder scoop included. Eat two, and you’re golden!

I made these cookies on Saturday morning, shortly after Dave and I had enjoyed some protein waffles. So as you can imagine, our house smelled totally divine all day long from the oven freshness. Dave (who doesn’t always love my “healthy” stuff) was a fan of these protein-filled treats and thought they tasted like banana bread. There were only six big cookies total, and they were done by the end of the weekend, so I know I’ll be making them again. Yay protein!

Speaking of Premier Protein: head to Instagram ASAP to enter the giveaway I’ve got going!

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