Tip: The Chocolate Chip Cookie for Lifters

Ever read the label on those "healthy" cookies found at grocery stores? They're usually packed with poor-quality protein and either tons of sugar or so many sugar alcohols that you'll blow your pants right off your butt an hour after eating one.

But not these easy-to-make Metabolic Drive Protein® cookies. These macro-friendly cookies are the perfect on-the-go snack or zero-guilt treat.

Ingredients

• 2 Cups old-fashioned oats
• 4 Scoops vanilla Metabolic Drive® Protein
• 1 Teaspoon baking soda
• 1/4 Teaspoon salt
• 6 Tablespoons grass-fed butter, softened
• 1 Egg
• 1/4 Cup stevia leaf granules (or sweetener of choice that measures like sugar)
• 1/4 Cup semi-sweet or dark chocolate chips
• 2 Tablespoons milk (regular, almond etc.)

Instructions

1. Preheat the oven to 350 Fahrenheit. Line a baking tray or sheet pan with parchment or foil and spray with cooking spray.
2. Place the oats in a food processor or blender and grind to flour. You can also do half-ground and half-chunky depending on your texture preference.
3. In one bowl pour out the oat flour and mix in all the other dry ingredients. In another bowl mix together the wet ingredients.
4. Mix the wet ingredients with the dry until combined into a smooth dough. If the dough is too wet, then add a little more ground oats to the mixture. If it's too dry to form a dough, then add a dash of milk.
5. Roll the dough into 12 balls and place on the cooking sheet. Or if you just want to eat some raw dough, then go for it! You can even make some cookie dough protein powder ice cream.
6. Bake on the top shelf of the oven for 8 minutes. Do not over-bake! The cookies should still be soft in the middle.
7. Store in an airtight container for up to a week. Cookies may also be frozen for future late-night snacks.

Macros per Cookie

Macros will vary a little depending on your sweetener of choice and the type of chocolate chips you use.

• Calories: 165
• Carbs: 13 grams
• Fat: 8 grams
• Protein: 9 grams

A Note on Grass-Fed Butter

Putting 200 calories of butter into your coffee will not burn off that 200 calories. It won't transform you into a fat-burning machine, nor will it magically improve your cognitive abilities and turn you into the Bradley Cooper character from Limitless.

Grass-fed butter does, however make for a healthy fat source that may have some advantages, especially as we get older. Controlling inflammation is the key to good health, disease prevention, and having a body that looks as good as it performs.

Because fatty acids make up the outer layer of every cell in our bodies and are precursors to the formation of major sex hormones (particularly testosterone), they have a critical role in controlling inflammation and cell signaling. A diet high in omega 6's and low in omega 3's has been shown to promote signs of inflammation as well as hormonal alterations.

Grass-fed butter should be considered a healthy and physique-friendly fat due to its ideal ratio of omega 3's to 6's compared to many other fat sources. Of course, fish oils are the most efficient way to help your 3 to 6 ratio, but if you can get a little from your Kerrygold butter too, then it all helps.

Around 11% of the saturated fats within butter are short-chain fatty acids, the most common of which is butyric acid, which has been shown to reduce inflammation.

A little saturated fat isn't bad after all! Don't put slabs of butter into your coffee and expect miracles, but some here and there can be a good thing.