Protein Oatmeal & Chocolate Chip Muffins

To stay focused on maintaining lean muscle, my diet can sometimes be kind of boring.  I typically eat the same thing for breakfast for weeks at a time before changing it up.  My typical breakfast would be oatmeal, protein pancakes, or maybe toast and peanut butter and ALWAYS with coffee.

I changed up my bowl of oatmeal (with cinnamon, raisins, and sliced almonds) in favor of an oatmeal muffin.  This is especially good for grabbing on the go on busy mornings.  I found a recipe on Sugar Free Mom that is really good.  You may have seen this image of hers floating around on Pinterest. 

via Sugar Free Mom

After following her recipe, I tweaked it the second time, halving it (which still yielded 12 muffins) and adding protein powder and MILA (chia seeds- which I'll tell you more about this week).  I also made mine with dark chocolate chips and walnuts this time.

The chocolate bits are my favorite.

And I definitely recommend adding the walnuts- they add a great crunch.

Ingredients (Yields 12 muffins)
*Adapted from Sugar Free Mom 

• 1 eggs
• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
• 1 cup applesauce, unsweetened
• 1/2 banana, mashed
• 1 1/2 cups, Old Fashioned rolled oats
• 1/3 MILA (chia seeds) *optional
• 1/4 cup chocolate protein powder 
• 1/2 tablespoon ground cinnamon
• 2 teaspoon baking powder
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 1 1/3 cups milk (I used skim)
• 1/4 cup chopped walnuts
• 1/4 cup dark chocolate chips

Directions

I combined the banana and wet ingredients into a large mixing bowl and the dry ingredients in a separate bowl, stirring both well.  Then I combined the two and using an ice cream scoop, scooped the mix into the muffin pan.  Spray your muffin pan with cooking spray first!

Bake at 350 degrees for about 30-35 minutes.  I eat two in the morning for breakfast.