More people visited my page yesterday than ever before.  It turns out that perhaps pit bull discrimination is more interesting than my latest use for quinoa.  I talked to Lila about it.  I told her that she was more popular than any of my recipes, that people cared that she was misunderstood.  She looked at me like “I don’t really care what you write about, as long as I get to lick the spoon.”  Oh, and that she particularly enjoyed Monday night’s recipe because I was cooking with peanut butter, her favorite.

It happens to be one of my favorites as well.  I’m far too old to like peanut butter and jelly sandwiches as much as I do.  Several years ago I was at a student fair with my now good friend Yesenia, recruiting for the non-profit we worked at.  I remember her general agreement about the advantages of a good PB&J turning to shock (possibly disgust?) when I  pulled four of them out of my purse for lunch.  Well, since then, Yesenia has discovered many more of my idiosyncracies and I have discovered many more methods of eating peanut butter and jelly.  Here’s my latest.

Peanut Butter & Jelly “Baked” Oatmeal

• ½ cup old fashioned oats
• ¼ cup unsweetened applesauce
• ¼ cup almond milk or skim milk
• ½ tsp vanilla
• ¼ tsp salt
• 1 Tbls Splenda
• 2 Tbls peanut butter (I use “Better Than Peanut Butter”)
• 2 Tbls jelly