[Flickr: little blue hen]

Oatmeal is not a sexy food.

What do you say when someone asks you: "what is your favorite food?"

If you want to make a good impression it's probably best to say something like "a nice, rare steak." (Especially if you're a woman). Pizza and ice cream are safe choices. Chocolate or even strawberries are nice, girly responses. If you're a guy, saying a "mean apple pie" will get you points with some ladies, and give others a creepy, Oedipal kind of vibe.

But male or female, you probably won't say oatmeal. If your favorite food is oatmeal, that also means that you might like prunes, and nothing ruins romance like the mention of prunes. (Even The Pioneer Woman's prune cake).

I admit that I love oatmeal (and raisins and prunes, but that's another post). And regarding seasonal eating, I concede that most people view the world as being divided into two camps: those who eat ice cream year-round and those who eat it only in the summer.

I fall into the latter category regarding ice cream, but I am one of those crazy people who eat oatmeal even on cool summer mornings. I eat it with peanut butter. I eat it with almond butter. I eat it with honey. I eat it salted. I eat it plain. I ate oatmeal through the 80s when it was supposed to cure all ailments known to humanity, I ate it during the Atkins craze, when carbs could kill.

And when it gets too hot to eat oatmeal in July, I eat it cold—in cookie form.

These cookies are as close to sexy as oatmeal gets—butter, peanut butter, chocolate, and no need to turn on the oven. For oatmeal haters, they're a good way to ease into the joys of this gluten-free grain. The original recipe is supposed to make 32 cookies in a 9X9 pan, however I found the yield of the full recipe closer to 12 to 16.

These are very rich.

The last time I made them, I halved the recipe and made them in a muffin tin. With protein-packed peanut butter, antioxidant-rich chocolate, and oats, you may feel positively saintly eating these as dessert-for-breakfast. But because there's butter and brown sugar in 'em, you know you're also being very bad. But bad in a good way.