Cake Mix Cookies

Baking cookies with little ones can be lots of fun . . . but I have found that we have lots more fun when I keep it simple. Low Stress for Mommy = Fun for Kids (and Mommy)

Hence, we make Cake Mix Cookies quite regularly. These are great for a number of reasons:

1. They're very quick to make (i.e. suitable to the attention span of small children and the time constraints of busy mommies.)
2. They're about as mess-free as homemade cookies can get. You don't even have to pull out the mixer!
3. The recipe makes about 3-dozen. Enough to enjoy but not get tired of.

Are they as healthy as possible? No. I could make "healthier" cookies completely from scratch using whole wheat flour and a variety of other better-for-you ingredients. But guess what? I get the gumption to do that about twice a year. So that means we have Aldi "oreos" in our lunch boxes the other 50 weeks of the year. By using a cake mix as the base, we enjoy both the process and taste of "homemade" cookies much more regularly.

So, here's the recipe for those who would like to try it. I promise--it's about 20-25 minutes from start to clean up--even with little ones helping! :o)

Cake Mix Cookies

Ingredients

• 1/3 cup vegetable oil (trying olive oil next time . . . )
• 1/4 cup water
• 1 egg
• 1 box cake mix
• 1 cup "mix-ins"

Directions

1. Mix all ingredients and roll into balls.
2. Bake on ungreased cookie sheet for 12 minutes at 350 degrees.
3. Let sit on cookie sheet for about 5 minutes after removing from oven before moving to cooling rack.

You can definitely get creative with these. Here's the combinations of cake mixes and mix-ins we've tried:

• "Double Chocolate Chip" - chocolate cake mix, 1 cup chocolate chips
• "White Chocolate Craisin" - yellow cake mix, 1/2 cup white chocolate chips, 1/2 cup Craisins
• "Chocolate M&Ms" - chocolate cake mix, 1 cup M&Ms (any flavor, but chop first if you use bigger ones like peanut or peanut butter)
• "Chocolate Peppermint" - chocolate cake mix, 1 cup peppermint baking chips

If your family likes peanuts, you could add those, and there's lots of flavors of baking chips available. Sometime I plan to buy peanut butter baking chips . . . or maybe Reese's! Mmmmm . . . :o) Also, I just use the chocolate/yellow cake mixes from Aldi. Nothing fancy. They were 69 cents a piece, although just this week I saw that the price is up. Anyway, just get whatever one is least expensive. It doesn't have to be name brand or anything.

We've been doing these weekly over the past month, and Peter's actually gotten really good at making cookie balls! A month ago, every cookie turned into a snake, so I had to discreetly reroll them. Now I can hardly tell the difference between his cookies and Hannah's!

Hope you enjoy! :o)

PS - The original recipe called for a stick of butter which can be rather expensive (and calorie-rich). Using a substitution guide on a package of Betty Crocker cookie mix, we successfully used the vegetable oil instead today. I actually like the results a little better. However, if you'd rather use butter, it's 1 stick of melted butter and just 2 TBS of water in place of the oil/water in the recipe above.