First Attempt at Cake Mix Cookies

Add together Pinterest and my sweet tooth and you get this late night snack...

I have had these Lazy Cake Cookies from I'm a Lazy Mom pinned for a few weeks and decided on a whim last night at 9:30 p.m. to throw them together.

With just four ingredients and not much liquid, I decided to read through the comments to see what others said about them. Several said the batter was much drier than they thought it should be. One said to bake it longer than the recipe said. A few others talked about using different size pans.

Overall the comments were positive and the original blogger answered most of the questions asked so I just went for it.

I dumped a box of white cake mix into a mixing bowl and added 5 Tablespoons of melted butter and started stirring and stirring and stirring. It was really dry!

Oh no!! Had I been duped by a recipe too simple to be true?

No...I forgot to add the 2 beaten eggs to the mix! Oops.

Once I added the eggs and mixed it well (keep going when you think you've mixed enough) the batter resembled cookie dough. It definitely was NOT a "wet" batter nor did it look like cake batter! In went a bag of M&Ms and the batter was ready to go.

I spooned it into a greased 9x13 glass baking pan and pressed it down into the pan.

20 minutes in a 350 degree pre-heated oven and I had a pan of warm cookies at 10 p.m. on a Wednesday night.

They had a unique flavor to them - thanks to the cake mix, I think.

I liked them. I liked them a lot - probably too much. So I did what any gal who is already having trouble zipping her jeans would have done, I took them into the office this morning and sent an email to my coworkers and let them help me save my waistline!

I will definitely use this recipe again when I'm craving something sweet or need a quick dessert for a pitch-in or family dinner.

Lazy Cake Cookies from I'm a Lazy Mom

Box of White Cake Mix

5 T. melted butter

2 eggs, beaten

2 c. M&Ms (or chocolate chips or Reese's Pieces or butterscotch chips or ...)

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Grease the bottom of a 9x13 baking dish (I used a glass dish).

Combine the cake mix, butter and eggs. Mix well. Add in M&Ms and stir.

Bake for 20 minutes (edges will brown). Cool, cut and serve with a glass of milk!!

Simply Smores Cookies

I had some mini chocolate chip cookie dough in the fridge and decided to bake them up tonight and make my own ice cream cookie sandwiches.

Then I saw these...

via

...and I knew what I had to do!

Mine weren't nearly as pretty and fancy as Martha's, but they were delicious and oh so simple to make.

I started with already baked mini chocolate chip cookies. I just made four but you can do as many as you want at a time. I turned my oven to broil and let it heat up.

I put a quarter of a square of dark chocolate on top of two of the cookies and left the other two plain just to see if the chocolate chips were enough chocolate.

I didn't have any jumbo marshmallows so I used Marshmallow Fluff - a spoonful on top of each cookie. Then I popped the pan in the oven for a couple of minutes...just keep an eye on them after about a minute and a half because they toast quickly after that!

They were DELICIOUS. I definitely liked the ones with the added chocolate piece better but I ate all four of them.

I didn't abandon my idea of making mini ice cream sandwiches...

There are now a dozen of these babies inividually wrapped in my freezer waiting for me!

I'm linking up to Show Us Your Life at Kelly’s Korner.

Fresh Asparagus, Quick Meal

Anyone else as in love with FRESH asparagus as I am?

Growing up my sisters and I HATED when the asparagus patches at our house and my grandparents' place (yes, there were two big patches of the stuff) started to grow each spring. It meant asparagus for lunch and supper...my dad probably tried to feed it to us for breakfast too but I've blocked that out.

I even remember watching my older sister put a piece of aspargus in her mouth, take a big drink of milk and swallow...not chewing the aspargus once! I aspired to that.

As we grew older, I started appreciating asparagus for what it is.

These days I'm lucky to have several sources for asparagus. My dad has added MORE asparagus plants to his garden and I have a co-worker whose garden produces a plastic grocery bag full of asparagus a DAY when the weather grows warm each spring.

Usually I just wash it off, cut it in pieces, throw it in the Pampered Chef micro-cooker with a little butter, water and pepper and heat for a minute or two.

Then I burn my tongue because I can’t wait for it to cool!

If I had a grill, I would re-create this meal, including grilled asparagus, over at How Sweet It Is.


And I’m definitely going to fix her Parmesan Asparagus Sticks with my next batch of asparagus.


However, I needed a quick and easy meal the other night and looked in the fridge and pantry to see what ingredients I had on hand. I found a rotisserie chicken from Costco (love ‘em), Uncle Ben’s Ready Rice (so easy), teriyaki and soy sauce and, of course, my asparagus.

I decided to make a quick and easy chicken fried rice with asparagus. Looking back, I wish I fried an egg and added it to the mix. Oh well, I guess I’ll have to make it again.

I simply microwaved the rice according to the directions and added it to a hot skillet with a bit of oil and some of the chicken that was cut into bite-size pieces. To that I added one-fourth cup of the teriyaki sauce and heated it through.


Then I cooked my asparagus with a bit of water in my micro-cooker for just under two minutes; drained it and added it to the skillet.

I made sure everything was heated through and served it up.

It’s not the most exciting meal but it was tasty and something different.

How do you change up the way you use the veggies that you always have on hand?

Easy Double Chocolate Trifle

Ever need an easy, kid-friendly - yet delicious - dessert?

I was heading to my sister's to celebrate Mom's Day on Sunday evening and I knew three out of four nephews would be there. You know what that meant, right?

This was needed...

My lil' sister is usually the trifle maker in the family but she wasn't going to be there so it was up to me!

Now a co-worker of mine makes a killer trifle with angel food cake, vanilla pudding and strawberries but I was in the mood for some chocolate - lots of chocolate.

Here are the main ingredients.

Bake a pan of brownies - either a 9x9 or 9x13 pan. Maybe add a couple handfuls of chocolate chips. Let them cool and cut them into 1x1 pieces. Put a layer of brownies in a trifle bowl (or any old bowl).

Slice up a clamshell of strawberries and set aside.

Add 3 cups of COLD milk - I used 2 percent - to 2 packages of chocolate pudding (3.9 oz. each) and whisk for 2 minutes.

Stir in 1 cup of whipped topping (Cool Whip or store brand, your choice). Add half of the pudding mix on top of the brownie layer.

Here's where the "double chocolate" comes in to play. Add half a tub of the Cool Whip Chocolate Dips on top of the pudding layer.

Then add half the strawberries. I actually added most of the berries, just because I could.

Isn't that pretty? Now repeat the process until you get this...

Doesn't that look AWESOME? It tasted just as good.

Now, I may have made this trifle so I could use my cool new Pampered Chef trifle bowl (not sure that's the real name, but oh well).

It is very cool. The bowl comes with a lid AND a detached stand to it's easy to transport.

I have to admit that I didn't even take the stand to my sister's. It was just family...they didn't care!

I'm hooking up to Two Maids a Baking. Head over and check out Liz's yummy yeast rolls!