Cookie Time!

Not sure if I mentioned this already, but we live in a cookie house.  Some homes have cakes, brownies, or Little Debbies, but ours...we have cookies.  So I was having a cookie craving and went to the cupboard to gather my ingredients and then...*gasp!*...we have no...chocolate chips?!  WHAT?!  When did this travesty occur?  How could I have been so unprepared?!

Ok, so maybe I'm being a little dramatic.  But hey, when you want a cookie, it can feel like a matter of life or death!  What to do...well I have about a thousand cake mixes up there that I will probably never use, so I seriously considered making a cake.  Ugh, but then there's the whole thing where you have to let it cool and frost it and even then...it's just not a cookie!

Did you know you can make cookies from a cake mix?  So yeah...say good bye to my cake mixes and hello to tasty cookie goodness!  It's surprisingly easy and requires only two extra ingredients.  Like with cookies, you can mix in additional things like chocolate chips, raisins, etc.


Cake Mix Cookies
1 pkg cake mix (average size...not family size)
2 large eggs
1/3 cup vegetable oil

1.  Preheat oven to 350.  Mix all ingredients well.

2.  Spoon onto baking sheet.  Bake for 8-10 minutes.

3.  Allow to cool.  Frost if you like.

Caramel Apple Dip

When I was a kid, my dad made this amazing caramel apple dip for me.  It was so good that I used to use the apple slices like a spoon when he wasn't looking!  Now that I'm "grown up" I figured I should learn to make it for myself.  Turns out...the magic dip isn't all that hard!  It only needs three ingredients that you might have lurking in your kitchen already...and you can make it ahead for a party if you need to.

What you need:
1 8oz package cream cheese
1/4 cup brown sugar
1/4 cup caramel ice cream topping
apples for dipping

1.  Cut cream cheese into cubes and soften in the microwave (30 seconds on high).  Using a hand mixer, blend until smooth.
2.  Add brown sugar.  Cream together until smooth with mixer.
 3.  Add caramel sauce.  Mix well.  Serve with apple slices!

That's it!  See...really easy.  If you're watching your sugar intake, you can substitute the caramel sauce for the sugar free version and swap regular brown sugar for the Splenda brown sugar blend (just be sure to consult the measurement conversion chart).  Yum!