On the Menu: Peanut Butter Cookie Bars

This recipe is so quick and easy since it uses boxed cake mix. Not only is it a breeze to whip up, but it smells fantastic in the oven and tastes even better than it smells.



Ingredients
1 Box White Cake Mix
3.4oz Box Vanilla Instant Pudding Mix
1/4 cup Water
3/4 cup Oil
2 Eggs
Bag of Reese's PB Chips

Directions

1. Preheat the oven to 350 degrees. Lightly spray a 9X13 pan with nonstick spray.
2. Combine the cake mix, pudding mix, water, oil, and eggs. Once all of these ingredients are mixed together add in the peanut butter chips.
3. Bake for 20-30 minutes or under the edges are brown. Cool on a wire rack. Once completely cool you can cut and store in an air tight container. Or you can be like me and have to cut a few pieces while it is still hot to eat and enjoy. I love cookies straight from the oven.

Chocolate Pudding Cookies

This is a delicious spin on traditional chocolate chip cookies. The pudding provides a slight hint of butterscotch flavor to each of the cookies. These were by far our favorite cookies that we baked during the holidays.

Ingredients: 2 1/4 cups all-purpose flour
1 teaspoon baking soda
1 cup butter, softened
3/4 cup packed light brown sugar
1/4 cup white sugar
1 (3.4 ounce) package instant butterscotch pudding mix
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
2 eggs
12 ounces semisweet chocolate chips

Directions:
1. Preheat oven to 375 degrees F.
2. Combine the flour and soda and set aside. 3. Mix the butter, sugars, pudding mix and vanilla. Beat until creamy. 4. Add in eggs and mix well. 5. Gradually stir in the flour. 7. Stir in chocolate chips. 8. Drop by teaspoonfuls onto ungreased cookie sheets. 9. Bake for 8-10 minutes.

Gooey Butter Cookies

These cookies have a wonderful butter cookie taste and remain soft and gooey as their name applies. They are also extremely easy to make, requiring few ingredients and having a prepackaged cake mix as a main component.

Ingredients:
1 (8 ounce) package cream cheese
1/2 cup butter, softened
1 egg
1/4 teaspoon vanilla extract
1 (18.25 ounce) package yellow cake mix
1/4 cup confectioners' sugar

Directions:

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees F.
2. In a medium bowl, cream together the cream cheese and butter. 3. Stir in egg and vanilla.
4. Add cake mix, and stir until will blended. 5. Roll into 1 inch balls and roll the balls in the confectioner's sugar.
6. Place the balls on an ungreased cookie sheet. 7. Bake for 10 to 13 minutes in the preheated oven. Remove the baking sheets to cool on wire racks.

Lemon Cookies

These cookies are extremely soft and moist. They smelled absolutely heavenly baking. And we love how cute they turned out.

Ingredients: 1 (18.25 ounce) package of lemon cake mix
2 eggs
1/3 cup vegetable oil
confectioners' sugar

* There are extra ingredients in the picture that were for a glaze that we made for the cookies but after making the glaze we didn't like it and decided to just dust the cookies with powdered sugar.

Directions:

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees F (175 degrees C). Line baking sheets with foil.
2. Mix together cake mix, eggs, and vegetable oil. 2. Drop by rounded teaspoons onto baking sheets and bake for no more than 8 minutes.
3. Dust with powdered sugar.

While we are total chocolaholics these easy lemon cookies were a nice change of pace. Plus, they are so simple anyone can mix them together and soon have amazing smells coming from their kitchen.

Magic Cookie Bars

You've probably been eating these since you were a kid. They are a rich decadent dessert or snack. And so easy to make. Since they only require one pan clean up is a snap.

Ingredients 1/2 cup butter, melted
1 1/2 cups graham cracker crumbs
1 to 1 1/2 cups chocolate chips
1 to 1 1/2 cups coconut
1 to 1 1/2 cups butterscotch chips
1 1/2/ cups walnuts or pecans
1 14-ounce can sweetened condensed milk

Directions 1. Preheat oven to 350F degrees.
2. In a 9x13 inch baking pan mix butter and graham cracker crumbs and press evenly to cover the bottom of the pan. Melt the butter and mix together right in the pan to avoid having to wash extra dishes. 3. Sprinkle the chocolate chips, coconut, butterscotch chips, and nuts over the crumb base. (We forgot to pick up any nuts at the grocery store and only ended up with about a 1/4 cup at home). 4. Drizzle condensed milk over the top. 5. Bake for 25 to 30 minutes. 6. Cool completely on a wire rack and cut into bars. This was a thin bar. While it was absolutely delicious I think next time I will add more chips and nuts so that I have a thicker bar.