Cake Mix Cookies

Ingredients:

1 pkg. cake mix of your choice* (I like to use Betty Crocker b/c the "pudding in the mix" makes for gooey-ness and I like gooey cookies.)

1/2 C melted margarine or butter (Which is 1 stick--I pop it in the microwave for 30 seconds, wait a bit, then another 30 seconds in a tall-ish glass tumbler so I don't have to cut the butter to fit a smaller container. And I use salted sweet cream butter.)

2 eggs

1/2 C oats (quick oats are fine)

1 C (or more!!!) chocolate chips*

1/2 C raisins (optional, as always)

Whatever other things you think would be good

Baking spray (I use the one with flour in it)

1. Preheat oven to 350 deg. (best to do this first because things come together quickly).

2. Start melting the butter in the microwave and while it's melting move to step number three.

3. Add all the remaining ingredients together in a large mixing bowl (I use the Sunbeam mixer I got for Christmas one year from my mother-in-law).

4. Finish melting the butter and add it to the cake mix mixture.

5. Mix it all together until you can't see any more cake mix (my spatula helps me with this).

6. To form the cake mix into balls (because I don't have a cookie scooper anymore), I like to spray the cookie sheet(s) with the baking spray, spray my hands with it, then use an ice cream scoop to get the dough out (for some portion control) and roll it with my hands. This makes about 17 "good-sized" (medium-large) cookies. {What?! No, I didn't eat 2 whole cookies worth of dough... ;) }

7. Bake at 350 for 8-10 minutes, or longer depending on your oven.**

Source: Julie the Coolie gave it to my mom, who gave it to me, who gave it to you, who gave it to your hairdresser's best friend's dog-groomer...

*As this is a versatile recipe, many combinations can take place. I like to use yellow cake mix and white chocolate chips; the batch you see in the pictures includes both white chocolate and mini milk chocolate chips. It's up to you! Yay for cooking things yourself and putting whatever you want in it!

**The cookies may seem too gooey at first. Keep in mind that you can leave them in the oven longer but not too long because they will also set up more once they are out of the oven, especially if you leave them on the baking sheet. Also remember that if you don't want the bottoms to brown, it may be best to put the cookies on a cooling rack or something of the sort--you can always pop them back in if they're not done the way you like.