In The Kitchen With Kat

Cake Mix Cookie Bars

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My children are mistreated. At least they have been in the mom cooked, fresh food department for the last few days. Upon arriving home from our college football weekend I was annihilated with a lovely bout of food poisoning, and since we are a touch short handed at the library, I worked while sick for the last couple of days. I am sure that I have been a peach to all those around me....

Anyway, since I am actually home today and feeling a touch more alive, I thought I would throw together something special for my rather large and increasingly grown up acting babies, a nice dinner and dessert. Of course, my life is not exactly sedate, I'm sure many of you can relate, so I don't have time for on of my usual, scratch made, hours long dessert compositions.

Fun fact, I hate shopping. Seriously, I despise it. Online shopping is okay because I can't feel the feelings of several hundred people around me, nor do I feel like I am in someone's way. Very rarely will I run up to town for something of convenience in the food department, how about a big no there, Fergus.

However, I do keep a pretty interestingly stocked pantry. There's a bit of everything from 30 pound buckets of sushi rice to itty bitty bags of Hatch chipotle chile powder. I'm all about using what's on hand in the house. I know that is going to make my blog posts a little less glamorous that some of the fancier, well-crafted food blog offerings out there, but honestly I feel like there are folks in the world who appreciate a bit of a shortcut or realism once in awhile. I mean, I might at some point have some truffle oil or fancy keto protein powder around, but then again I might not, and there will still be hungry kids and random friends lurking around who need sustenance.

Enter the cake mix cookie bars. After a pantry perusal, I laid a German chocolate cake mix, a pack of instant chocolate pudding, some grapeseed oil, 2 Americana eggs (thanks girls), a partially used bag of white chocolate chips, and an unopened bag of milk chocolate chips onto the counter. Oh yes, I could totally whip up something edible with this conglomeration.

I've been making treats with cake mixes since I was a small Kat. First came the cakes, then cake mix cookies, then cake truffles, and here lately cake mix cookie bars have been a thing. Most of the time I make things completely from scratch, but I can usually pick up a cake mix for .50-.70 on sale, and once in a while it is nice to have the whole quick and easy thing at hand.

Flavor wise the combinations are endless. You could use a yellow cake mix and throw all manner of candy or chocolate chips in there. I have a red velvet cake mix in the back and have been thinking about making bars with white chocolate chips and a cream cheese drizzle. Hmm, perhaps the correlation between increased company and neighbor kid drop ins and an increase in baking cake mix cookie bars has a causation. Heh. The Cake Mix Cookie Bar Effect!

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Chocolate Cake Mix Cookie Bars

1 15.25 Oz box German Chocolate Cake mix
1 3.9 Oz box of instant chocolate pudding
2 eggs
1/4 cup water
3/4 cup vegetable oil
1 cup of chocolate chips (I used more than a cup because with chocolate chips more is better)

Preheat oven to 350 degrees Fahrenheit

Place the pudding and the cake mix into a mixing bowl and give a whisk or a mix if using a mixer.

Add all the rest of the ingredients and mix until well blended. I usually mix everything up and then add the chocolate >chips, but whatever way you do it is fine!

Spread in a greased 9X13 pan and bake for 20-30 minutes until the edges just start to brown/pull away from the side of >the pan. Like with any cookie product, you don't want to over bake the little beauties.

Let cool, slice, and hide one if you want to actually enjoy the end result of your labors.

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And as not most of the time, all of the images in this post were taken on the author's neglected but resurrected Canon Rebel camera.

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