3 Ingredients 3 Steps - Bake Perfect Cookies Every Time!

We have an honest-to-goodness need for cookies in our home on a regular basis. Maybe they're for late night movies when the kids are in bed, once in a while a friend needs a little something- a thoughtful gesture, oftentimes they are for the kind snow shovelers from my hubby's squadron.

When you don't have a pantry full of all the baking necessities this very simple recipe comes in handy. You don't even need measuring cups and measuring spoons!

I owe this wonderful knowledge to my mother-in-law. Sometime in my first few years of adulthood I lost the ability to bake cookies. Maybe it was the high altitude of where we were living, but my cookies started having issues after my babysitting years. When hubby and I were engaged my mil-to-be offered me a cookie from a plateful of spice cookies sitting on her table. They were the perfect chewy consistency and very tasty! I went on and on about how wonderful they were and could I PLEASE have the recipe. She looked at me like I was nuts and told me they were "Cake Mix Cookies," a term I had never heard before. Then she wrote down the recipe for me.

All you need are three ingredients and three easy steps. Here they are!

· One box of cake mix flavor of your choice
[Our family favorites: spice cake mix, cinnamon swirl cake mix, chocolate cake mix (not German chocolate) with chocolate chips mixed in, or lemon cake mix]

· 1 cube margarine or butter meltedNOTE: That's equal to 1/2 cup.

· 1 egg (2 for cinnamon swirl cake mix) well beaten (use large or extra large eggs)

1. Mix ingredients well with electric mixer.
2. Drop by spoonfuls onto cookie sheet.
3. Bake 8-10 minutes in a preheated 350° Fahrenheit oven.

If you do the cinnamon swirl cake mix it comes with a cinnamon-seasoning packet. Use about 1/3 to half the packet in with the cake mix and use the rest to roll the cookie dough in, kinda like Snickerdoodles. These cinnamon swirl cake mixes are often on sale at our commissary on base for 75¢ to $1.00 a box. I keep a few in my pantry for last minute refreshment requests. They are always a hit! (and they freeze well too!) Fast, successful, non-flat cookies work for me!