"Whatever floats your boat" Brownies

I have been trying out a lot of new recipes lately and this one is AWESOME! I'm not one who loves to bake (love to cook, hate to bake! Its too hot here!) but this recipe is so dang easy why wouldn't I make it?

Ingredients
1/2 cup butter, melted
1/2 cup unsweetened cocoa
1 cup sugar
2 eggs
2 teaspoons vanilla
1/2 cup flour
1/4 teaspoon salt

WHATEVER FLOATS YOUR BOAT IDEAS
1-2 cup chocolate chips (semisweet, white, butterscotch, peanut butter) or raisins, or chopped maraschino cherry or chopped nuts or M&M's or Reese's pieces or miniature marshmallows. Just whatever you like!

Directions
1 Preheat oven to 350°F.
2 Grease an 8 inch square pan or line with foil.
3 In a medium bowl combine melted butter and cocoa and stir until cocoa is dissolved.
4 Add sugar and mix well.
5 Add eggs one at a time and stir until well combined.
6 Stir in vanilla, flour and salt until you no longer see any flour (do not over mix).
7 Fold in "WHATEVER FLOATS YOUR BOAT"!
8 Spread in pan and bake for approximately 25 minutes.
9 DO NOT OVER-BAKE -- your brownies will come out dry. Adjust time/temp accordingly for your oven. If you do the knife/toothpick test, it should come out with moist crumbs, not clean.
10 Cool completely before cutting into squares.
11 For double recipe, bake in 9x12 pan and add 5 minutes to baking time.

Cake Mix Cookies

This is a fast and easy way to make very yummy cookies!

1 box cake mix (any kind)
2 eggs
1/3 cup oil

Mix ingredients (note: for butter recipies you may not need as much oil but only about 1/4).

Add chips or anything you would like

I enjoy making the devils food cake mix cookies with Andes Mints mixed in (I break them myself instead of buying the chips--it tastes better). I have also made peanut butter cup cookies and heath ones. Be creative!!!

Ice Cream Cake

This is simple and easy. It tastes good as well and the varieties are endless. This is what you will need:

-1 box of cake mix (any flavor you like)
-Ice cream (again any flavor--size depends on how big your cake is. I usually buy just the 1/2 gallon)
-Frosting (any kind you like)

Cook the cake mix according to directions on the box (I usually do the 2, 9 in. cake pan size, but it is up to you)

Let the cake cool and soften the ice cream while you wait (just sit it out)

Take one layer of cake and start putting the ice cream onto the layer, molding it to the layer of cake (you could always melt the ice cream to the shape you want and then refreeze I suppose). Do this quickly then put on the top layer. Let it freeze for about 30-60 min depending on how soft your ice cream was when you finished layering it on.

Pull it out of the freezer and then frost it.

Refreeze

Once frozen, you can top with chocolate or decorate any way you like and then refreeze once more. Allow 12-24 hours to freeze before serving to ensure that the middle is not too soft.

Enjoy!

Cookie Salad

2 small pkgs. vanilla pudding
1 (16 oz.)container cool whip
2 cans mandarin oranges
1 pkg. fudge stripe cookies
2 C. buttermilk
2 cans pineapple tidbits

Drain all fruit. You can add fresh fruit if you like.
Mix buttermilk with pudding until creamy.
fold in cool whip. break cookies into pieces.
add cookies and fruit. Chill 1 hour before serving.

Boo Cups

In honor of Halloween. Plus, they are just plain cute!

Ingredients:

3-1/4 cups cold milk

2 pkg. (3.9 oz. each) JELL-O Chocolate Instant Pudding

1 tub (8 oz.) COOL WHIP Whipped Topping, thawed, divided

20 OREO Cookies, crushed, divided 30 miniature semi-sweet chocolate chips

Directions:

BEAT milk and pudding mixes with whisk 2 min. Stir in 1/2 each COOL WHIP and cookie crumbs.

SPOON 1 Tbsp. of the remaining crumbs into each of 15 (6-oz.) plastic cups. Cover with layers of pudding mixture and remaining crumbs.

DROP remaining COOL WHIP by spoonfuls onto desserts to resemble ghosts. Add chocolate chips for the eyes.

The Healthier Version:

For a light version of this spooky treat, prepare with fat-free milk, JELL-O Chocolate Fat Free Sugar Free Instant Pudding, COOL WHIP FREE Whipped Topping and SNACKWELL'S Reduced Fat Chocolate Sandwich Cookies - it has 80 fewer calories and 50% less fat per serving.

Shortcut:

Instead of dropping spoonfuls of COOLWHIP, use a resealable plastic bag to make the ghosts. Fill bag with remaining COOL WHIP; seal bag. Use scissors to diagonally cut off corner from bottom of bag. Squeeze COOL WHIP from bag to resemble the ghosts.