WFMW: Cake Mix Cookies

Last week I wanted to make cookies for dessert – but alas! – I am very lazy. I had a package of Betty Crocker cookie mix but let me tell you a little secret: Betty can do better. Those things NEVER come out right for me! The batter is always too thin and the cookies never taste good, and I SWEAR it is not my fault. After all, I made these, I should be able to add water and oil to a cookie mix and have them turn out. But NO.

Anyhoo, when I was frantically spinning my lazy Susan around, I came across a box of chocolate cake mix. “Hmm.” I thought to myself. (I have such intellectual conversations with myself.) “I wonder if I can make cookies out of this?” I then did what any smart, resourceful mom does in this situation. I Googled the heck out of it and discovered several different recipes to make cookies out of a boxed cake mix! I tweaked one recipe and here is what worked for me:

Ingredients:

* 18 oz. pkg. cake mix (any flavor)
* 1/2 cup butter, softened
* 1 egg
* 3-4 tbsp water (as needed)
* desired mix-in (I chose chocolate chips)

Preparation:
Preheat oven to 350 degrees. In a large bowl, combine all ingredients except water at low speed. Add water as needed until dry ingredients are moistened and dough is thoroughly mixed. Add chocolate chips or other fixin’ and drop dough by rounded tablespoonfuls 2″ apart onto ungreased cookie sheets. Bake at 350 for 9-12 minutes. Cool two minutes on cookie sheets, then remove to wire racks to cool.

These cookies were very tasty! They were a big hit with the whole family. The consistency was great, they baked up really well and looked attractive too! Thankfully I had chocolate chips on hand, but with this recipe you can get creative and use nuts, peanut butter chips, M&M’s – whatever you like.

So, cake mix cookies worked for me! For more great tips, check out Works for Me Wednesday at Rocks in My Dryer.

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WFMW: Breastfeeding tips

I nursed Kate for 15 months, so when Sam was born I felt like I at least knew a little bit about what I was doing… but of course, since he was a different baby, he presented different challenges. I thought I would share a couple of things that worked for me this time around.

When Sam was really tiny, we had trouble with a shallow latch. He just wasn’t getting on there enough, and that lead to all kinds of fun problems like plugged ducts and mastitis, and contributed to his frequent nursing (more on that later). Anyway, of course I Googled it, and found something called a “deep latch technique.” This method helped a lot and I would highly recommend it.

And back to the frequent nursing thing…. Sam nursed all.the.time. Like non-stop. So once again I googled it, and found out about block feeding. Block feeding is basically nursing from one side for 2-4 hours at a time, so the baby gets the more fatty, more filling hind milk. This really helped us and Sam would sleep for longer periods of time after he filled up.

Nothing ground breaking, I know, but these two tips really helped our nursing relationship, and anything that makes breastfeeding easier works for me!

What breastfeeding tips do you have to share??

For more WFMW tips, head over to Rocks in my Dryer!

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WFMW: Flickr

Well as you may know from reading this here blog, I went on a little trip last April courtesy of Sony, and I came back obsessed with taking pictures! For several years, I had been uploading my photos to an online storage site, but I had been displeased with its slow upload and even slower photo editing programs. So, after I came back from my trip, I got myself a Flickr account. I could not be happier with Flickr! They make uploading, organizing, and editing photos so easy. Sharing your photos with friends and family is also as simple as sharing your Flickr website address with them – no more sendng out a mass email to tell them to click on a page and create a username and password – NONE of that!! I have been able to do a lot of fun, creative things with my photos thanks to Flickr, and I love having them organized in different categories. It makes it easy to find a specific photo when I need to. I also use Flickr code to share photos here on the blog – many times it is easier than uploading the photos to our blog.

So, Flickr works for me! You can check out my Flickr photostream here. Check back often for updates!

For more great Works for me Wednesday tips, check out Rocks in My Dryer.

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