Homemade cookies so easy, you'll slap yourself for not making them sooner

Okay, it's Christmas, and you want to be all "Oh, happy face for the kids, lots of traditions, happy happy happy, turkey and ham, homemade cookies, yay!" Only the reality is that you don't have time for homemade cookies, with the flour sifting and the just-the-right-amount-of-brown-sugar, because you're going 90 miles and hour trying to shop and wrap gifts and not kill yourself. And you don't want to spend $4 on refrigerated cookie dough, because you've already spent $599.95 on gifts. So here's the easy way to do this, and it's cheap.

• 2 eggs
• 1/2 cup veg. oil
• 1 box cake mix (any flavor)
• (optional) chopped nuts, chocolate chips, M&M baking chips, etc.

Mix together eggs and oil. Stir in cake mix with wooden spoon; continue stirring until all lumps are dissolved. Add in nuts, chips, etc. if desired. Place rounded spoonfuls on greased baking sheet. Bake at 350 degrees for 10 minutes. Cool 10 minutes. Makes 1 1/2 to 3 dozen cookies, depending on size.

Seriously, cake mix is 78 cents at Wal-Mart, and you already have eggs and vegetable oil at home. What's more, it's fun and easy for the kids to do it, too, so you can enjoy baking together instead of chasing them out of the kitchen so you can concentrate on measuring everything.

Happy cooking!