Baking Shortcut: Funfetti Cookies

How To Make Cookies Really Really Fast 

I LOVE to bake. Cookies are one of the first things I learned to bake from scratch when I first started baking around age 11 or 12. Since then, I've continued to bake cookies from scratch. But, I've also discovered a really quick and easy way to make cookies. The secret is to start with store bought cake mix. Baking anything, whether it's cookies or cake or bread, starts with the same basic ingredients for the most part. So, it's really easy to turn a cake mix into cookies instead!

You can use any type of cake mix to make any type of cookies, but this week I decided to make Funfetti cookies. Baking usually involves exact measurements to make sure that the product turns out the way it's supposed to. But when I'm making cookies from cake mix, I don't measure as precisely and just use my judgment for how much of each ingredient to add. With practice, it gets easier to do. 

Side note: I like my Funfetti cookies to be more fluffy and puffy than when I make other cookies. So, I add a little bit of baking soda to the dough. This step is completely optional and can be left out if you prefer cookies that aren't as puffy. I've made the cookies with and without baking soda before, and both ways result in delicious tasting cookies.

Ingredients

1 box Funfetti cake mix (any brand will do!)

2 large eggs

3-4 tablespoons flour

1/4 heaping teaspoon baking powder (optional)

1/3 cup vegetable oil (not olive oil)

Preheat oven to 325 degrees before making the dough. The dough is really easy to make and you'll want the oven to be ready to pop the cookies in.

Step 1:

Wet ingredients: In a bowl, whisk together the 2 large eggs and 1/3 cup of vegetable oil.

Step 2:

Dry ingredients: In a second bowl, dump in the bag of cake mix. Whisk well to get rid of clumps. Add a heaping 1/4 teaspoon of baking soda (if desired) and whisk together.

Step 3:

 To the dry ingredients, add 3 loose tablespoons of flour (don't pat it down). Whisk well.

Step 4:

 Slowly add ~1/3 of the dry ingredients to the wet ingredients and whisk together. Continue to add a little bit of the dry ingredients to the wet ingredients like so, and mix.

Step 5: 

When the mixture becomes too thick to mix with the whisk, take out the whisk and mix the rest by hand. The dough should start to come together and form into a lump. If not, add another tablespoon of flour (or more) until the dough all clumps together. The dough shouldn't be too wet (like cake batter) or too dry (like pizza dough).

Step 6:

 Using a mini ice cream scoop, or a regular spoon, form ~1 inch round balls of dough and place onto a greased cookie sheet. Leave around 2 inches of space between each ball.

Step 7:

Gently press down on each ball to flatten them. Dough should be slightly springy.

Step 8:

Bake the cookies at 325 degrees for around 11-13 minutes or until the cookies are slightly golden brown. I usually don't use timers, but I'll know that the cookies are almost done once I start to smell them.

Step 9:

Once the cookies are done, take them out of the oven and let them rest for a minute or so. Then place the cookies onto a cooling rack to finish cooling. And they're ready to eat!

So, the most important part to remember for this recipe is to not follow the directions listed on the cake mix box. Because remember, you're trying to make cookies, not cake! But whether you're making cookies or cake, your house will smell delicious for hours after you bake. And I think everyone agrees that the smell of freshly baked Funfetti is one of the best smells in the world. 

8 Random Things I Love Doing

Because I'm Weird. Honestly. 

I'm easily entertained and find the most random things to be interesting or fun. Besides the obvious things I love, like baking and traveling, these are some more random things I love to do. Some of these things are weird, but all of them are really fun for me. So here we go.

1. Brushing my teeth for a really long time.

This is probably the most random one on my list. I really love brushing my teeth for some odd reason. Like, I'll literally brush my teeth for the longest time because I think it's really fun. I also really like the feeling of clean teeth and how minty fresh your mouth gets. So every time I brush my teeth, I'll stand there and brush, brush, brush away for like 5 minutes (or even more). 

2. Going to concerts and getting that ringing in the ears afterwards.

One of the greatest joys in my life is going to concerts and shows. I LOVE IT. I love seeing my favorite bands and singers performing live because it's such a different feeling than just listening through headphones. I believe that the best shows leave you with the most intense ringing in the ears feeling after it's over. The better the show, the longer you have that ringing for. Really good shows will leave me with the ringing feeing for days, and I love every minute of it.

3. Going into kitchen stores.

I love walking into stores like Sur La Table or Crate&Barrel just to browse through all of the kitchen things they have. It's so fun to just wander through those stores and look at all of the baking gadgets and little tools they have. I have a collection of appliances and baking tools at home, but there's always more things I would love to get (and will slowly, but surely buy). 

4. Watching movies on the SyFy Channel.

The SyFy Channel always has these movies that are really stupid, but hilarious to watch. The plots are outrageously ridiculous but they keep me entertained. I really love sharks, so the shark ones are my favorites to watch. My favorite right now is probably Sand Sharks because I love how the sharks can swim through the sand to attack their victims. I still need to watch the one about the invisible sharks, and I can't wait for Sharknado 2!

5. Building furniture.

I like to build things by myself. Like all of the furniture you get from IKEA or Target, I love to build. Now, I'm no handyman so I definitely can't build things from scratch. But give me a set with instructions, and I can sit there and have the best time doing it. I have no idea why it's so fun for me, but I just love it.

6. Watching football.

Growing up, I loved watching basketball with my dad. But now, I love watching football soo much more. I can't wait for September for football to start again. It seems like it's been forever since the SuperBowl and football season ended. My favorite team to watch is the Saints, even though I'm from San Diego. But... I really just don't like the Chargers hahaha.

7. Going to aquariums.

I could spend all day in any aquarium. Take me to an aquarium, and I will be a happy girl. The sharks are always my favorite to look at, and I can sit there forever just looking at them. Of course, I do sometimes get scared that the glass will break and the sharks will eat me. But at the same time, I also get scared that the glass will break, because then it means all the fish will die. And that would be so sad.

8. Singing loudly in the car with other people.

I love to sing in the car, and it's even more fun when there are other people in the car to do it with. I never drive without music on because it's so boring to sit there in silence. It's fun to listen to the radio, but the radio overplays a lot of songs. So most of the time I'll plug in my phone and play songs on shuffle. I love when a random 90's song will play, like Backstreet Boys or something. It's so much fun to sing/scream to songs you really love, and even more fun to sing/scream to songs from "back in the day."

So that's it. 8 random things that I love doing. I don't think any of them really correlate to each other at all, but that's okay. I'm just a complex person who likes a wide array of different activities. LOL just kidding. But not really.

From Sickness to Health

When Life Gives You A Cold, It Sucks. 

I hate getting sick. It really sucks no matter if you have a little cold or the full blown flu. Your head pounds, you can't breathe, your throat hurts, you're freezing, you're too hot, etc. You just feel like death, then you take a bunch of medicine, and you get over it and feel good as new again. At least until the next time you get sick.

I've come to realize that every time I get sick, I kind of have an established routine for how I try to make myself better. Besides taking medicine (only when I really need it), I have a few essentials that I swear help me get well again. But I'm no doctor, so warning: it's probably just all a placebo effect.

1. Wearing comfy lounging clothes.

Nobody likes dressing up when they're sick. I pick my outfits everyday based on my mood in the mornings. So when I'm feeling sick (or just lazy), all I want to wear are fuzzy socks, leggings, yoga pants, sweats, and T-shirts. I just wanna feel warm and cozy. I don't have the energy to put on real pants or cute shirts. Being sick makes you feel gross, so wearing comfy clothes helps you feel a tiny bit better because you feel cozy and protected.

2. Water overdose.

I drink a ton of water on the daily, but when I'm sick, I drink a whole lot more because I think it helps "flush" out all the bad stuff in my body. Sometimes I feel like I'm a fish out of water--I literally feel like I'm drying out and getting dehydrated when I don't have anything to drink even for half an hour. I literally need the hydration or I feel like I'm dying in the Sahara Desert. When I'm sick, its a constant cycle of feeling dry, drinking water, going to pee, then feeling dry again. It just never ends.

3. Green Tea.

Besides water, I also like to drink a lot of green tea when I'm sick. If I don't have green tea, any other tea works too, but mostly it's the green. I'll drink it iced or hot, and I'll drink it all day long. It helps to sooth my throat when it sore or scratchy. I also like to think it has some ancient magical tea powers in it that's working to make me feel better.

4. Bananas.

I eat a banana pretty much every day. When I'm sick, I eat more than one banana. It's mostly just because I feel like fruit is healthy and eating healthy things when you're sick will help you get better. And since there are always bananas in my house (because they're my favorite), I end up eating them since they're right there. I probably eat 10x more bananas than any other fruit. And sometimes when there's a lot of fruit in the house, I'll blend it all up in to a jumbo smoothie. Because I also love smoothies. And fruit is good for you. And when you're sick, sometimes you're too tired to chew, so drinking a smoothie is perfect.

5. Watching Jimmy Fallon Videos on Youtube.

I don't know why, but binge-watching Jimmy Fallon clips on Youtube works miracles. I love watching them and they make always me laugh. Like they say, laughter is the best medicine right? So watching funny things is good for you when you're sick (and even when you're not sick). It's like you're laughing out all of the germs inside you.

So, those are basically the 5 things that I always do when I'm sick. There may or may not be actual science behind them, and they may or may not even actually work. But, if all of these fail, then there's always the final option of just getting someone I know sick. Because everyone knows that once you pass along the sickness, you suddenly make a full recovery. Weird.

Friday Favorite | The Fault In Our Stars

Can Someone Pass Me More Tissues Please?

This week I watched The Fault In Our Stars with Sydney. After reading the book and crying over just about the whole thing, I was really really really excited to see this movie. There were a few failed attempts to see it, but finally we did it. And it was beyond worth the wait. 

Hands down, this is one of my new favorite movies. Me & Syd can't wait to get it on DVD and watch it over and over surrounded by ice cream and tissues. Here's why.

1. I really love the book. John Green is a fantastic author. He knows how to suck you into reading a book from start to finish, without stopping to go eat or pee. I fell in love with Augustus Waters and Sydney fell in love with Ansel Elgort. My summer goal: read all of John Green's books, even though Sydney tells me that Looking For Alaska has a scene that's a little risqué or something. But that's alright.

2. Usually when books are made into movies, some important parts are changed or left out, which makes the movies a little disappointing. I was a little scared that this movie would be the same way. But...it wasn't, yay! I mean, some things were changed or left out of the movie, but not too much to make me not like it. I seriously loved everything in the movie and can now die happy after watching it. 

3. It made me cry like a baby. In a really good way. We brought a ton of tissues with us, and I ended up using most of them, but I was nice and let Sydney use 3 of them haha. I love when movies have that one really emotional scene that gives you the feels. This movie had like 50 because I cried throughout the whole thing. Sydney got annoyed because I kept sniffling, even in the parts that weren't sad. But Sydney sniffled and cried a bunch in this movie too, so she shouldn't be complaining. 

4. Shailene Woodley and Ansel Elgort are gooooood. Like really really good. And really good together. I hate when two characters have zero chemistry together and they ruin the whole movie. But these two are so perfect as Hazel Grace Lancaster and Augustus Waters. And Ansel Elgort is really cute too (Sydney agrees x10000000). 

5. Last but not least, this one quote.

"But, Gus, my love, I cannot tell you how thankful I am for our little infinity. I wouldn't trade it for the world. You gave me a forever within he numbered days, and I'm grateful." 

Serious feels. I love that quote. Seriously, who didn't cry when this part came up?? Because if you didn't cry, you have no soul. And no heart.

So now after reading the book and watching the movie, I can say without a doubt, that I love The Fault In Our Stars and everything about it. I love it so much that I would even go out and get a tattoo that is related to it in some shape or form. And that is saying a whole lot since I am so afraid of needles. But I really do want a tattoo, so I would so do it. That's true love right there.

Grizzly Spirit Forever & Ever

When One Chapter Ends, Another One Begins.

I can't believe I'm writing this, but Bernan Brian has graduated from high school. I repeat. He has graduated from high school. I mean, it's definitely believable that he graduated, but it's unbelievable how old that makes me feel! I mean, I just graduated from the same school...5 years ago...and so did Kurtis and Michael. 

Like. What. Just. Happened.

So now that he's graduated, he's officially ended our family's era at Mission Hills. At least until some of us older kids have some kids of our own, and then they can go to the same school in like 20 years. But for now, the era has ended, and Brian ended it with a BANG!

So congratulations Brian! To celebrate, let's look at some of the beautiful pictures from your graduation. About 10% of them are nice pictures where everyone is smiling and looking. The other 90% are the usual awkward pictures our family always seems to take. 

After about 5 hours of sitting in the sun and waiting for graduation to begin, here you are! This was right before your cap flew off. Haha. 

And here is when you got your award! YAY!

A little bit after this, you got your diploma! 

Here you are with your mommy and daddy, and one with grandma as well.

Then you have some adorable pictures with you and your friends.

You and Saloni--the happiest you'll ever look taking a picture together.

Now here's you and Saloni--this is how you normally look together in pictures. 

You and your friends, including the guy who had the big head thing that we were supposed to get for you, but didn't. Sorry!

And one last one, just because of Saloni's face, and yours.

And now....it's time for AWKWARD HUGS. Everybody's favorite! Cue the start of some of the most embarrassing, cringeworthy, and funniest pictures ever. No captions necessary.

And last but not least, this keeper.

One day, we will learn to pose like normal people and take normal pictures like the rest of the world. But for now, we will cherish these pictures of us looking like somewhat wild animals attacking each other, because really, everyone's a Grizzly at heart. Except not really--that's just my attempt to tie this whole thing back into the title of this post. LOL GO GRIZZLIES! Forever and ever.

Tissues and Tears

When You Cry Tears by the Bucket, Like Me.

So, a lot of things make me cry/tear up. I cry over sad things, and I cry when I laugh too hard, or even when I'm really happy. I even tear up over things that aren't even remotely sad sometimes. I cry rivers and buckets of tears and use sooo many tissues. I'm just a crying machine, aka a giant embarrassing mess. Brian and Sydney make fun of me for this, but I just can't help it. Sorry for having a heart guys! #noshame

Here's a random list of things that made me cry just this week.. On average, I cried 1.142 times/day this week. That's a lot. Just imagine if I wrote a list for the whole year. It would literally never end.

1. The series finale episode of Boy Meets World where everyone says goodbye to Mr. Feeny. 

It's sooo sad because everyone's moving, but Mr. Feeny doesn't go with them this time, like when he went with them to college. Also, pretty much any series finale of any show makes me cry. But this one was extra sad because Boy Meets World has a special place in my heart since I watched it all growing up.

2. The trailer for The Fault in Our Stars. 

The book made me BAWL when I read it, so I was pretty much reading it with tears streaming down my face. But IT WAS SO SO SO GOOD. I'm 150% sure that I'm going to need a box of tissues to watch the actual movie. Maybe even 2 boxes.

3. The song "All of Our Stars" by Ed Sheeran that's in The Fault in Our Stars movie. 

First of all, Ed Sheeran is a musical genius and all of the songs he writes are amazing. Second of all, the fact that it's in The Fault in Our Stars just makes this particular song even more emotional than it already is. Ugh. Like why is it soo good but so sad?! Why, Ed Sheeran, why?!

4. One word: Allergies.

I ALWAYS have allergies and at times it feels like I am allergic to EVERYTHING. I really am allergic to a lot of things and it really does suck. Sometimes it even feels like I'm even allergic to air (if that's possible) because I get allergies over nothing. This time it was because of my allergy to horses, and I hung out with my younger cousin right after she had her horseback riding lesson. My eye got super itchy and watery, and my nose got congested and runny at the same time. Allergies are not fun at all, and honestly with the amount of things I'm allergic to, it's like allergy season is all year long for me.

5. Matthew's 8th Grade Graduation.

My cousin Matthew officially graduated from middle school and is now entering the world of high school! WHAT IS GOING ON?! Seriously makes me feel old. But that's not the reason why I cried. He was Class Historian and took pictures all year long, and then made a slideshow for the graduation of all the fun times they had in 8th grade. It was so beautiful to see all of the moments captured on camera and the songs playing in the background were so sweet. Like, seriously, sniffle sniffle. Good friends + candid/uncandid pictures + good music = tears. Seriously though, congratulations Matthew!! Have fun in high school :)

6. Dylan's Journal Entry.

I've been volunteering in my little cousin Dylan's 1st grade class for this school year. It was so much fun and I am so sad that the year is over. I can't believe they're all going to be 2nd graders now! I love all of the kids and especially love my little Dylan even more than I did before. So, now that the year's almost over, the kids have been taking their projects and things home with them. My aunt showed me one of his journal entries from earlier this year, and it said this.

Like, OMG. Dylan loves me! AWWWW. I love Dylan. He makes me cry in a good way. Even though it kinda looks like he wrote Jadkie instead of Jackie. Also, he draws such beautiful pictures hahaha. I love it. I cried because it made it so happy and from laughing at the picture. I also love how he writes all of his S's as capitals.

7. The scene from the movie Hotel For Dogs.

The part when Emma Roberts' character and Jake T. Austin's character have to split up because they got in trouble with their foster parents = SO SAD. AND THEN ALL OF THE DOGS GOT PUT IN THE POUND. TEARS FOR DAYS. At least the movie had a happy ending, which also was kinda tearworthy. Also, side note, Jake T. Austin looks so young in this movie, and I totally miss the show Wizards of Waverly Place. Why did it have to endddd?

8. Ansel Elgort's Instagram post.

He plays Augustus Waters in The Fault in Our Stars and posts all these things about the movie on his Instagram. Today he posted a shot from the movie with my favorite quote from the book: "But, Gus, my love, I cannot tell you how thankful I am for our little infinity." I read it, and already needed a tissue. I seriously don't know how I'm going to handle watching the actual movie. I NEED TO BUY TISSUES NOW.

So I cried over 8 things this week, which isn't too many times, but is still 8 times more than other people. Sometimes I think I really need to just get it together. But other times, I'm perfectly fine with embarrassing myself and others by crying over everything and nothing. It's perfectly okay to be a mess, as long as you're not a mess all the time, right? Right. Like I said before, #noshame.