Chocolate Cowboy Cake Mix Cookies

These Chocolate Cowboy Cake Mix Cookies are a fun and easy twist on the original cowboy cookies that everyone loves.

Traditionally, cowboy cookies are loaded with coconut, nuts, oats, and chocolate chips and go by many names, IE, Laura Bush cookies and the Everything Cookie, depending on where you’re from.

This version keeps all those classic, hearty mix-ins but starts with a chocolate cake mix, making them extra rich, chocolatey, and unbelievably easy to make.

No complicated steps, no chilling the dough, just mix, scoop, drop, and bake!

Perfect for bake sales, potlucks, holidays, or when you need a quick dessert with big flavor, these cookies are soft, chewy, and customizable to whatever you have on hand.

If you are a cookie jar cookie lover, do try my family's Original Cowboy AKA Everything Cookies, Chocolate Chip Shortbread recipe, Peanut Butter Cookie Recipe, and oatmeal cookies!

Chocolate Chip Instant Pudding Cookies

If you're a lover of the most popular cookie on the planet, classic chocolate chip cookies, but sometimes crave a little softer style cookie, this recipe is the perfect twist on the original.

Adding instant pudding mix to the cookie dough creates a tender, moist texture that stays soft for days.

These cookies bake up thick, chewy, and full of flavor, making them a fun and easy way to even change flavors using a variety of ingredients to create endless variations using the same simple base recipe.

If you are a cookie jar cookie lover, do try my family's Everything Cookies, Chocolate Chip Shortbread recipe, Peanut Butter Cookie Recipe, and oatmeal cookies!

Grandma's Lentils and Sausage Soup

This is the most vintage recipe I learned from my late Grandmother Victoria and she was a huge lentil fan.

There’s something deeply comforting about starting the New Year with a pot of sausage and lentil soup simmering on the stove.

This recipe has been made in my family for generations, passed down from my grandmother, and cooked every year as a symbol of good luck, prosperity, and abundance.

Lentils have long been associated with wealth and success in the New Year, making this hearty soup not just delicious, but meaningful too.

This sausage and lentil soup recipe is rustic, nourishing, and endlessly customizable. Whether you prefer sweet or hot Italian sausage, a mild broth or a spicy kick, or extra vegetables packed into every spoonful, this soup adapts beautifully to your taste.

It’s cozy enough for winter nights, simple enough for beginners, and satisfying enough to serve as a complete meal.

Best of all, it tastes even better the next day—making it perfect for New Year’s gatherings and leftovers.