… I WAS OPENING & CLOSING THE FRIDGE, not finding anything I wanted to eat. But man! I was craving sweets. So I yanked out the mixer. Started whipping up a batch of chocolate chippers, then realized I didn’t have chocolate chips.

Kyle came running into the kitchen. (He can hear a whirling Kitchen-Aid a mile away.) “Are you making cookies?” He smiled huge. I told him I thought I was but I didn’t have chocolate chips.  “How about Because I Said So cookies?”

I had forgotten about those one-of-a-kind concoctions… Named in honor of something I used to say a lot:“Because I said so!” It was one of those lines I must have absorbed through osmosis. What on earth does it mean anyway?

Well ----- I think Kyle found the definition. He dumped handfuls of Lucky Charm marshmallows into the cookie batter explaining that he was doing so “because he said so”.  And voila! A cookie recipe was born!

Because I Said So Cookies!    

Ingredients

1 Great Big Smile

1 Recipe off the backside of a 12 oz. bag of semi-sweet chocolate chips

1 teaspoon Baking Powder (add baking powder to flour when beating into butter and sugar)

3 cups of anything that you think would taste fun in a cookie! (See suggestions below)

Instructions:  Smile BIG! Why?  Because this recipe creates itself. Follow your favorite chocolate chip cookyie recipe but omit the 2 cups of chocolate chips. When adding flour to the batter, include 1 teaspoon of baking powder so cookies will rise slightly more. Once your batter is nice and creamy it is  time to fold anything you think would be fun to eat in a cooky. "Don't use potato chips" Says my 13-year old son. He grossed out when I crumpled chips into the batter. His sister loved the idea. "Use Pringles" she said. ----- The trick is adding 3 cups of fun ingredients. An easy way to do this is to pick six items and then divide them into half cup increments. "I like using Lucky Charm marshmallows and color sprinkles." My son's cookies were primarily these two ingredients  plus a handful of chocolate chips. Some other ingredients you might enjoy are chocolate chips, M&M's, peanut butter cups, Rice Krispies, butterscotch chips, chopped cherries, coconut, pecans, and yes... potato chips! Bake in a preheated 350 degree oven until lightly golden. Approximately 12-13 minutes for average sized cookies; 16-18 minutes for jumbo (5 inch) cookies.