What’s YOUR Favorite Shortcut?

While we all love homemade flavor, sometimes our busy schedules don’t allow us to make everything from scratch. It’s these times that we’re so thankful for refrigerated pie crust, flavorful ready-made sauces, quick cake mixes and so many more shortcut ingredients.

Always on hand in our pantry, they’re part of some of our most-requested recipes, like the rich and chocolatey cake below. We’re betting that some of YOU have delicious dishes that put these shortcuts to work too!

 So tell us…

What are YOUR favorite recipes 
with SHORTCUT INGREDIENTS? 
Share ’em all in today’s Recipe Round-Up!

Here’s one of our favorites from Simple Shortcut Recipes, a brand new cookbook filled with new and tasty ways to use shortcut ingredients! 
Visit our Menu of the Week for 6 MORE recipes from this cookbook.

Best & Easiest Chocolate Cake Ever

Lori Nash of Saint Peters, Missouri sent us this super-simple cake recipe. She writes, “A wonderful friend shared this awesome recipe with me when she made it for my birthday. It’s amazing…and it doesn’t use any oil or eggs!” Be sure to get the cook & serve pudding mix…the instant mix won’t give you the same fudgy results.

Ingredients:

• 3.4-oz. pkg. cook & serve chocolate pudding mix
• 2 c. milk
• 18-1/4 oz. pkg. chocolate cake mix
• 12-oz. pkg. semi-sweet or milk chocolate chips
• 
1 c. pecan halves

Lightly grease a 13″x9″ baking pan with non-stick vegetable spray. Prepare chocolate pudding mix according to package directions using milk. Pour dry cake mix into a bowl; slowly add pudding, stirring constantly to prevent clumping. Batter will be sticky. Spread into prepared pan. Sprinkle with chocolate chips and pecans. Bake at 350 degrees for 45 to 48 minutes, or until a toothpick inserted into the center of the cake comes out clean. Cool before serving. Serves 16.

Originally posted on Gooseberry Patch.