Ooey Gooey Trifle

Oh my YUM!!

We found a Trifle bowl at a flea market recently for $3. Score!  I just love flea markets. DH and I have wanted one for quite awhile but didn't want to pay what they want for a new one. Imagine our glee when we found this in a booth!!

We are having our son, daughter in law and grandson over for Wahoo! Chili tonight so we gotta have dessert right?  Heck yeah. Well I always have the pound cakes in stock so we decided on Classy Chocolate.  I wrote my DH a list and off to the store he went. 

Here's the result and the recipe. Feel free to change it up. Make it yours!

Doesn't that look delicious?

Ingredients:

Classy Chocolate Pound Cake

1 1/2 sticks of butter

1 cup water

1 large box of vanilla instant pudding mix

3 cups milk (we used fat free, use what you have)

1 8oz bar of cream cheese

1 tub of whipped topping

Creamy Caramel Sauce or Caramel Ice Cream Topping

Berries of your choice 

Make your pound cake and let cool for at least 2 hours, longer if you can. 

In a bowl whip your cream cheese until it is smooth. I put mine in the microwave in my glass bowl (don't do this with a metal bowl!) for 20 seconds if you need to. 

In a separate bowl, mix the vanilla pudding according to the package directions. 

When well combined add to the cream cheese and mix until thick and somewhat smooth. It will still have cream cheese bits in it. 

Add half of the whipped topping and fold in until smooth and well combined. 

Cover and chill for at least 20 minutes. 

When the pound cake is cool, cube it and place half of it in the bottom of a trifle bowl. 

Add a layer of the pudding mixture, then a row of berries around the edge. Drizzle with caramel sauce and repeat the layers.  Add the other half of the whipped topping to the top, drizzle with more caramel and garnish with berries.  

Allow to chill while you have dinner and then serve. Enjoy!! 

Simple Fruit Salsa

I threw a Tupperware party at my house the other day and wanted to make something with the Simply Salsa. My Tupperware lady was already going to make regular salsa with one of her awesome gadgets. Hello my name is Valerie and I am a kitchen gadget addict. I digress. So if you have been following the blog for awhile you know that I LOVE to throw together things on the fly and then try to remember the recipe later if it actually works well. This is one of those times. This was just soooo good. Below is the super simple recipe. You can use almost any fruit you have. 

Ingredients for what I did:

1 bag of smoothie fruit, partially thawed

2 apples, peeled or unpeeled

1 banana

Mango Balsamic Vinegar of Modena

Simply Salsa Mix

Sea Salt

In a blender or food processor blend the frozen fruit leaving it somewhat chunky. Pour into a mixing bowl. Core and quarter your apples. Blend them with the banana leaving it somewhat chunky. Add to the mixing bowl. 

Add 2 Tbsp of the Mango Balsamic Vinegar of Modena and 3 Tbsp of the Simply Salsa Mix plus a couple of grinds or a dash of sea salt. Mix well and chill for at least an hour. Serve with tortilla or pita chips.  Let me know what you think!

An Ode to The King In Muffins

I have always liked Elvis and you may know or you may not, that he really liked peanut butter and banana sandwiches. Well, this is my tribute to him. 

Ingredients:

Banana Chocolate Chip Bread Mix

1/3 cup natural peanut butter

1 1/2 stick of melted butter

1 cup water

1-2 tbsp cocoa powder

Preheat oven to 350. Melt the butter in a microwave safe dish. While it is still hot, add the peanut butter and whisk well. Add the water and then the Banana Chocolate Chip Bread mix. Stir until just combined. With a teaspoon, spoon into a mini muffin pan. Line your counter with wax paper and using a sifter or strainer, dust with cocoa powder. 

Bake for 20 minutes and cool on a wire rack. These make a great dessert for the game day, holiday get together or other gathering.  If you are having a large crowd, you better make a double batch. ;)