Strawberry Shortcake Trifle

Since I've had my little one, we have received an outpouring of support from our friends, family, and neighbors. One of my very good friends brought this treat over for our family and I thought I'd post it since it is a cool, yummy, and simple dessert to put together and it's PERFECT for summer!

But before I get into that, let me point out that she served her treat to us already individualized in champagne glasses. That is one thing I absolutely love to do when entertaining - find fun ways to serve individual portions of things.

You can use champagne glasses to serve a number of desserts (or really whatever you want, but I like them for desserts). It's also fun to use martini or margarita glasses to serve salads (green or fruit) in. The regular sized ones are fine for small servings, but the over sized glasses are more fun to use, in my opinion.

So there you have it, some fun ideas for the next time you entertain! O.k., now on to the strawberry shortcake trifle...

Here's what you'll need:

angel food cake
strawberries
Cool Whip

Cube the angel food cake into one inch cubes. Slice the strawberries. In the individual champagne glasses (or a trifle bowl), layer the three ingredients, starting with the angel food cake, then the strawberries, followed by the Cool Whip. Repeat the layers until the glass or bowl is filled.

How easy is that?! And so yummy too!

Pizzookies

Wowie!! Things are kind of crazy around here. For those of you who don't know, my new baby and the next older child are 15 months apart. I literally have two babies to take care of, along with two more kids. My time seems to be consumed with taking care of one baby and then the other. Phew! It's a bit exhausting!! So I'll do my best staying updated with new recipes, but I'm not guaranteeing anything!

I really enjoy checking out other cooking blogs for new ideas and recipes to try. When I was perusing through Our Best Bites, I came across today's recipe and decided I had to try it. I'm so glad I did. This recipe is SOOOOOOOO easy and simply delicious! Try this one out tonight!!!

Here's what you'll need:

Refrigerated cookie dough (you can use homemade, but this is faster and easier -what I'm all about these days!)

Vanilla ice cream

Hot fudge sauce

Caramel sauce

Divide the cookie dough into six ramekins, filling each ramekin 1/3 full. (I filled mine a little more full and put them into five ramekins. Next time I'll do six though.) Bake at 350 degrees for 12-14 minutes or until lightly golden around the edges and puffy in the middle. Now, I'm not sure if this is supposed to happen or not, but mine fell in the centers. I wasn't too sad about this since it makes the perfect spot to put the ice cream and it doesn't change the way this tastes, by any means.

Allow the cookies to cool for about 15 minutes so you don't end up with ice cream soup! This is very hard to do, but believe me, it's worth it. Scoop ice cream into the centers and top with sauces. Oh my YUM! This was super yummy and way easy and everyone LOVED it!!

Lasagna

Once again, it's been a while since my last post. I'm so sorry!! But I do have a really good excuse. We've had our little baby! YAY!!!!!! So I'm just barely getting back into the swing of things. Yesterday was the first day that I actually cooked and it felt sooooooo good to be back in the kitchen making yummy food! I've decided that cooking is therapeutic for me. So I'm going to have to be doing more of it to get through these baby blues!

But I do have to say that I have so many WONDERFUL friends who are amazing cooks! We've be SOOOOOO spoiled by all of the meals that have been made and brought to us. How lucky am I?!

Well the recipe that I have for today is a delicious lasagna. I found the recipe on allrecipes.com, making a few tweeks to it, of course, and everyone loved it. But the best part is that it makes a big 9x13 inch pan. So now we have LOTS of leftovers - now I don't have to worry about dinner for tonight and probably the next night too!

Here's what you'll need:

1 1/2 lbs. ground beef
1 T. dried onion, or 1/2 onion, chopped
1/2 t. garlic powder, or 2 cloves garlic, minced
1 t. dried basil
1 t. dried oregano
2 T. brown sugar
1 t. salt
2 (14.5 oz.) cans Italian style diced tomatoes
2 (6 oz.) cans tomato paste
12 lasagna noodles
2 eggs, beaten
1 pint (2 c.) ricotta cheese
1/2 c. Parmesan cheese
2 T/ dried parsley
1 t. salt
1 lb. Mozzarella cheese, shredded
Italian style shredded cheese

Brown the ground beef, onion, and garlic together. In another pan, combine the basil, oregano, sugar, salt, diced tomatoes, and paste. Allow to simmer for 30 minutes, adding the ground beef when cooked.

Cook the lasagna noodles, according to package instructions. In a bowl, combine the beaten eggs, ricotta cheese, Parmesan cheese, parsley, and salt.

In a 9x13 inch pan, layer 1/3 noodles, topped with 1/2 the ricotta cheese mixture, 1/2 the mozzarella cheese, and 1/3 the tomato sauce.

Then repeat. Top with remaining noodles and sauce. Sprinkle with Italian style shredded cheese (or you can use a mixture of Mozzarella and Parmesan cheeses.

Bake at 375 degrees for 30 minutes. Let stand 10-15 minutes before serving.

Mmmmm - one of my FAVORITE foods!!

For a freezer meal, assemble the lasagna in a foil lasagna pan, using uncooked lasagna noodles.  Cover tightly with heavy duty foil or freezer foil, label and freeze.  To serve:  Thaw.  Bake at 375 degrees for 45 minutes or until heated through.