Individual Brownie Trifles

About a month ago, my husband and I invited our neighbors on each side of us over for dinner.  I think the Reluctant Entertainer should be proud of me!  :)  We had been at a Dave Ramsey seminar all day til 3pm.  Then home to put together a quick but nice supper and spiff up the house.  We've only lived here a year, and this is the first time that these two neighbor couples had even met!  I'm so happy it could happen at our house!

So, one of the couples enjoyed our little casual dinner party so much, that they then initiated having all of us over to their house for dinner! Tonight is the night that we are going to their house along with the other couple!

I offered to bring something, and Carrie asked me to bring dessert.  Here's a true confession...we live about 15 minutes from shopping, and with gas at $3.99 a gallon I decided to make something for which I already had the ingredients.  And that's when I decided on Individual Brownie Trifles!  Putting these ingredients all in one large trifle bowl looks STUNNING and causes ooohs and ahhhhs.  However, it doesn't scoop up very nicely and look very pretty in the serving dishes.  So I thought that putting them in parfait glasses (purchased for a song at my Goodwill a couple of years ago...love them!) would make it nice for our hostess to serve, and give everyone their own little pretty dessert.

Here's how you make them.  Bake a brownie mix for a 9x13 pan.  I like the Aldi's brand.  After they cool, cut them into 1 inch cubes.

Then stir up 2 kinds of instant pudding.  I used chocolate and the other one is cheesecake.  But vanilla would have been great too.

In the dishes, layer a cube of brownie (if it's in a parfait dish), then a ladle of the light colored pudding.  Next, place 3-4 or so more cubes of brownie, and then drench it in a ladle of the chocolate pudding.  Lastly, 'ice' the top with cool whip and...

garnish with chocolate curls or chocolate chunks.

With very little time or trouble, my desserts are on this tray now, waiting in my fridge.  How easy and fun to walk next door with these at 6pm tonight.  :)  Here's a little hint:  Trifle tastes even better when it has sat in the fridge for hours or overnight.  I have leftovers of all these ingredients, and plan to make more of these tomorrow for our Mother's Day picnic on Sunday.  Yay!

I hope you are inspired to give these a try.  Tasty.  Pretty.  Easy.  Blessings to you!!  
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