Good afternoon, savvy savers! Today’s recipe is for one of my families favorite any time of the year, my classic Too Tired To Bake Trifle Pudding! I can make this dessert from ingredients solely from the Dollar Tree, use frozen cake, cupcake, and cookie scraps crumbled to save money, and aside from the berries which I often buy on buy-one-get-one-free sales from Winn-Dixie, I can make this dessert for under $4.00, which consists of fourteen 1 cup servings. The Trifle dish itself was purchased at Walmart for $4.98! This is a favorite recipe, and one that I find works best made the night before, which allows the juice, pudding, and layering-medium of choice to meld together!

Trifle Pudding Ingredients:
2 dozen cookies, lady fingers, cake slices, or cupcake crumbles (6 cups of crumbles, if used)
1 lg. container (12 oz.) whipped topping
2 lg. pkgs. vanilla instant pudding
2 pts. fresh or frozen strawberries
1/4 c. orange or pineapple juice
Maraschino cherries & pecans, or cookie toppings; to taste and whatever you have on hand!

How to make Trifle Pudding:

1) If using fresh strawberries, hull, wash, slice and add sweetener to taste; a good rule of thumbs for making a simple fruit glaze is one tablespoon of water to 1/4 cup sweetener. Once the fruit is glazed, let stand ten minutes.

2) Line a trifle bowl with whatever cookies, lady fingers, cake slices, or cupcake crumbles you have on hand.

3) Make the vanilla pudding according to instructions on the package.

4) Sprinkle the cookies, lady fingers, cake slices, or cupcake crumbles with orange or pineapple juice, then put a layer of pudding, strawberries and whipped topping.

5) Repeat step 4 with a second layer and end with the whipped topping.

6) Maraschino cherries and pecans may be added, if desired.

7)I sometimes use a homemade hardening shell instead, which I make with one packet hot cocoa mix, a pat of butter, and a touch of milk, layered on the dessert, and chilled until hardened.

8) Refrigerate to chill before serving.

9) Enjoy!