Had to go shopping for this one....

Is it a parfait or is it a trifle? I have no idea. Both sound good to me so call it whatever you'd like. In either case, I had to go buy a pretty little dish to serve my first one in. Thank goodness for Bed, Bath and Beyond. I had seen this simple little dish a hundred times and knew it was only $9.99. Not to mention, that 20% coupon that was burning a whole in my pocket. Fun times, I tell ya. Anyways, tonight we are invited over to a former knottie's home (Steph, are you a nestie yet??)...anyways, she just had a baby girl a few weeks back and she and Rob have invited a few friends over tonight. I decided to take a strawberry trifle...strawberry parfait...ok, whatever. You get the point. Before starting to make last night's dinner of scallops provencal, I took an ever-so-wonderful boxed cake mix and a can of sprite zero, mixed them up and threw it in the oven. By the time, I was finished with dinner, the cake had cooled so I broke it up into small pieces and started layering in my pretty new dish. Not much to say as these are pretty darn easy, but boy does it look good...just look past the ugly layers...it was getting late and I was getting tired! Can't wait to dig in tonight. I will comment on the choice of boxed cake mix. YUM! I chose Duncan Hines French Vanilla. It's light and airy like an angel food cake but has a bit more flavor...absolutely perfect for this kind of dessert.

Strawberry Trifle/Parfait

1 boxed cake mix (white or yellow)

1 can of diet sprite

1 large package of instant vanilla pudding

3 cups of ff milk (to make the pudding)

2 8oz tubs of ff cool whip

1 lb of fresh strawberries (They were big so I quartered them)

Mix cake mix and can of diet sprite. Bake according to directions. Let cool completely. Whip up the instant pudding according to directions using the milk. Crumble or cube into appox. 1 inch pieces. Layer 1/3 into bottom of dish, followed by 1/3 of the pudding, 1/3 of the cool whip, and a little less than 1/3 of the strawberries. Repeat 3 times...using the remainder of the strawberries on top. Yum, Yum, Yum!