Simple Pleasure

I am so thankful that God gave me a little girl who I can share one of life's sweetest pleasures...CHOCOLATE! SG is a true chocoholic! She will tell you too!Unfortunately, we have had to cut out this from her diet due to some struggles with blood sugar regulations, but I have to admit I did stick into some baked oatmeal yesterday and her body seemed to tolerate it just fine. I think mainly because it was cocoa powder and semi-sweet chocolate not straight up sugar loaded milk chocolate. But I digress...

Today and 3 additional days this week, Daddy and I are attending various Christmas gatherings. Being the baker I am I have offered to bring desserts to each of these festivities. However, most of these commitments were made prior to our little prince charming's arrival; therefore, my pregnancy brain neglected to process the fact that I probably would not be able to pull off one of my mouth tantalizing cheesecakes or even some ever so cute festive cupcakes. So this week, as I sat in our comfortable club chair catching my breath I watched one of my favorite (unhealthy) cooks...Paula Deen! She had some of the cast from my favorite book and movie The Help on with her cooking up some southern fair.

One of her recipes included the "No Fail Milk and Cookies Trifle". I thought,'Heck,I can do that too!', as I watched her make it in 5 minutes flat! So being the savy saver that I am I took a look in my coupon collection to see if I had appropriate coupons and what would you know...I made this dessert twice for less than what the market value of Chips A'Hoy Cookies normally cost!

I bet you are wondering what this fabulous and ever so easy dessert consists of...so I present: (Note: I did make some alterations to the original recipe to accommodate possible nut allergies and to make it more kid friendly.)
"No Fail Milk and Cookies Trifle"
1 package Chips A'Hoy Chocolate Chip Cookies (regular not the soft and chewy kind)
1 container Cool Whip
Milk (about 1/2 cup)
1/2 cup chopped pecans or mini chocolate chips
Mint Leaves

1. Pour milk into shallow pie plate.
2. Spread thin layer of cool whip on bottom of Trifle dish (or in my case I just used a 1.5 quart Pyrex dish for easier transport).
3. Dip 6 - 8 cookies into milk. Layer on top of cool whip.
4. Repeat Cool Whip layer followed by cookies until dish is full ending with Cool Whip on Top.
5. Sprinkle top of dish with pecans and/or mini chocolate chips.
6. Cover and refrigerate for at least 4 hours. This allows cookies to soften and make the dish more appetizing.
7. Just before serving, garnish with mint leaves, if desired. You could also crush up a few extra cookies on top!
8. Enjoy!

I will be sure to take some pictures tonight of this scrumptious dish for visual appeal!