Mother's Day Trifle

A couple of years ago, I thought it would be great to have some mint growing in a flower bed. You probably know the rest of the story. With the invasive characteristic of mint, I could share mint beyond my local community!

What better way to use a few sprigs of mint than on servings of Midwest Dairy's 

Mint Brownie Trifle.

It will be a perfect addition to any Mother's Day celebration

 and a delicious way to share an abundance of mint. 

Mint Brownie Trifle

Ingredients

Non-stick cooking spray

1 package (19.5 oz.) milk chocolate brownie mix

1/3 cup vanilla non-fat Greek-style yogurt

1/4 cup vegetable oil

14 creme de menthe chocolate layered

      mints (Andes mints) cut into small pieces

For pudding:

1 package (3.3 oz) white chocolate instant pudding mix

2 cups fat-free milk

For topping:

3 ounces Neufchatel cream cheese

1/3 cup vanilla non-fat Greek-style yogurt

4 teaspoons confectioners sugar

For mint curl decoration: 6 creme de

menthe chocolate layered mints

Directions:

For brownies,preheat oven to 350 degrees F. Grease bottom of a 9x13 in. baking pan with non-stick cooking spray. In a medium bowl, combine brownie mix,eggs,yogurt, and vegetable oil. Stir with a spoon until well blended. Stir in mint pieces. Pour batter into prepared pan. Bake 22 to 28 minutes or until a toothpick inserted in center of brownies has moist crumbs attached. allow brownies to cool completely. Cut into small pieces.

For pudding, combine pudding mix and milk in a medium bowl. Mix according to package directions.

For topping, combine cream cheese, yogurt and confectioners' sugar in a small bowl. Beat with electric mixer until well blended.

For mint curl decoration, use a vegetable peeler to make small curls by shaving down the long edge of the mint.

Layer the pudding and brownies in a 3 quart trifle bowl in two layers. Spoon the topping over the top layer. Decorate with mint curls. Cover and chill until ready to serve. Yields approximately 20 servings.

To serve as individual portions: Use 12 4-ounce jelly jars. Spoon one tablespoon of pudding in each jar.Then cut approximately 2" square brownie and break it apart into 4-6 chunky pieces. Drop brownie pieces into the jar on top of pudding. Repeat process with one tablespoon of pudding and chunky brownie pieces until jar is full. Finish with one tablespoon of topping and garnish with mint curl decoration. Cover and chill until ready to serve. This method yields approximately 12 servings.

Pineapple-Mint Smoothie

After touring the Mountain View herb garden at  Arkansas Women's Blogger Conference last year, I was  inspired  to try a few herbs in my own garden. Even though I knew mint to be a very prolific and invasive plant, I wanted to have my own bit of mint. I now have a growing patch of mint in a small flowerbed--make that a mint bed with few flowers!

  I've got plenty of mint  for this tasty smoothie recipe that I found in the recipe collection at Dairy Makes Sense.


Pineapple-Mint Smoothie

Ingredients:

6 cubes of frozen crushed pineapple in juice*
2 cups fat-free milk
1 tablespoon finely chopped fresh mint or basil

*Note: Use frozen crushed pineapple to chill and thicken your smoothie.
Spoon contents of a 20 ounce can of crushed pineapple in juice into two ice cube trays and freeze at least 24 hours in advance of making smoothie.

Preparation:

Combine all ingredients in a blender; blend until smooth. Serve in tall glasses or on-the-go drink container.

                                                                     Happy Wednesday!