Refreshing Summer Strawberry Trifle for Fathers' Day

We spent this past weekend celebrating Fathers' Day at the lake. Our dad loves to spend time relaxing outdoors, so it was the perfect family afternoon. We started the day with a boat ride and dropped anchor to grill some burgers and fresh corn for lunch. After lots of swimming, we indulged in strawberry trifle, per Dad's request.

While this strawberry trifle isn't a light dessert, it was surprisingly refreshing on a hot afternoon. There are ways to cut some of the calories by using sugar free Jello and pudding or low-fat dairy products, but since it was Fathers' Day, I used the regular ingredients.

While this looks a little pudding-heavy, It wasn't. The "Good Stuff" just ended up settling in the middle of the dish.

Strawberry Trifle

1/2 package Knox gelatin
2 cups cold water
1 (6 oz) package strawberry Jello
2-3 cups of strawberries
1 (6 oz) package instant vanilla pudding
3 cups milk
1 large container Cool Whip (thawed)
3 oz cream cheese
1 angel food cake (I just picked one up at the bakery)

Dissolve gelatin into cold water and then heat to a boil.  Add Jello and stir.  Stir in strawberries.  Set aside.  Prepare pudding with the milk.  Then beat the cream cheese until smooth.  Fold in the Cool Whip.  Then fold in the pudding.  In the bowl, place 1/3 of the angel food cake that has been cubes into about 1 inch cubes.  Pour 1/3 of strawberry mixture over the cake.  Spread 1/3 of the pudding mix over the strawberry mixture.  Repeat two more times.