Independence Pudding

Hey everyone! Long time no blog. I got a little down down here, but I am back and I promise to make more of an effort to entertain you all with a little glimpse into my Northern life down here in the South.

So Independence Day is HUGE in the Army. The soldiers all got a mini weekend in the middle of this week so I decided to make my husband something really special to show him how much I support him and his role in defending our country. I got the idea to use fruit from some Flag looking toast that I saw on Pinterest (tomorrow’s breakfast), but it’s me, so it had to be something sweet. What was born was Independence Pudding! Check it out!

Ingredients:

1 Large Box of Jello Instant Pudding (Vanilla Flavor) 61/2 – 8 Servings

3 Cups of Milk

1 8oz tub of Cool Whip Light

Red and Blue Food Coloring. I used Betty Crocker Classic Gel Food Colors

A couple handfuls of Ruduced Fat Nilla Wafers

1 Banana

Half a Package of Strawberries

Half a Package of Blueberries

I started out making the Vanilla Pudding according to the directions on the box. After 2 minutes of whipping, I then added the tub of Cool Whip, whipping it into the pudding mixture before it had time to truly set. The cool whip lightened the color of the Vanilla Pudding and added volume and lightness. French Vanilla Pudding has a lighter color to begin with and I would use that in the future.

            * Note * I thought about using cheesecake flavored pudding, but I thought the flavor would be too strong next to the fruit. The choice is yours. Banana might also taste great with this.

I then separated the mixture into three separate bowls, leaving twice as much pudding in Bowl 1. Bowl 1 I left as it was and put it in the fridge. To Bowl 2 I added a squirt of blue food coloring and stirred it into the pudding. It came out slightly more green than truly blue, but it still looked pretty cool. To Bowl 3 I added a squirt of red food coloring. I put these in the fridge to set.

I then washed the strawberries and blueberries and cut up the strawberries and bananas into bite sized pieces. I also crushed a handful of the nilla wafers into large crumbles.

After I had cut the fruit, the pudding was set and ready to go. In order, I layered White vanilla pudding mixture, Strawberries, Blue vanilla pudding mixture, a combination of Bananas and Nilla Wafers, Red vanilla pudding mixture, Blueberries, the rest of the White vanilla pudding mixture and topped it off with super small crumbles of the Nilla Wafers. 

This is the banana/Nilla Wafer layer. My husband LOVED the crunch right after I made it, but I love when it gets a little soggy and tastes like cake.

Looking back, I would add more fruit to the fruit layers to make them more visible, but all in all it looks pretty cool and patriotic and tastes DELICIOUS! My husband loved it and I can tell that this is going to become a regular part of our 4^th of July celebrations, Promotions, Hail and Farewell’s and other army related celebrations. 

TASTES UNBELIEVABLE!