Strawberry Banana Fruit Salad

I LOVE this fruit salad.

small instant vanilla pudding
1 cup milk
1 large can of fruit cocktail, drained
1 pint sliced strawberries
8 oz thawed cool whip
1 c mini marshmallows
2 bananas, sliced

mix together pudding and milk
add fruit cocktail & strawberries
fold in cool whip and marshmallows
add bananas just before serving

Five Cup Salad

I'm back!  Between not having a computer for months, getting our house ready to be put on the market, selling our house, packing the old house, moving, unpacking the new house...I've been busy!  But I am so glad to be back.  AND we still have a little bit of summer left that I can experiment on my family.  Today I had company for lunch and served my PF Chang Lettuce wraps, Five Cup Salad (this post) & Fresh Summer Salad (next post).  I found this on KRAFT's website.

1 c mini marshmallows
1 c shredded coconut (although this was a bit too much coconut...next time I will to 1/4 to 1/2 cup)
1 c sour cream (I used "light")
mandarin oranges (11 oz), drained
pineapple chunks (8.25 oz), undrained (reserving 1 tbls juice)

Whisk together sour cream & reserved pineapple juice.  Gently add coconut, pineapple, & oranges.  Fold in marshmallows.

Snickers Salad

This is one of my husband's favorites. For some reason, we both grew up with Jello salads at every big family get together. He doesn't like most, so I often make this, knowing he'll eat it.

1 small instant vanilla pudding
1 1/2 c milk
12 oz Cool Whip
3 large Snickers candy bars or 6 regular sized (cut into bite sized pieces)
3 apples cut into bite sized pieces
2 bananas cut into bite sized pieces

Combine pudding and milk and let thicken a bit.

Fold in Cool Whip.

Add rest.

Note: This is best made the day of b/c otherwise it separates. Also, I like to add the bananas right before serving to prevent them from being too brown.

I am very particular about that sweet/salty balance (HAVE to have nuts on my ice cream kind of a gal) so the peanuts in the Snickers pair so nicely.