update/banana pudding

So we've been kind of busy around here lately, but here's just a little summary of the past week or so...

Friday it was rainy and gross, so we laid pretty low here. I sewed and worked on some Photoshop projects while James went downtown to pick up my new "toy". (I'll touch more on this later, but hint... It has 4 wheels.) We had some friends over for dinner and had a good ole time eating burgers and *Paula Deen's Banana Pudding. (A winner!)

Saturday, it was "Work Day" at church. The boys tore down walls, made them, built a stage, did things with wires, and although I'd like to say I made some great contribution, there just wasn't a whole lot of girlie work to be done. (I know the difference between a philip's head and a flat head - thanks to Handy Manny - and that's about the extent of my carpentry knowledge.) However, Courtney and I did manage to sneak off to Hobby Lobby to get some 'pretties' to spruce up the sanctuary. And once the new walls are finished we'll be painting, and next up - curtains! So although we had it easy yesterday, our time is coming...

We made it to church on Sunday, grabbed some lunch, and then came home and NAPPED!

Monday, I took advantage of James being home and slept until 9:30 (don't think I've done that since college), but sadly I missed MOPS. Oh well... The extra shut-eye was worth it! We got KFC for dinner (Mmm-Mm!) and the boys tagged along with me to my Esther bible study that night so they could play trains/X-Box with the other girls' boys upstairs...

And then last night we had more dinner guests over to help us eat up James' signature fajitas and some homemade apple cobbler...

*Now...

About that Not Yo Mama's Banana Pudding. Here's Paula's original recipe, but here's how I did it...

1 3.5oz box of French Vanilla instant pudding
2 cups cold milk
1 can sweetened condensed milk
8 oz. cream cheese (softened)
1 standard container of Cool Whip
2-3 bags of Pepperidge Farm Chessman Cookies
several (I used 3-4) medium-ripe bananas, sliced

Make pudding according to box directions and let 'set'. In a seperate bowl combine cream cheese and sweetened condensed milk with a hand mixer. Fold in Cool Whip, and then fold in pudding. Line a casserole dish with 1 layer of cookies, then sliced banana, and top with a layer of pudding. Repeat these 3 layers once, and then top with a final layer of cookies. Refrigerate until ready to serve. (At least a few hours.)

What I did different? Well first of all, Paula calls for a 5oz box of pudding and I don't think thoses exist. Plus the directions on the 3.5oz box calls for the 2 cups of milk, so I figured that the sizing of that box may have been a type-o on the PD site. Either way, it tasted perfect with just the 3.5oz! And then, Paula only layers the cookies/banana/pudding once in a 13"x9" dish, and then tops with cookies. But I wanted to use a smaller dish, so I layered them twice. (However I still didn't use all of the pudding filling since my dish was so much smaller.) Plus I kind of like how the cookies tasted sandwhiced in the middle. I definitely recommend doing it that way!

Now I love my old fasioned recipe for banana pudding, but I don't know how many times it's gonna get used in the future because this one is just too easy! Not to mention I love what the substitution of butter cookies for the standard vanilla wafers does for it. YUM :) But WARNING: This is NOT a Weight Watchers friendly dessert... But totally worth it ;) Haha!