Delicious Pudding Bar

Hello again! I don’t know if I have invented something new or if this idea has been out there and I just never saw it, but here goes! You know how you can have an ice cream or a frozen yogurt bar where you put your ice cream or frozen yogurt in a cup and then add all the toppings you like? Well, let’s do that but use pudding! We made a pudding bar yesterday and it was lots of fun. First select your flavors of pudding and make the pudding. I chose vanilla, chocolate and butterscotch and I used instant pudding because it’s so quick and easy to make. The kids will have fun just making the pudding and helping to set up the pudding bar!

For this brand of instant pudding, you pour 2 cups of milk into a bowl, add the pudding powder from the box and stir for 2 minutes. This pudding is soft set in 5 minutes, but I made ours on Saturday evening, put them in the refrigerator overnight and served them for lunch on Sunday.

Pudding is ready to go!

Now gather up all the things you would like to use for the toppings.

Put them into small containers so they are easy for people to serve themselves from. Here’s what we used: miniature marshmallows

Whipped cream

Banana slices

Chocolate chips…I used milk chocolate

Peanut butter chips

Miniature Oreo cookies

Small animal cookies

And sprinkles…sprinkles are very important. 😉

Assemble the toppings together and bring out the pudding!

Use small bowls for serving the pudding in. Let each person put the type and amount of pudding in their bowl and then add their own toppings. You can serve it like a cafeteria line with each person serving themselves. Here are some interesting combinations we saw at our house: Butterscotch pudding with peanut butter chips and chocolate chips.

Then there was some vanilla and some chocolate pudding topped with sprinkles and 2 animal cookies.

How about vanilla pudding with peanut butter chips and sprinkles?

What do you think of chocolate pudding topped with whipped cream and a mini Oreo cookie?

One bowl had vanilla pudding with banana slices and whipped cream.

And last, but not least, how about some vanilla pudding with a little bit of chocolate pudding swirled in? Oh, and sprinkles…gotta have those sprinkles!

A pudding bar is a simple dessert to serve and so much fun for kids. It’s a fun novelty to serve your dessert up just the way each person likes it and it’s fun to see what combinations others pick. I hope you’ll give this a try and have as much fun as we did! 🙂

Easy Mug Cake for Valentine’s Day

Happy Valentine’s Day! 🙂

Here’s a great super fast dessert for this Valentine’s Day! So fun and easy you won’t believe it and your kids will love it! It’s a Mug Cake, which means you mix it and cook it all in a coffee mug. You will need 2 cake mixes. 1 must be an angel food cake mix and the second one can be your favorite cake flavor. I chose Chocolate Fudge. The brand of cake mixes I used was Betty Crocker but others will work just fine too.

Pour both dry cake mixes into a bowl that you can store the ingredients in.

Stir together carefully as the powder will “poof” easily. 😉 Be sure its mixed together well.

Now comes the fun part! Put 3 tablespoons of the cake mix into a microwave safe mug.

Add 2 tablespoons of water and stir together. Make sure all the dry powder on the bottom and sides of the mug are mixed in well. It will look a little foamy.

Put the mug in your microwave oven and microwave for 1 minute and presto! You have a little individual cake! 🙂

Let it cool to your desired temperature. Top with a dollop of frosting or some whipped cream or ice cream. I used whipped cream and it was quite yummy! 🙂

Doesn’t it look delicious?!

Mmmm! Super simple and super tasty! A great way to have something sweet and it’s already a controlled portion. 😉

Enjoy your Mug Cake! 🙂 You can be sure I’m enjoying mine! 😉

Dessert Tacos #2 – Banana Split!

We had so much fun last week making Dessert Tacos with apples, that we tried another version of Dessert Tacos. They are very yummy too, but also messy so keep a plate handy when you eat these! 😉 This version of Dessert Tacos is like making a banana split in a taco shell! Let’s go!

Start with heating/baking your taco shells.

Once your shells are heated, allow them a few minutes to cool enough to handle them comfortably. Meanwhile, grab a bag of your favorite chocolate chips. I used milk chocolate.

Add some chocolate chips to a microwave safe container along with a little bit of coconut oil and microwave for 30 seconds and then stir. Microwave for additional time until the chocolate chips are completely melted. Be careful and only microwave for 15-30 second intervals at one time before stirring again.

Take a taco shell and dip it into the melted chocolate.

You can dip the shell in the melted chocolate to suit your preference. Maybe you only want one end dipped in the chocolate or maybe just the top middle area or you can coat the entire taco shell with chocolate. I might have gotten a little carried away and completely covered my shells with chocolate. 😉 Place your chocolate tacos on foil or waxed paper covered tray or cookie sheet.

Place your tray of chocolate covered shells into the refrigerator until the chocolate completely hardens. When the shells are ready, gather your favorite banana split ingredients and get ready to stuff those shells!

I started by putting banana slices in the shells first. I found that leaning the shell on the side of my tray made it easier to put the ingredients inside.

Next came the ice cream…

Then some strawberry and pineapple toppings.

I topped it off with some whipped cream! Mmmm!

Doesn’t that look yummy?!

There is something quite satisfying about the crunch of the taco shell along with the sweetness of the ice cream! 🙂 Now, if that seemed like way too much chocolate for your taste, try this way instead. Bake the taco shells as before, but skip the chocolate dipping part. Start with adding the banana first… (If you noticed the cardboard around the shell, that is the piece of cardboard that comes with the taco shells and keeps the first taco in the line from closing up. It worked nicely to help support the shell while filling it.)

Then the ice cream…

Maybe some tiny marshmallows are next…

Drizzle some delicious chocolate syrup over the top.

And don’t forgot a nice big squirt of whipped cream to finish it off!

In this version, you still get the taste of chocolate, but it’s not completely overwhelming. It just depends on how much chocolate you think your banana split needs! 😉 I hope you’ll give these Dessert Tacos a whirl! 🙂

Uncooked Peanut Butter Fudge

Oooo! Do you love peanut butter?? How about some homemade peanut butter fudge?

I came across this recipe again the other day that my aunt shared with us quite a few years ago. I have fond memories of helping to make this peanut butter fudge when I was still a child at home. Though we often made it at Christmas time, this recipe is good for any time of year.

It only calls for 4 ingredients and there is no cooking involved. It does take some kneading by hand but that’s a great way for your kids to use up some of that excess energy! 😉 You will need 1/2 Cup of peanut butter, 1/2 Cup Karo corn syrup, 3/4 Cup powdered milk and 3/4 Cup powdered (or confectioners) sugar.

First put the peanut butter into a medium sized bowl.

Add the Karo corn syrup and stir together. If you have younger children helping, this is a good part for them to do.

Next add the powdered milk.

And finally add the powdered sugar.

Stir the ingredients together as best you can and then knead with your hands.

Turn the mixture out onto a clean countertop and knead together until all the ingredients are mixed in. You can divide the fudge among the kids helping so each can do some of the kneading.

Spread it into a pan or cookie sheet to the thickness you like. I think my mom spread it more on the thin side, maybe so we 6 kids got to have a piece or two without getting totally “sugared up”. 😉

Cut into pieces. Running the knife under hot water occasionally can help with the cutting process.

The pieces will stick together so you might want to store them so they don’t touch each other. You can do layers with wax paper in between the layers. Or the way we used to do it was to tear off some rectangular pieces of wax paper…