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 Christmas Pudding Tarts

Are you looking for a simple dessert to serve at Christmas time? These are super simple and would be great for a kids’ party!

All you need are some little tart shells – graham cracker or pie crust type – some light colored instant pudding mix, milk and edible decorations.

I found this decorating kit at Walmart, but you can use other things too. Like chocolate chips, mini M&M’s, sprinkles, colored sugar, etc.

Open the tarts so they are ready immediately after you make the pudding.

Following the instructions on the pudding mix box, make the pudding with milk.

Immediately fill the tarts with the pudding. Instant pudding soft sets in about 5 minutes.

Refrigerate the tarts until the pudding is fully set.

Now comes the fun part of decorating each tart! Most of the candy decorations will begin to melt and their colors will run on the pudding, so DON’T decorate the tarts beforehand. Decorating can be done by each person as they get their dessert. 🙂

Sprinkles are pretty just “sprinkled” around.

Red and green sugar looks festive!

Snowman face made from the decorating kit I showed you.

Snowman made with mini M&M’s.

Snowman made with chocolate chips.

And Christmas lights from the decorating kit.

You might also like to use crushed candy cane bits, chocolate shavings or broken cookie pieces.

I hope these will be a hit with your family! Have fun making them AND eating them! 😉

Easy Nilla Wafer Banana Pudding

Do you look for easy dessert or snack recipes to make with your kids? Here’s a great one that’s been around for a long time and has many different versions. There are ways to make this dessert from scratch, but this way is quicker and easier because it uses instant pudding. Doesn’t it look delicious? 🙂

You will need a box of Nilla wafers, 1 box of instant vanilla pudding, milk and bananas.

Begin by making a layer of Nilla wafers in the bottom of your dish.

You can use the Nilla wafers whole or you can break them in half. I prefer to break them because it’s easier for little mouths to eat them in smaller pieces.

Take a handful of Nilla wafers and put them in a ziploc bag and crush them into very small pieces.

Set the crumbs aside for a later step.

Next add a layer of sliced bananas on top of the Nilla wafer layer. I prefer to also cut the banana slices in half for little mouths.

Prepare the instant pudding with milk according to the package directions.

Pour the prepared pudding on top of the banana slices immediately after mixing, before it sets up.

Sprinkle some Nilla wafer crumbs on top to make it look nice.

Pop your bowl of yumminess into the refrigerator and let the pudding chill and set up. Then it’s time to enjoy! You can add whipped cream or sprinkles on top. You can also make 2 layers of each item or prepare it in individual bowls. But this dessert is super quick and easy and great fun for the kids to help make! 🙂

Taste Testing Tuesday #37 Pudding

It’s that time again – Taste Testing Tuesday! Today I thought we would check out some awesome pudding flavors. Before we get started, what do you THINK your favorite pudding flavor is? Let’s see if you change your mind after you do this taste test today! I’ll show you 3 flavors that are favorites at our house.

Can you guess what flavors of pudding are in each cup? The colors are orange, dark brown and yellow. Did you make your guesses? Ok, here’s what flavors they are:

#1.) Chocolate

#2.) Vanilla

#3.) Butterscotch

Did you guess the right flavors? I bet you got at least some of them right! Now it’s your turn! What flavors of pudding will you taste test? There are many more flavors available in the store. Like lemon, cheesecake, banana cream, pistachio, cookies ‘n cream, white chocolate and French vanilla. And maybe even more! I think I like vanilla the best, then chocolate and then butterscotch. (Or as my dad used to call it “sutterbotch”. That’s rather fun to say, isn’t it?) 😉 Leave me a comment and tell me what your favorite pudding flavor is and if doing this taste test made you decide you have a new favorite flavor!

Quick Yummy Pudding in a Cloud

Hope you are all doing well and practicing your social distancing! Let’s do our best to keep everyone healthy! How about a really quick and tasty dessert for the kids to make for something fun to do today? All you need is instant pudding mix (your favorite flavor, of course), milk, Cool Whip (or other whipped cream), 4-6 small dishes and maybe some sprinkles to make it look great. Gather your ingredients and let’s get started!

First, put a large dollop of Cool Whip into each of the small dishes.

Using the back of a spoon, spread the Cool Whip around the edges of each bowl so it makes a hole in the center.

I used a small box of chocolate pudding for this example. Two cups of milk are needed for this size package of pudding mix. Pour your milk into a mixing bowl and add the pudding mix.

Mix with a whisk for 2 minutes.

Oooo, this pudding looks so yummy! I’m drooling! Are you?

Now spoon pudding into the hole you made in the Cool Whip in each bowl.

If you have sprinkles, add them on top. Chill in the refrigerator for a little while. And then enjoy!! Does the pudding look like its floating in a cloud? 🙂

I hope you had fun making Pudding in a Cloud and you have even more fun eating it! I’m off to eat mine now too! Thanks for visiting my blog! 🙂

Quick After School Snack

Are your kids always hungry as they pour in the door after school? Are you always looking for a quick-and-easy-but-something-different kind of snack? Today’s blog is about a fun idea for you and your hungry kiddos to try. We’ll call it Pudding Snack Cups. You just need a few ingredients and a few utensils to make it and clean up is quick and easy too. Here are the ingredients you’ll need:

1 Cup of graham cracker crumbs, 1 Tablespoon of sugar, 1/4 Cup butter, 1 – 3.4 oz box of INSTANT vanilla pudding mix and 2 Cups cold milk. Utensils you will need to use:

1 small mixing bowl, 1 medium mixing bowl, a large spoon, a whisk, 1 Cup size measuring cup, 1 Tablespoon size measuring spoon and 4 small dishes. My dishes are 1 Cup size. (And yes, there are only 3 dishes in the picture…one had gone AWOL when I was taking the picture.) 😉

There are a few extra ingredients that will make this snack tastier and more fun but you don’t have to use them if you’d rather not. The ones I used include a banana, Ovaltine Rich Chocolate drink mix, sprinkles, micro mini marshmallows and mini chocolate chips.

Ok, let’s put this snack together! Mix the graham cracker crumbs, sugar and melted butter together in the small bowl with the spoon. It should stick together for pressing into the bottom of the small dishes to make a crust.

And that’s the next step – divide the crumb mixture between the 4 small dishes and press down into the bottom.

Mix the cold milk and pudding mix together for 2 minutes in the medium bowl using the whisk.

Add the pudding to the 4 small dishes.

If you like, you can be done now or for more fun and a tastier treat you can try these options. Add slices of bananas on top of the graham cracker crust before you spoon the pudding in.

After the pudding is in each dish, try adding your favorite topping. Like…sprinkles…

Micro mini marshmallows…

Mini chocolate chips…

Or a sprinkling of chocolate Ovaltine powder.

Of course, there are MANY options for this recipe! Use a different flavored pudding (think chocolate!) and other toppings that your family enjoys such as butterscotch chips, chopped nuts, mini M&M’s, white chocolate chips, chopped fruit, crushed cookies, etc, etc. Now you have the basic idea and you can run with it however you like! 🙂 Enjoy! Let me know what combinations you try!