Easter Dessert

Our dear friends (Our first friends we had when we moved here) invited us over for Easter Dinner today and I was in charge of dessert. I knew I had pinned some great looking desserts lately on Pinterest so I went back and looked at my Food Board. When I saw a Banana Pudding I knew it would be perfect for Easter. Light, springy and looked so yummy! It ended up being Paula Deen's "Not To' Mama's Banana Pudding" but the link took me here. It was a version she had tweaked and I thought the vanilla wafers sounded better (and cheaper) than chessman cookies. So my big helper (my 5 year old daughter) and I went to work last night putting it together. It looked delicious and I couldn't wait to try it today.

NOT YO’ MAMA’S BANANA PUDDING

4 bananas, sliced

3 cups milk

1 box vanilla wafers

2 small boxes instant FRENCH vanilla pudding

1 8 oz. pkg. cream cheese

1 14oz. can sweetened condensed milk

1 12 oz. container Cool Whip

We started out lining the bottom of a 9x13 baking dish with vanilla wafers. (I sent my hubby out for the supplies and he ended up buying the bite size kind and I think they were perfect and well, bite size! But you could use the regular sized ones too)

 Then we used the sliced bananas and placed them on top of each vanilla wafer.
(I love that my little helper's pinkie is pointing up while she so perfectly places the bananas on top!)

 Combine the milk and pudding mix according to the package directions.

 This next step is my favorite (Cream Cheese and Sweetened Condensed Milk)!

 In a separate bowl combine cream cheese and the sweetened condensed milk. (Make sure your cream cheese is softened because mine wasn't and ended up kind of lumpy. I ended up using my hand mixer to get most of those lumps out). Gradually fold in whipped cream.

Combine the cream cheese mixture to the pudding and stir until its blended well. Pour over the bananas and vanilla wafers and smooth out until its even.

Top with vanilla wafers.

I think it was a hit at our Easter dinner. It turns out so rich and creamy and the bite sized wafers were perfect! I have to admit I had a little sampling from the beaters. It was my favorite part as a child and still remains that way! I think I've passed this on to my girls because they always look forward to licking the beaters when we're done. This time I gave them the pudding beaters and saved the ones with the cream cheese mixture for myself! I think I'm going to have to make this again real soon. I think it would be a perfect treat for a hot summer day and we all know we have lots of those here in Houston, TX!