Darla's Banana Pudding Dessert

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My mom’s banana pudding will not disappoint!

Course: Dessert
Categories: cookies, fruit, whipped cream
Source: Family

Serving size: 8-10
Preparation time: 30 mins

First thing is first, this dessert will definitely not disappoint. Do you have soon to be in-laws you need to impress? Need to hear a few compliments? Want to lay in your pj’s and binge watch your favorite TV series while holding a big bowl of deliciousness in your hand? Hey, I promise I won’t judge! We all have been there before!

However, in all seriousness, this dessert is simple to make and did I mention it is a no-bake recipe? Oh yeah, and everyone loves it! This recipe is from my mother and at this point every event or family get-together, she is expected to add it to the menu. Even my friends will call me randomly asking for one of us to make it. Well friends, you can finally have the recipe for yourself.

This dessert is prefect in a glass truffle bowl, allowing you to see the luscious creamy layers pressed up against the bowl. The cookies and bananas add texture and I always garnish the top with crushed cookies sprinkled on top to make it “classy.”

Ingredients

1 box of Instant Vanilla Pudding Pie Powder
60+ Vanilla Wafer Cookies (plus a few to eat while assembling
3- 4 bananas sliced in 1/2 inch slices
1 Eagle Brand Condensed Milk
1 1/2 cups Water
2 cups whipped cream

Directions

In a large mixing bowl, pour in the can of condensed milk and 1 1/2 cups of water. Add the pudding mixture to the wet ingredients and beat well until combined.
Place the bowl with the ingredients in the refrigerator for about 5 minutes.
Once the mixture is starting to taking on the consistency of Jell-O, remove from the refrigerator.
Using a rubber spatula, fold in the 2 cups of whipped cream. Be sure not to over-mix. You want soft fluffy peaks.
Cut the bananas into 1/2 inch slices and squeeze some lemon juice over them you preserve them. The lemon juice will help to slow down the discoloring process.
In your serving dish, start with a layer of the cream/pudding mixture, next add a layer of vanilla wafer cookies. filling from the outside- in not overlapping ( unless you have more cookies, then why not!?) Next, you can add a layer of bananas in the same manner you did the cookies.
Then repeat. Fill your serving dish up with layers until you run out of ingredients. I prefer cream as the last layer on top.
As a garnish, I put a few wafer cookies in a zip-lock baggie with little air inside and crush the cookies with a rolling pin. The result will be tiny crumbs that you can sprinkle of the top of the banana pudding cream layer.

Bon Appétit!

Mom’s Banana Pudding

You are beautiful

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“She was beautiful, but not like those girls in the magazines.”

Okay, ladies! I read a quote somewhere and knew immediately I had to write a blog post about it. The quote is by F. Scott Fitzgerald and I feel, it can speak to every woman. Every grandmother, mother, aunt, or daughter. I wanted to address real beauty because I feel no matter what you look like or how old you are, at some point we all have felt “not beautiful.” You may think how does a man know anything about real beauty! If you don’t know who F. Scott Fitzgerald is well maybe you should look him up :) He was a beautiful writer at his time and was able to translate his difficult life events into a passion that many sought after to read. He wrote the “Great Gatsby” and in his book entitled “The Beautiful and Damned,” he writes about love and notices real beauty.

Have you ever noticed that most of the time we can’t physically see our own beauty. I mean, unless you live in front of a mirror all day and somehow are amazingly photogenic. However, let’s be honest, that’s not being “beautiful.” What about the people that look at us? Do you remember being complimented when you felt your dark circles were the darkest they have ever been, or when you left the house in an outfit that you ended up regretting and being uncomfortable in, the rest of the day? Yeah, don’t lie, we have all been there. Why, though, did we get the compliment? Sometimes we have so much beauty that only an onlooker can see. F. Scott Fitzgerald saw beauty in women to be able to write like he did, right? That’s why I believe his quote. Let me tell you what quote I am referring to.

“She was beautiful, but not like those girls in the magazines. She was beautiful, for the way she thought. She was beautiful, for the sparkle in her eyes when she talked about something she loved. She was beautiful, for her ability to make other people smile, even if she was sad. No, she wasn’t beautiful for something as temporary as her looks. She was beautiful, deep down to her soul.” ”

Isn’t that quote lovely? With the way the internet, Photoshop, and social media have become, I feel especially, young girls compare themselves. Let’s get something straight, I’m not saying the internet, Photoshop, and social media are bad things, but yes, they can be.

See, here is the thing about the word “beauty;” it has different meanings and the magical thing about our eyes, we all see beauty differently. While we might admire the beautiful model with flawless skin, perfect hourglass shape, no cellulite, and lets talk about the under-arms with no sign of a hair follicle! How? (My heredity of being Italian hasn’t blessed me with that…. that’s at least what I’m blaming it on.)

Seriously though, who has looked at that gorgeous model, admired her beauty and then sat in a depressed state, COMPARING ourselves? Well, I have done it and I have seen so many young girls do the same thing frequently. They don’t feel good enough, pretty enough, or they get rejected by their crush. These girls then see celebrities or models fixed by Photoshop or just blessed with amazing genes and are left feeling as if they are “not beautiful.”

Let’s help each other. Let’s teach confidence and not cockiness or vain. Let’s teach young ones to see beauty in making someone smile. How beautiful you look when holding the door for someone. Let’s express how beautiful they are, when accomplishing a goal, for doing better. For being a grandmother, mother, aunt or daughter. We all can have a beautiful soul, we just need to know how to let it shine.

Let’s teach ones to talk about what they are passionate about instead of talking about others. Let’s teach how to put others ahead of ourselves. What happened to embracing a moment, socializing in person? The cell phone, maybe? Let’s try and eat together, talk about life with one another, and genuinely compliment each other!

We don’t only have to be concerned with being beautiful behind the selfie. We don’t need to starve ourselves to look like the beautiful girl we admire, and we don’t need to waste time trying to change ourselves on the outside. If we change, let’s change for the better. If we love, let’s show love to more people. If we want to be beautiful, let’s not invest in the temporary but rather let’s make our soul more beautiful.

Please share this post and let’s teach “Real Beauty.”

XOXO,

Aleaxandra