Once again I've gotten lost in the boards of Pinterest and stumbled on a blog post about feeding your family on $200 a month! So needless to say I had to try it. I've set a goal to feed my family of 5 for $200 a month. Crazy I know, but somehow I'm making it work. I've included the link to her blog here. Bacon in my Pocket. So far, I've gone over my budget but only by $35 and I have one week of meals to go. I can't be too hard on myself though, a large portion of that money has gone into food storage and non food supplies. I plan on posting about that later with a breakdown of what I've bought and spent.
So on to the topic of this post. While looking over the menu this last weekend and contemplating what else I could serve with Sunday dinner (my green salad went bad on me faster than I anticipated so I was left with having to come up with a quick side dish), I got thinking about what was in the storage downstairs. A lot of my menu planning focus' on what I already have on hand. Thus using my food storage and building it at the same time.
Running downstairs I checked the shelves. Didn't come up with much (we've depleted our storage as of late) but I did have some Jello and pudding. Lightbulb! I knew I had a pin somewhere for Zupas jello salad.
I knew that I didn't have everything I needed but I could improvise!
Here's a link to the original BTW.
So this being the salad I wanted, but didn't have the ingredients for I set out to make my own version
Thus we have Cheesecake Jello Salad
In my pantry I found three packets of gelatin and a small box of cheesecake pudding.
Following the basic intructions for Zupas' salad I created my version.
First, place your pan in the fridge to chill while you make the jello. This helps the jello to set faster and helps you to not have to spend hours making this salad. Start to finish I was about just over an hour in the kitchen.
Make the pudding according to package directions and set aside.
I had strawberry, lime, and raspberry flavored gelatin. You can choose whatever flavors you like best. Each packet was 6 oz each, 3 packets this big filled my 9X13 pan I was using. Zupas uses 8 of the smaller 3 oz boxes I believe.
So back to the recipe. I boiled two cups of water per packet of jello. Working with one flavor at a time I mixed two cups of water with the jello and stirred until the gelatin was dissolved. Then I separated it in half into two bowls. About a cup of jello in each bowl. To one of the bowls I added 1/2 c of ice and stirred till the ice was dissolved. Then I poured the cooled jello into the pan and making sure it was level put it back in the fridge to chill. It needs to chill about 15-20 minutes or until set.
In the meantime, allow your remaining jello to cool on the counter. I like using a metal bowl for this because it helps keep some of the heat in the jello so it doesn't start to set on me, especially since it's winter and my house runs a little on the cool side. Even with the temp up to 70! Anyways, you don't want it too hot either cuz it'll cook the pudding and it'll curdle. After your jello in the fridge has set, add 1/3 of your pudding to your remaining jello on the counter. Mix it well making sure that there are no lumps. Then pour this jello on top of what's set in the pan.
Put it back in the fridge for a few minutes just enough time to set. This layer sets fairly fast because of the pudding mixed in.
Repeat this process with your remaining jello flavors. Make sure that you leave enough room in your pan after your last layer to add cool whip for your topping. Using the amount of jello I did I have just enough room to add a thick layer of cool whip as a topping to my salad. If you prefer the cans of ready whip you could add another layer of jello. Just make sure to use the larger box of pudding so you have enough to mix with each flavor of jello.
This is the end result of my salad in the pan.
I had the ready whip in the cans so instead of filling that in with cool whip, I just let my kids go a little wild with it on their plates. They loved it!
Mine was a little prettier then theirs.
Tasted pretty good too. Next time I'll be sure to plan ahead and buy a few different things to play around with the recipe. But for now, a quick and FAST Jello is too good to pass up for me. Besides when do fast and Jello go together in the same sentence. Enjoy everyone!
-Michelle
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