Delicious Easter jello with home made pudding, marshmallows and cheddar cheese

Grandma's Jello Salad 

Delicious Easter jello with home made pudding, marshmallows and cheddar cheese

Since Easter is fast approaching, I thought I would share this beloved recipe again.  With almost 10,000 views, this is a fan favorite.  My Grandmother came up with this recipe and the home made pudding.  Sadly, Grandma is no longer with us.  She the year she turned 90.  She was 89 for several years before she acutally turned 90.  She'd swat at me for saying that, if she were here.  I'd love for her to be here.  I miss her terribly.  If you make her Jello Salad recipe, say a little prayer for those of us who miss her so.  Thank you all for your loyalty and for keeping her recipe alive.

Oh, one more note, even though the cheese sounds like it might not be so good, it is delicious.  You can not imagine how well this combination is.  My Grandma is a genius!! :)

One of my most favorite deserts is my Grandma's jello salad.  She made up this recipe and it is a family favorite.

I use different variations of this Jello salad, but the same technique Grandma taught me.  The home made pudding is out of this world. It is very easy to make.

When my husband first saw this jello salad, he wasn't sure what to think.  He told me he didn't think the cheese was such a good idea, he didn't think he'd like it.  His mind was quickly changed once he took a taste.  Don't write this off because you think the cheese will not be good, it is wonderful.
I found these cute, rabbit shaped, marshmallows and decided to use them since it is Easter.  They are hidden a little in the cheese, but it's still a cute presentation. 

This recipe makes a lot of Jello Salad. I cut it in half and I have fun with the combinations of jello and fruit. I also use the flavored marshmallows to mix things up a bit. Kids love this, and adults do too!

My Grandma makes this a lot, and she always adds different kinds of fruit with the pineapples. Her favorite type of fruit to add are bananas. I'm allergic to bananas! I went to her house and she told me she made her jello salad. I cut myself a piece then put it right back in the pan. I went back into the living room with no jello. She was just about to ask me why, when her eyes got all big and she said BANANAS! A few weeks later she made the jello again. This time she didn't add banana's and was happy to tell me that. I was so glad I could have a slice of her jello salad.  I get a slice and there were some odd looking fruit pieces mixed in with the pineapple, just to be sure I asked what they were, Mango. I'm allergic to mango too. So, I had to learn how to make it myself, or I'd never get any I could eat! Ha Ha.
The first recipe is Grandma's actual Jello Salad.  The ingredients I used for the salad pictured are listed below.  Feel free to experiment with flavor combinations. 


Grandma's Jello Salad:


1 regular package Lemon Jello
1 regular package Orange Jello
 can crushed pineapple
1 bag mini marshmallows
Orange Juice
2 TB. sugar
3 TB. flour
1 egg, beaten
1/3 cup lemon juice
1/2 pint whipping cream (or 8oz. Cool Whip)
Grated cheddar cheese

Prepare Jello according to package
Drain pineapple and reserve the juice
Add pineapple to jello
Pour into glass dish
Cover with mini marshmallows and refrigerate to gel

Add orange juice to pineapple juice to make 1 cup

Pour into sauce pan

Add sugar, flour, and beaten egg

Cook over medium heat until pudding like, stir constantly
Remove from heat and allow to cool at room temperature, stirring occasionally
Once room temp., refrigerate until ready to add to Jello salad

Put whipping cream in a bowl and add lemon juice

Fold in the pudding mixture, whip together (if using whipped topping, then mix into pudding mixture)

Put on top of marshmallows then grate cheese on top

Refrigerate until ready to serve

Easter Jello Pudding ingredients:

Raspberry jello

Bunny shaped Marshmallows

Fruit cocktail drained, reserve the juice to use for the pudding

PLEASE NOTE: This recipe is protected by copyright law 2012.

Tortilla Tuesday is here!

Tortilla Tuesday is here!

Who doesn't like Tacos and Tortillas?! My family loves them. For those of you that follow me, you know I try to make healthy choices and avoid GMO and GE foods at all costs. Sometimes we make exceptions which leaves me guilt ridden because I fed my family pesticides. Ugh. Sounds so dramatic, however I have food allergies and have to take every ingredient in our food seriously. I understand how, even insignificant, ingredients can cause someone a problem. 

For instance, I have a sensitivity to pomegranates, I ordered a popular protein shake made from real fruits and vegetables.  One of the mid, to last ingredients, was pomegranate powder.  I thought, "well, it's not a prime ingredient, I should be fine."  

I was wrong.  I had energy and wasn't hungry for the first few days, but then I just started feeling bad.  It's hard to explain, but mostly I just felt.... bad.  I started feeling sick and grumpy and I couldn't concentrate.  I felt heavy inside and couldn't get myself motivated to do anything but sit on the couch.  I thought back to how my diet had changed, which led me to realize it was the shakes.  It took a couple days to get all of it out of my system, but then I felt like myself again.  It's funny how one small ingredient can cause so many problems. 

That said, I believe that if we are using the foods laden with GMO/GE ingredients, and artificial colors we are hurting our bodies, not to mention the environment.  While I can't cut out all GMO's, mainly because our country does not require food distributors to disclose that information on the labels, I do try very hard to minimize our intake.  (That's why it's important to buy Organic and Non-GMO certified. Here's a link to the GMO dirty dozen.)  

All that said, we love taco's and tortilla's in our house.  Every time I get a box of taco's or bag of tortilla's I read the long list of ingredients and cringe a bit inside.  My friend Ana is from Chile and she makes tortilla's by hand, with 3 ingredients.  Yes, THREE.  I thought I'd give it a try.  We gobbled them up, they were delicious.  Hard, but good. So I modified my next batch and they were fantastic.  Soft, delicious, and good all by themselves.  

Here are a couple of tips:

Don't roll the tortilla's too thin or they will become brittle and hard.  

Adding Organic Sunflower lecithin helps them to be soft while adding nutrition and health benefits.  

To make a burrito, thin the batter with more water and then pour on the griddle. (I have not tried this yet, but Ana said it will work.)

Healthy Tortilla's at Home

3 cups organic flour +more for rolling dough

1 cup  hot water

1 tablespoon Kosher salt

2 teaspoons Organic Sunflower Lecithin (optional)

Coconut oil (optional)

Mix flour and lecithin in a bowl

Heat up griddle or skillet to about 350 degrees

Mix salt and water and stir until dissolved.  (taste the water, if it's too salty, just add more water and next time cut back on the salt.  The water needs to be salty though, it will flavor the tortilla's.)

Add salt water, a little at a time, to the flour and mix until it is no longer tacky or sticky

Pinch off a golf ball size roll of dough

Sprinkle flour on board and then roll out until about 1/3" thick (you may have to just experiment a bit to get it to the thickness you like. Too thin will be hard and brittle)

You can put the tortilla directly onto the griddle as is, or add some coconut oil to give a nice golden color.

Flip when the tortilla starts to brown

Place on a plate and cover with foil or a towel to hold in heat.  I just place mine in the oven. 

These are really good.  

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Easy, money saving, Healthy and Chemical Free way to make Microwave Popcorn

Pop Corn evokes such wonderful memories for me.  If you've read my blog Russian Tea, with reflections of how smells can bring back a memory, then you'll have seen my comment about "popcorn in a paper bag with cheese, yum".   

Years ago, I let myself get a little overweight.  Turns out, that eating a biscotti with a cup of hot chocolate every night, and drinking a strawberry milk shake everyday makes ones clothes shrink. A lot. Couple that with a love of popcorn covered in butter, and you've got yourself a fast track to Sumo wrestler-ville. I went on a weight loss challenge.  I bought a cd-rom that would load a food, drink, calorie, and calories burned tracking program on my computer.  I kept a food journal to find out where those little hidden calories were coming in to play.  I wrote down everything I ate, drank and snacked on.  Including a piece of candy, gum, mint, cookie, everything.  I found out that a gumball has 25 calories, I found out I don't drink nearly enough water, and I found out that doing some exercise is better than not doing anything. This program even tracked housework, sweeping, dusting, and the like.  It was great.  By keeping the food journal, I was able to see that most of my calories were consumed at night, while I watched t.v.  I noticed, that I ate even when I wasn't hungry.  I ate out of boredom, or habit.  My solution?  I joined a health club, and walked on the stair master from 8-9 pm, every night.  The club had a t.v. in front of every machine, so I plugged in my ear phones watched my favorite shows and worked out instead of eating.  It took about a year to finally get down to the weight I wanted to be.  This time I did it the healthy way.  I was very happy with myself.  Once my weight and eating were under control I had to find out how to enjoy my favorite foods in a healthy way.  There's not a very healthy way of enjoying biscotti and hot chocolate.  My plan, if I worked out all week, ate healthy foods, drank enough water, and didn't snack on junk, then on Saturday I could indulge in one or two treats.  Generally I chose to eat a small cup of ice cream, but sometimes I would have some microwave  popcorn.

One day I was reading an article about the dangers of microwave popcorn.  It was so long ago, I can't place the article, but it was about the chemicals they put into the popcorn.  The article stated that most people love to breathe in the steam of the popcorn when the bag is opened, and that is dangerous as they then inhale chemicals that are basically poison.  If you search, "Dangers of microwave popcorn", this link to  "ehow.com"  comes up which relates to chemicals in microwave popcorn linked to cancer and other things.  I don't like the thought of anything I eat causing cancer.  Triclosan is an edocrine blocker, a carcinogen and is used in pesticides, it's also found in toothpaste and antibacterial hand soaps, along with a host of other products "safe" for humans.  Once I found out about that, I cleaned the house out of anything with Triclosan or with the description of Microban.  Did I stop eating microwave popcorn? Of course.  

Now I was left with a problem.  Popping the popcorn on the stove was too much bother and mess. Although I felt a tinge of guilt because that's how I enjoyed the popcorn my "other dad", Jonce, makes it.  He then puts the popcorn in a giant paper bag, brings out a plate of cheddar cheese for us all to enjoy. Oh well, maybe there's another solution?

My kitchen, at the time, was way too small to keep a hot air popper on the counter.  What to do, what to do.  I wonder, will pop corn kernels pop in the microwave without all the chemicals?  Only one way to find out.  I got a paper lunch bag, left the bottom of the bag folded then poured some popcorn kernels in it along with a pat or two of butter.  Folded the top shut, placed it in the middle of the microwave just like I did with the store bought stuff, pressed the popcorn button and held my breath.  IT WORKED!  Extremely messy, not a lot of butter flavor, greasy bag full of freshly popped popcorn!  I poured it into a bowl, cut a serving of Colby cheese and ate with a giant smile on my face.  

The next time I popped my chemical free popcorn, I didn't add butter, just plain old pop corn kernels and a brown paper lunch bag.  The white ones get holes in them and tear easily, so I don't use them.  I then melt a tablespoon of butter, drizzle over the top add salt and enjoy with a serving of Colby cheese, cut into bite sized squares.  Handful of popcorn, bite of cheese, heaven.  

Delicious, Healthy and Chemical Free Popcorn:

Purchase 1 pack of brown paper lunch bags (about $3)

Purchase 1 jar of popcorn kernels (about $4)

3 Tablespoons of popcorn kernels

1 Brown paper lunch bag 

1 tablespoon of unsalted butter, melted

Kosher salt

1 serving of Colby cheese squares

Keep the lunch bag folded at the bottom

Pour in 3 tablespoons of popcorn (any more than that and it wastes the kernels as they will not all pop)

Seal the top with one fold and use fingernail to seal it very well

Place folded side down in middle of microwave

Press the "popcorn" button (or 3 minutes) on your microwave (all are different test to find your microwaves perfect popcorn time)

As with the store bought kind, listen until the popping is less than 3 seconds between pops so it doesn't burn.  

Melt the butter and pour over top, shake well then add salt, shaking to evenly coat.  

Serve with your choice of beverage and the cheese, it's a treat plus you've saved money and are not breathing nor eating dangerous chemicals.

Another good idea is to hold off on the butter, and cheese.  Instead use your favorite bite sized candy or sweet cereal with the popcorn.  In church camp, we watched a movie late one night and decided it would be fun to add candy to our popcorn.  We were right, fun and fantastically pleasing to the taste buds including the sweet tooth. 

Skittles

Mini Chocolate chips

M&M's

Mini boxes of cereal

I chose Fruit Loops and skittles, I can't say I've ever had better popcorn.  The combinations are endless, just remember two words; "Serving Size".  You'll do fine, if not, take an extra workout to burn off those calories!