It's a SALAD! HONEST!

Last year, at the Parker Ladies' Night Out, my cousin Patsy brought a fruit salad. It didn't really look like a salad, and it tasted like dessert, but if Patsy said it was salad, who was I to argue? After all, dessert has to wait until the end of the meal, and salad you can have right away. Also, no one gives it a thought if you have seconds of salad. Dessert? Don't even think it.

So when my daughter-in-law assigned the fruit salad to me for Easter dinner, I knew exactly which one to bring. As I prepared it, I took pictures. This is definitely one to share.

Pretzel Salad

Ingredients

• 2 cups crushed pretzels
• 2 Tablespoons sugar
• 3/4 cup melted butter
• One 8 oz package Neufchatel or cream cheese (fewer calories in the Neuf.)
• 3/4 sugar
• One 8 oz carton Cool Whip
• 3 medium bananas, sliced into rounds
  
• 1 large package raspberry gelatin
  
• 2 cups boiling water
• 1/2 cup cold water
• About a pound and a half of strawberries, sliced, lightly sweetened

Mix pretzels, sugar, and butter to make crust. Spread in 9 X 13" pan & bake 15 minutes at 350 degree oven. Let cool. (Note: If you need this salad to be ready quickly, do what I did and put the sliced strawberries in the freezer while you work on the rest of it.)

Cream sugar and cream cheese together. Fold in Cool Whip and mix well. Spread evenly over crust. "Seal" the edges all around so the jello layer won't flow down into the crust; you want it to stay crisp.


Spread the banana slices in an even layer over the cream cheese layer.


Refrigerate while you prepare the gelatin. Put raspberry gelatin mix into medium mixing bowl, and add the boiling water. Stir until dissolved. Add the cold water and stir. Let cool. Add the strawberries, and refrigerate. When the jello is somewhat set up, spread over the top of the previous layers.

And that's it! This is so yummy, even the DH said, "This. Is. Great. You can fix this again", and he is not a big fan of strawberries!

Are you going somewhere with what you've baked? We'll end with a favorite tip: Use toothpicks to keep the plastic wrap off the food: