Strawberry Pretzel Salad

You guys! I can't believe how many of you have never before had strawberry pretzel salad. It's like the best stuff ever. You can serve it as a side dish, dessert, or as breakfast.

Well, most decent people don't serve it as breakfast but I do.

Salty - sweet. Creamy - smooth - crunchy. So, so good.

Enough ado.  Here's the recipe:

For a 9x13 casserole dish, typically served as a side:
Ingredients:
2 1/2 C coarsely crushed pretzels
3 Tbsp sugar
1/3 C butter, melted

8 oz cream cheese
1 large tub of thawed Cool Whip
1 C sugar

6oz strawberry Jello
20oz frozen strawberries
2 C  boiling water

Directions:
Mix together pretzels, sugar, and butter. Press into the bottom of an ungreased 9x13" pan. Bake in a preheated 350 degree oven for 10 minutes.  Allow to cool.

Meanwhile cream together the cream cheese and sugar. Gently fold in Cool Whip, being careful to not over mix. Set aside.

In a separate bowl dissolve the Jello into the boiling water. Then add frozen strawberries, breaking them up as you stir. Allow to cool but do not let the Jello set.  This usually takes 5-10 minutes.

Once the pretzel crust has cooled cover it with the cream cheese mix. Be sure to smooth the cream cheese over to the edge of the pan, creating a seal over the pretzel crust. Pour the Jello and strawberry mix on top of the cream cheese mix. Spread it over the whole area.  Chill in the fridge until Jello is set.


For 2 9" pies to be served as dessert:
Ingredients:
5 C coarsely crushed pretzels
5 Tbsp sugar
1 stick of butter, melted

8 oz cream cheese
1 large tub of thawed Cool Whip
1 C sugar

6oz strawberry Jello
20oz frozen strawberries
2 C  boiling water

Directions:
Mix the pretzels, sugar, and melted butter together and divide in two. Press the pretzel mixture into the bottom and at least half way up the sides of two ungreased 9"pie pans. Bake in a preheated 350 degree oven for 10-12 minutes.  Allow to cool.

Meanwhile cream together the cream cheese and sugar. Gently fold in Cool Whip, being careful to not over mix. Set aside.

In a separate bowl dissolve the Jello into the boiling water. Then add frozen strawberries, breaking them up as you stir. Allow to cool but do not let the Jello set.  This usually takes 5-10 minutes.

Once the pretzel crusts have cooled cover them with the cream cheese mix, using half the mix for each pie. Be sure to smooth the cream cheese over the edge of the pretzel crust, creating a seal. Pour the Jello and strawberry mix on top of the cream cheese mix. Spread it over the whole area.  Chill in the fridge until Jello is set.


Notes:
- You can finish the dish off with more Cool Whip and sliced strawberries if you wish. In the image above I reserved about 1 C from the tub for a topping instead of mixing it all in to the cream cheese.
- Be sure to spread the cream cheese mix all the way to the sides. Once I did not and there was Jello in the pretzel crust. It wasn't as crunchy or pretty as it's supposed to be.
- You can use fresh strawberries in the Jello if you'd like but you'll need to plan on giving it extra time to cool off. If the Jello is too hot it will melt the Cool Whip and cream cheese mix.

grilled chicken breast

don't heat the house - make your hubby grill on the hottest day of spring.

chicken breast:  seasoned with salt, pepper, and italian dressing, expertly grilled by dh.

side:  baked potato, topped with cottage cheese, pepper and green onion

salad:  fresh from the garden, seasoned to taste

the best part of the dinner for me was the apple and gorgonzola cheese on the salad.  yum. 

second best, not having to wash a bunch of dishes.

spinach ravioli bake

from the Taste of Home Busy Family Cookbook.

dinner was good and simple.

lettuce salad:  again, from the garden!  woo-hoo!

side:  cottage cheese for extra protien

spinach ravioli bake:

2 C spaghetti sauce

1 pkg frozen ravioli

2 C shredded mozzarella cheese

1 pkg frozen, chopped spinach, thawed and squeezed dry

1/4 C grated parm cheese

Preheat oven to 350.

Grease a shallow 2 qt baking dish.

Coat bottom with sauce.

Top with ravioli, then mozzarella, then spinach, then parm.

Repeat layers.

Bake, uncovered, for 40-45mins.

Yields 4-6 servings.

Thoughts:

Travis and I both really liked this dish, although I think I'll use a little less spinach next time.  This dish was pretty cheap:  $1 bag of Kroger chopped spinach, my homemade sauce (it costs about $1.15 to make), cheese for $1.50 and the ravioli for $3.50ish.  So that's about $2 a serving.

Also, Bonnie, next time you make this thin out your sauce a little bit so it goes farther!

pasta with bacon and cauliflower

You will note that the main dish here is not very healthy, but seeing how it tasted like bacon, it was very yummy.

Pasta:  whole wheat spaghetti, cooked according to the box.  half a package of bacon (the other half was used in this breakfast casserole last week - super good).  one package of frozen broccoli and cauliflower cooked for 4 mins in the microwave and then finished according to the Real Simple recipe.   I topped it with some parm and shredded Italian cheeses because we don't have pecorino.

Salad:  lettuce fresh from our garden!!!!!  topped with green onions (also from our garden), cheese, and then to the specific likings of each family member.

Side:  cottage cheese topped with green onion and pepper.  we're big protein people and I wanted to be sure Trav was content.

Overall, I liked the pasta more than Trav, though he still liked it.  Lydia also liked it and ate a lot.  The salad was probably the highlight, though, since it was the first time we were able to harvest it.

pork chops, cauliflower and lettuce salad

First time for the pork chops.  Everyone liked them and agreed to make them again.

I thought the cauliflower was perfect; Travis wanted more butter and parm.

Everyone's salad was different, based on personal preferences.

Pork was prepared according to recipe, although I added the sauce while the meat was still cooking.

Cauliflower was frozen, prepared in microwave, and seasoned with 1 Tbsp butter, red pepper, salt, garlic powder and parm cheese - a few dashes of each.

Salad was romaine lettuce with tomato, craisins, gorgonzola cheese, green onion and croutons.  Topped with a raspberry vinaigrette.