Picture Perfect Cooking

Fruit salads are my favorite kind of salad even though they probably are not the healthiest.  Give me some chopped fruit with pudding mix and fruit juice and I am a happy girl.  Throw in some nuts and mini marshmallows and, well, I might not be able to control myself! I could eat the whole bowl!

This is one of those dishes…perfect to pair with a simple angel food cake or, like I did, a lemon chiffon cake.  I have made fruit salads with vanilla pudding mix, but I had never used lemon.  I think I like it better than the vanilla since it gave it an extra little kick.  Don’t forget to add your bananas right before you serve so they will stay as fresh as possible.  The original recipe called for strawberries.  I didn’t have any on hand so I just used chopped apples instead.  I will definitely try this again when my strawberry plants start producing.

20 oz can pineapple tidbits

11 oz can mandarin orange slices

3.4 oz package instant lemon pudding mix

2 medium apples, diced

1 cup sliced bananas

Drain the pineapple and mandarin oranges, reserving the juice.  In a bowl, combine the reserved juice with the pudding mix.  Fold in the pineapple and oranges.  Dice the apples and slice the bananas.  I soaked both of these in orange juice for a couple of minutes to slow down the browning process.  Add the apples and bananas to the mix and stir.  Chill until ready to serve!