How to be Awesome at Easy Desserts

The Pudding Edition

Eventually, I will be writing about all the awesomely hard to make foods that I am no doubt going to be awesome at, but I'm not quite at that place yet.  So you get......pudding.

Pudding is a great food.  It tastes pretty good, but it's also easy to make.  I mean, regular pudding is easy enough , but then there's instant too, which is like, put milk in and stir for two minutes.  Shoot, you can even just buy cups of it already made if you want!  It's not as bad for you as most desserts either.  They even have sugar-free varieties, and you can use skim milk or whatever.  It's also cheap, which is awesome.

But I'm not writing about just making pudding.  That would be dumb.  You just add milk.  At least, that's the kind I make. 

No, I'm writing about making pudding into other things.  It's like, pudding 2.0.  How to take a dessert that is passable for kids and turn it into something worth serving to adults.  This is my most recent attempt at being awesome at mealtime.  I've found that adding a cute little dessert makes the whole event much more fun, even if it's just a silly pudding cup.

Here are the ideas I've tried in the past few weeks so far.  I thought about taking pictures of them when I made them, but pictures of pudding don't really turn out so well, so you'll just have to use your imagination.

1)  Bavarian Cream Pies

Take those little mini-graham cracker pie shells that are individual serving-sized, and put a little Nutella in the bottom, and then fill the rest with vanilla pudding.  Top with a few chocolate chips if you want.  It's fabulous.  (You could also use chocolate pudding instead of Nutella for something a little less rich, but why you would ever voluntarily opt-out of using Nutella I will never know.)

2)  Rocky Road

Get some custard cups or other individual serving cups.  Put enough peanuts in the cups to cover the bottom, and then pour in chocolate pudding and set.  Before serving, top with mini-marshmallows.  (Don't put them on ahead of time or they get soggy and gross.)

3)  Reece's Cups

Fill individual serving cups with butterscotch pudding and set.  Before serving, top with Magic Shell and put in the freezer for a few minutes to harden.  (This is my most recent one, and it's really good.)

4)  Parfaits

This you can do with any flavor.  It's really good with pistachio, but I have a hard time finding instant pistachio pudding, so Oreo pudding works well too.  Layer a tall cup with pudding, sugar-free cool whip, and cookie crumbles or chopped nuts.  Add a Pirouline cookie for flair.

See?  Awesome dessert ideas that are easy, cheap, fast, and not that bad for you. 

Dinner just became awesome.