Easy Banana Pudding

If you’ve never visited Savannah, Georgia, you must add it to your bucket list of places to visit before you die. I spent two years there after college, and would happily return in a heartbeat. The food, the rich historical architecture, the warm personalities, the food and the food – can’t beat it. One of my favorite food revelations from my time in Savannah is a little thing called banana pudding.

Oh yeah? You’ve heard of it? I’m not surprised – it’s not easily forgotten once tried. Hard to believe that pudding, bananas, vanilla wafers and whipped cream can be so amazingly satisfying. Banana pudding is the comfort food of desserts.

I’ve made banana pudding completely from scratch before, right down to hand-whipping the cream. But, a couple of years ago I decided to throw together a lazy person’s easy banana pudding with less finesse. And you know what? People like it better. No kidding.

The Lazy Cook’s Easy Banana Pudding

Ingredients

2 1-oz packages instant vanilla pudding

2 bananas, over-ripe 1 container whipped topping, thawed 1 package vanilla wafers

Instructions:

Prepare the instant pudding according to the package instructions for PIE FILLING in a large bowl. Once set, fold in the whipped topping and place the bowl in refrigerator. Slice the bananas about 1/2″ thick.

Layer the wafers on the bottom of a 2-quart casserole dish. Add a layer of bananas. Spread a 1/2″ layer of the pudding mixture on top. Repeat the three layers until the ingredients are used up, or until you reach the top of the dish, whichever’s first, making sure the last layer is pudding.

Feeling fancy? Create mini banana pudding cups in ramekins for single serving sizes.

Refrigerate for at least 4 hours, but overnight is better. The longer it sits the happier you’ll be – the flavors meld together, and the wafers transform into soft little vanilla cakes!

NOTE: This recipe is really easy to convert to be diabetic-friendly. Simply substitute sugar-free pudding and sugar-free whipped topping, and use sugar-free vanilla wafers. If you can’t find sugar-free vanilla wafers (they are really hard to locate), Murray sugar-free shortbread cookies work great too.