This is not a looker...

This is not a looker... that's for sure. This recipe looks like brown mush, but it tastes, amazing.
In blogging world it was just St. Patrick's Day. In our house that now means we should be eating corned beef and cabbage - not my favorite thing in the world even though I'm the most Irish person in the family with my 1/8th Irish blood. We ended up having our family meal a few days late since life is nutso... Nicholas and I decided we should make Banana Pudding for dessert. The problem - Bronwyn does NOT like bananas. Here's the thing... when my kids were little they could not have citrus, papaya, mango, etc at school, their bodies said NOPE. So what did they have instead? Bananas, always bananas. Now that they have thankfully grown out of that food intolerance... I have one who LOVES bananas and one who won't touch them. Bronwyn won't touch them. We ended up making her own little pudding sans the nanners. Nicholas was great at lining up all the nilla wafers and bananas. He declared he didn't love whipped topping - oh these kids! Serving time, Bronwyn was a big "eh", Nicholas loved it, Andy ate multiple servings, that after having multiple servings of corned beef! So this one? It's good... And it's really easy.

Banana Pudding

1 box (3.4 ounces) vanilla instant pudding mix
2 cups whole milk, cold
48 vanilla wafer cookies, divided
4 large ripe bananas, thinly sliced, divided
1 container (8 ounces) whipped cream
extra bananas and cookies, optional for garnish

Instructions
In a large mixing bowl, combine the instant vanilla pudding mix and cold milk. Using a hand mixer at medium-low speed, beat the mixture until well blended (about 2 minutes).
Chill the pudding mixture in the refrigerator while you prepare the next step.
In an 11×7-inch baking dish, arrange a single layer of vanilla wafer cookies with the flat side down. Use 24 cookies for this layer.
Pour half of the chilled pudding mixture (about 1 cup) over the cookies in the baking dish.
Add half of the thinly sliced bananas in a single layer over the pudding.
Repeat with another layer of cookies, pudding, and bananas.
Top the final layer with whipped cream, spreading it evenly over the pudding.
If desired, garnish with extra sliced bananas and cookies.
Chill the dessert in the refrigerator for at least 4 hours, up to overnight before serving.