Funday Sunday - Banana Pudding Dessert

Funday Sunday is back this week with a couple of new tips that I discovered for the dairy allergic kid and a tasty recipe that I remember my mom making when I was a kid. I do believe there is a recipe like this on the back of a Nilla Wafers box, but seeing as how the actual Nilla Wafer brand of cookie has milk in it, I can't really say for sure. I have searched high and low for milk free Nilla Wafer type cookies and finally was victorious. Just a tip, if you are looking for tasty store bought cookies that don't have milk in them, check the cheap store brands. I've found extraordinarily wonderful cookies that only contain wheat and soy. The kids thank me for them. And the new tip of the week is for boxed pudding. Turns out that Jello brand cook and serve puddings actually work when you use soy milk. Just add about one tablespoon of watered down cornstarch once it's boiling and wa-lah! Pudding! So this week's Funday Sunday is for the Banana Pudding Dessert. Enjoy!

Banana Pudding Dessert

2 Boxes of Jello brand cook and serve pudding
4 C. Soy Milk*
2 Bananas
2 T. Cornstarch for thickening the pudding
1 Box of milk-free vanilla wafer cookies (see picture)

First make your pudding on the stove. Follow the instructions on the box using two boxes of pudding mix and the four cups of milk. Prepare the cornstarch by adding enough water to it so that it becomes a liquid. Probably anywhere from 2 to three tablespoons of water. There are instructions on the box of cornstarch. Once the pudding has come to a rolling boil, add your cornstarch mixture and whisk until it becomes partially set up. Remove the pudding and cool in the fridge so that it's no longer boiling hot. Warm is fine. Line a 8X8 or 9X9 pan with the vanilla cookies. Place them side by side until the bottom has a layer of cookies and then place a row of cookies on the sides of the pan so that you now have a cookie 'crust'. Put a layer of pudding on the cookies. Slice your bananas in medium thick coins to make the next layer, then cover that with pudding. Make another layer of cookies, then pudding, then bananas...you get the idea. Make as many layers as you have pudding to put in between the layers. Top it off with a layer of cookies (crushed or whole). Let it set for at least one to two hours so the cookies have time to soften. Enjoy!**

*Use the highest fat soy-milk you can find. I use Silk Soy-milk that is Omega 3 Plain. It's the highest fat one out there that I've found.
**When I was a kid, my mom topped it with whipped cream (Cool-whip). But I've yet to find that item dairy-free. Feel free to whipped cream it up if you aren't milk-allergic!