Creamy Fruit Salad

This fruit salad recipe is a tried and true favorite, as I have been making it since I was a teen. This time I made it for a Christmas brunch at my friend's house and it went over really well. The brunch was tons of fun and we ended up staying all day playing cards and scrabble, all in all, a very satisfying Christmas day.

The salad is really simple to make, doesn't take a lot of time and you can make it in advance (since it chills overnight). All really nice features when one is preparing for the holidays! It is pretty flexible; this version is really a slightly modified doubling of the original recipe and it still came out fine. I would assume that you could substitute other types of fruit if you prefer, but I wouldn't recommend hard fruits like apples because it would be a weird texture - this salad is pretty soft. Also, if you don't like marshmallows you could probably substitute cooked white rice. (I think rice in these kinds of salads is gross but I know that lots of other people prefer it, so it is something to try.)

Enjoy this salad!

Creamy Fruit Salad
1 20 oz can Pinapple Tidbits
1 15 oz can Mandarin Orange Slices
1/4 cup Pineapple Juice (or water)
6 tablespoons Lemon Juice
2 tablespoons Water
2 (3 oz) packages cook and serve Vanilla Pudding
2 cups miniature Marshmallows
2 cups Whipped Topping
2 Bananas sliced
Drain pineapple and mandarin orange juices into a medium saucepan and add in the extra pineapple juice, water, and lemon juice. Stir pudding mix into the saucepan and heat (stirring constantly, as pudding has a tendency to get lumpy) on medium until mixture comes to a full boil. Pull off of heat and let sit until cooled. Once cooled mix in the pineapple, mandarin oranges, and marshmallows; then gently mix in the whipped topping. Chill overnight in a covered bowl. Fold in the sliced bananas right before serving (the bananas brown if you put them in the night before).

Serves about 10 people.