My daughter is having a Thanksgiving feast at school. They are going to have "all the traditional Thanksgiving foods" at this feast. I have been asked to make a Jello salad. Jello salad is not a tradition in my family (and I'm fairly certain they did not have Jello salad in 1621...). So I googled. Am I right in thinking that Jello salad is basically cool whip, a Jello packet, canned fruit and mini marshmallows? Do you have a traditional Thanksgiving Jello salad recipe for me?
There was a way to make a gelatin substance back in the day.. It entailed hooves.. and a lot of boiling. That would be a good show and "tail" hee, hee..
I used to love jello as a child.. just make it simple so the kids will eat it.
Well, I often make a fruit/jello salad for potlucks and for the Christmas party at my church.
I use a combination of fresh fruit and canned fruit. I make my own whipped cream. I usually use two different flavors of jello.
1 large apple
1 banana
2 kiwi (either green or yellow, usually opposite of the jello color)
some strawberries
1 can peaches (16 ounces)
1 can mixed fruit (16 ounces) -usually mango, guava, pineapple combination
2 flavors of jello (At Christmas, I try to go red and green. For thanksgiving, you might do orange, red, or yellow.)
1 pint heavy whipping cream
1/2 tsp vanilla
1 or 2 Tbsp sugar
1-2 tsp cinnamon
1. Make jello night before.
2. Cut apple, kiwi, and strawberries the night before. Drain juice off canned fruit. Mix fresh fruit and canned fruit in a large tupperware.
3. The next day, or later in the day if making last minute, cut jello into squares and add to the fruit. Add the banana. Also add the cinnamon now.
4. Using a large whisk, whisk the heavy cream, sugar, and vanilla together until you get a soft peak.
5. You can either add the whipped cream to the fruit and jello now if you know that it will all get eaten quickly. Or, you can dish out the fruit and jello mix, adding a large dallop of whipped cream to the top as it gets eaten.
Everytime I take this to a potluck, it disappears within minutes. Someone always asks me for the recipe. It really is so simple though.
This one is easy and you can change the fruit or jello flavor to what you want. I have used cranberry jello for some of the jello salads for Thanksgiving too.
This one is below.
4 cans canned tropical fruit, drained well
1 large carton cottage cheese
1 1/2 or 2 large Cool Whip tubs
1- 1/2 c broken nuts
1 or 2 small packages green lime jello dry ( not made with water )
Mix all thoroughly and refrigerate.
Another one the kids like.
3 C cream style cottage cheese
Cool whip
2-3 oz. packages orange jello
1-13 oz. can pineapple tidbits, or crushed
1-11 oz. can mandarin oranges drained
Blend Cool Whip and cottage cheese. Stir in jello. Fold in fruit and press into a bowl or mold. Chill several hours or overnight.
My favourite jello salad is lime jello whipped with cream cheese. It has canned pineapple chunks (you can't put fresh pineapple in jello), celery and marachino cherries in it. I make it for Christmas and make it in my wreath shaped mould. The cherries are arranged to look like berries on the wreath.
This is the jello salad I make every year for the holidays in honor of my grandma.
1 pkg Lemon Jello
1 pkg Lime Jello
1 lg container of cottage cheese
1 8 oz. container of cool whip
1 14 or 15 oz. can crushed pineapple- drained
1 bag of flavored mini marshmellows
Mix both pkg's of jello with water per instruction on box.
Put into 8x10 pan or decorative bowl- your decision.
Put in fridge to semi set.
Once semi set, add all the above ingredients.
Return to fridge and leave for about 2-3 hrs. I usually make mine the night before a meal.
I hope you enjoy, if you have any questions let me know.
To be technical for the 1621 first thanksgiving they didn't have Turkey, Cranberry sauce, or even potatoes. lol
But I'd make something maybe a little less um standard jello. I'd go with something like Waldorf Salad or Pistachio Pudding Salad. Waldorf the kids get apples and grapes out of it and with pistachio they get pineapple minimum. I hate things like jello salad which offer no nutrition to kids and it doesn't even really taste good. Pistachio is easy it's just combine a box of pistachio pudding, container of cool whip, a can of drained crushed pineapple and a bag of mini marshmallows. Just combine it all. Never met a kid that didn't love it. I always start adding more citrus fruits to it for extra impact though.
I am not a jello fan, but my fav jello salad is lime jello with a can of crushed pineapple. Look on-line for some cranberry jello recipes. I've seen them at lots of pot lucks at church, but since I'm not a jello fan I've never indulged
My family always makes a lime jello with fresh apple and celery chunks in it.
My MIL includes cottage cheese in hers. Don't sweat it! I would just make one that sounds yummy to you.
I don't have a recipe but just had to respond
That's the funniest thing I've heard all day. Not to diss the families out there who do the Jello salad thing, but I've never understood why it's considered a salad.
Kids who eat a "salad" made from marshmallows, Jello, and fruit may as well be eating straight out of a bag of chocolate chips--I'd hate to have 30 kids hopped up on sugar like that!
I just don't get teachers sometimes...
I would go really really simple on this. get a couple cans of mandarin oranges and a couple boxes of orange jello. make according to box directions dump the drained oranges in and let it "set" in the fridge. bring the can of redi whip to school for those who want whipped cream. kids are not going to eat jello with a lot of stuff in it. now having said that I have a spectacular cranberry dessert recipe that I can share if you want it.
I love jello - I just don't like stuff suspended in it (but many people do).
You could try a layered jello dessert - they look so cool!
Someone in my husband's family makes a cranberry jello salad for holidays (not just Thanksgiving) that I really enjoy.
2 1/2 cups boiling water
2 pkg. (6 oz) raspberry jello
1 pkg. frozen strawberries, thawed
1 pkg. frozen raspberries, thawed
1 can (16 oz) cranberry sauce
Stir water into jello until dissolved. Stir in berries and cranberry sauce. Refrigerate until set. Serve with Cool Whip (over the top).
