::Russian Mousse::

I was searching for something easy that wouldn't heat up the house too much. I needed something that could be adjusted to serve several people at a BBQ. I was browsing Facebook and my cute friend, Jessica had just mentioned she was making a mousse for her family's dessert that night and she was nice enough to share. I'm thinking of making it again to share with some co-workers. SO simply...here it goes...

Ingredients:

1 cup milk

1 pkg 4 serving size box instant vanilla pudding

1/2 cup white chocolate chips

1 small container whipped topping (Cool Whip)

Topping of choice: berries, chocolate, etc.

Directions:

In a medium bowl, combine milk and pudding. Whisk until thick (this shouldn't take long). Melt white chocolate chips in the microwave, on high for 20 seconds, stir and continue melting at 15 second intervals until the chocolate is completely melted and smooth. Trust me, I was in a rush last time and it ruins the texture to find chunks of chocolate periodically. When melted, add chocolate to the pudding mixture and whisk in. Fold in entire container of whipped topping until well combined. Cover and refrigerate 20-30 minutes. Serve. I like to divide the mousse into bowls and top with fresh berries. Last time, I wasn't able to find any raspberries (which is my favorite berry with this) so I substituted frozen. I thawed them in the bag and strained out the juice into a measuring cup. I boiled the juice into a syrup, cooled it and used it to make the mousse look fancy-shmancy. This recipe yields about 4-6 servings...if you let it. Super easy, not to mention, super inexpensive.

Pudding Paint

I love doing this, even though it drives my OCD crazy and makes me want to keep washing my child...lol. I found this idea on a pre-school site a while ago. Cleaning out our cupboards, I noticed that we had a few boxes of cook and serve pudding left over from a recipe we made. I HATE this pudding. McKayla is not much of a milk drinker, so we're always scrambling to finish a gallon of milk before it goes bad every week, this helps a little.

Prepare pudding according to package directions.

I'm not sure if instant pudding works as well, I do know that the cook and serve types actually set up a little thicker.

After the pudding has cooled, place into bowls. (Pudding is pretty cheap if you buy a store brand, about 88 cents or less-different flavors give a few different color options.)

Spread out some waxed paper and let the kids go crazy. They love it, and they can even sneak a few bites in! I usually do this after lunch.

**To keep myself a little less stressed, I look for discounts in the party section with the plastic table cloths or even plastic shower curtains or liners. I keep these stocked with the art supplies and spread them out over the floor around and under the table and chairs. This allows for the easiest clean up, I can spray it off or when it's totally trashed, I can just roll it up and throw it away. I'd rather be replacing a shower curtain liner from the dollar store than scrub my floors and carpet.