Easy Banana Cream Pie

1 medium ripe bananas, sliced
1 ready-to-use graham cracker crumb crust (Or make your own! It's easy!)
1 3/4 cups cold fat-free milk
1 pkg. (4-serving size) Vanilla Instant Pudding
1 cups thawed whipped topping, divided

Place half of the banana slices on bottom of crust. Set remaining banana slices aside. Pour milk into large bowl. Add dry pudding mix. Beat with wire whisk 2 min. or until well blended. Gently stir in 1/2 cup of the whipped topping. Spoon the pudding mixture into crust. Top with remaining banana slices; cover with remaining whipped topping.

Refrigerate 3 hours or until set. Store leftover pie in refrigerator.

"Sneaky Dad's Pudding"

Taken directly from the book "Becoming Vegan" by Brenda Davis, R.D. and Vesanto Melina, M.S., R.D.

1 1/2 cups frozen strawberries
1 banana, cut into 4 pieces
1-2 teaspoons cocoa powder
2 teaspoons flaxseed oil (or fish oil)
3-5 tablespoons nut butter (almond, cashew, peanut, etc.)
2-3 tablespoons orange juice (or other juice like apple or carrot)
2 tablespoons soymilk, almond milk, rice milk or regular milk
1/8-1/4 avocado

Puree everything in a food processor until a pudding like consistency. Makes 2 very large servings.

**Note-this "pudding" provides a great source of protein, fiber, calories and healthy fat. So sneaky!

First Birthday Banana Sour Cream Cake

1 pkg. (2-layer size) yellow cake mix
3 eggs
1 cup mashed ripe bananas (about 3)
1 cup sour cream
1/4 cup oil

1 pkg. (8 oz.) cream cheese , softened (full fat or reduced fat)
1/2 cup (1 stick) butter, softened
1 pkg. (16 oz.) powdered sugar
1 cup finely chopped walnuts**

Oven at 350°F. Beat first 5 ingredients with mixer on low speed just until moistened, stopping frequently to scrape bottom and side of bowl. Beat on medium speed 2 min. Pour into greased and floured 13x9-inch pan. (Or you may choose to use 2 9-inch circle pans) Bake 35 min. or until toothpick inserted in center comes out clean. (If using circle pans, follow cooking time on box.) Cool completely.

Beat cream cheese and butter with mixer until well blended. Gradually add sugar, beating well after each addition.

Remove cake from pan. Carefully cut cake crosswise in half using serrated knife. Place 1 cake half, top-side down, on plate; spread with some of the cream cheese frosting. Top with remaining cake half, top-side up. Spread top and sides with remaining frosting. Press nuts into sides. Keep refrigerated. (If using circle pans, frost traditionally, using nuts if wanted).

**Note-Since this was a first birthday cake for my son, we omitted the nuts.
**Note-I made this for two separate birthday parties and both time got rave reviews!

Banana Topping

2 tablespoons butter
1/2 teaspoon pumpkin pie spice
2 tablespoons molasses
1/2 cup brown sugar
1/2 cup water
2 bananas, cut into 1/2-inch slices

In a small saucepan, combine butter, pumpkin pie spice, molasses, brown sugar and 1/2 cup of water. Bring to a boil, add bananas then lower heat and let simmer for 3 minutes. Remove syrup from heat, cover and keep warm. Serve over French toast, pancakes or waffles.

**Note-This topping is a great alternative to real maple syrup, which is quite expensive. Now you have a tasty alternative that isn't expensive and doesn't contain high fructose corn syrup.

Fruit Pancakes Two Ways

Apple Cinnamon Pancakes:

Mix up everyday pancake mix as directed on the package. To it, add one cup of finely chopped apples and 1/2 teaspoon cinnamon. Fry in a frying pan and serve.

Banana Pancakes:

Mix up everyday pancake mix as directed on the package. To it, add 3/4 cup mashed bananas and 1/2 teaspoon cinnamon. Fry in a frying pan and serve.

**Note-as with other recipes in this collection, these are both staples from my childhood. I can remember my mother or father sitting at the kitchen table on weekend mornings, meticulously chopping up apples for the pancakes or saying that morning that the bananas were going to go bad so we were having banana pancakes. Although these two recipes are not very inventive or unusual, I included them purely for sentimental reasons. May your family start memories as I have.