What’s Cookin’ – Guthrie Jello Salad

For many years, all of our family get togethers have included what we now refer to as the Guthrie Jello Salad.  Originally, my mother-in-law would make the ubiquitous Pretzel Salad, and the kids would not eat it because they didn’t like the taste of the pretzels in the crust.  One year, quite by chance, she went to make the salad for a holiday meal, but discovered that she had no pretzels.

Necessity is the mother of invention, and we certainly could not have the holiday without this salad so she made the crust with graham crackers instead.  And guess what?  The kids loved it.  We have never gone back to using pretzels.

Furthermore, we have had fun making different versions of this salad over the years.  We have used different flavored Jello and different fruits.  We have used chocolate graham crackers and even flavored cream cheese.  We have really had fun changing it up, but it still makes an appearance at every holiday.  And we don’t think of it as a dessert at all – it is a side dish.

The Ingredients – we usually pair up the Jello with the chosen fruit so Strawberry Jello with strawberries, Raspberry Jello with raspberries.  In this case, I mixed some blueberries I had in the freezer left over from Summer with some frozen raspberries.

Mix together the graham cracker crumbs, sugar, melted butter.

I spray the bottom of the 9 x 13 glass baking dish with cooking spray.  Press the crumb mixture firmly into the bottom of the baking dish.

Bake in a 400° oven for 10 minutes.  It will be slightly browned.  Allow the pan to cool completely.

Mix together the softened cream cheese and sugar.  Fold in 1/2 container of Cool Whip.

Spread the cream cheese mixture over the crust evenly.

Dissolve the Jello in 2 cups of hot or boiling water.

Add the frozen fruit to the Jello mixture, and allow it to sit for 5 to 10 minutes just until it’s starting to set a little.

Layer the Jello mixture evenly over the cream cheese.

Cover with plastic wrap and put into the refrigerator.  Aren’t the layers pretty?

This is a piece of raspberry / blueberry Jello Salad ready to eat.

We made a strawberry version for Independence Day last summer, and here is what that looked like.

Yummy!