Orange Congealed Salad

We called this "fluffy stuff" when I was growing up, and I had never made it so I thought I'd give it a try. I was really pleased with how it came out and I got lots of compliments on it from everyone at Easter lunch, so I decided to share.

2 small boxes orange jello (or 1 large box)

1 c. hot water

1 c. cold water

16 oz. greek yogurt

1/2 c. chopped pecans (optional)

1 lg can crushed pineapple, drained

1 can mandarin oranges, drained

Take your two boxes of jello and dissolve into 1 cup hot water. Once it is completely dissolved, add 1 cup cold water and let it chill for about an hour and let it get semi-set. Mix in greek yogurt, nuts, pineapple, and oranges. Chill for several hours until set.

I make mine in a rectangle casserole dish. You could use a fancy ring mold or something else, but this way if it's a little bit soft it's not a big deal.

I didn't worry too much about getting ALL the juice out of the pineapple. A little bit of extra liquid is ok and it will still set up, but try to drain off a fair amount of it.

I also cut the mandarin orange slices into about two or three tiny pieces. You could probably skip this step if you wanted to, but I prefer little bits of stuff instead of huge chunks. It helps everything be more uniform.

That's it. It's very simple. The great thing about this is how versatile it is. You can leave out the orange pieces if you want or use any other kind of fruit and change up the flavor of jello to make pretty much anything.