Goin’ Old School

I am sure you all have recipes that you have been making for years. You know the ones you don’t even need the recipe and whip up whenever you are invited to a last minute dinner or just want something easy and no fuss.

Well this Chocolate Ribbon Pie is one of those desserts for me. I can’t even remember where I actually found this recipe all those years ago (maybe from a magazine or on the box of Jello or a Cool Whip container, who knows). But the reason I even made this pie originally was for my final project in the 7th grade for Home Economics class. We had to create a full dinner menu, including an appetizer and dessert, plan it out, prepare our budget, create a shopping list and the prepare the meal for our families and have them grade it. We then had to present all of our recipes, menu plan, etc in a nice binder to our teacher.

Well this is the dessert I made for that dinner and I have been making it for holidays, dinners, and as a yummy treat ever since. It is SO easy, uses ingredients I usually have on hand AND everyone loves it. This is defiantly a tired and true over and over again! Because it is a simple, no bake dessert it is PERFECT for the hot days of summer!

4 ounces cream cheese, softened
1 teaspoon vanilla
2 tablespoon sugar
2 cups plus 1 tablespoon milk, divided
1 container (8 oz.) frozen whipped topping, thawed, divided
1 chocolate pie crust
2 pkg. (3.9 oz. each) chocolate instant pudding
1 chocolate bar**

Beat cream cheese, vanilla, sugar and 1 tablespoon milk in medium bowl with whisk until well blended. Stir in half the whipped topping. Spread onto bottom of crust.

Beat pudding mixes and remaining milk with whisk for 2 minutes, mixture will be thick. Pour over cream cheese layer in crust.