Lemon Lush

Lemon Lush

2 cups flour
1 cup butter, cut into small pieces
2 8 oz pkg cream cheese, room temp
1 cup sugar
2- 3.4 oz boxes instant lemon pudding mix
3 1/2 cups cold milk (not skim)
1 12 oz container of Cool Whip or whipped cream

Preheat oven to 350. In a medium bowl, combine the flour and butter using a pastry blender/cutter (or check out this link if you don't know what I'm talking about) until small balls form and crumbly. Press into the bottom on a greased 9 x 13 baking dish. Bake 25 minutes or until lightly golden. Cool completely.
In a medium bowl, beat cream cheese and sugar together until smooth. Spread evenly over the cooled crust.
In another bowl, whisk together the pudding mix and milk for 3-5 minutes until thickened. Spread over the cream cheese layer. Chill until set about 4 hours, then top with whipped topping or whipped cream.

Variations

• use any flavor pudding that you'd like. My other favorites are chocolate, butterscotch and pistachio.
• use vanilla flavored pudding but add a few sliced bananas on top of the baked and cooled crust. I cannot stand the "artificialness" of banana flavored pudding hence the vanilla flavor with sliced bananas.
• if you decide on vanilla or lemon, top the whole dessert with fresh raspberries or sliced strawberries
• use real whipped cream to make it that much better instead of Cool Whip.
• add 1 cup finely chopped nuts : 1/2 cup in the crust and 1/2 cup sprinkled on top. I've used pecans, but walnuts and almonds would be great too.
• to make this over the top DELISH, make your own pudding :)