Caramel Apple Salad

Happy Thursday...or should I say almost Friday...or better yet, almost Labor Day weekend! Today I thought I'd share this yummy recipe that is perfect for late summer/early Fall. It's wonderful as a side dish or even a dessert, and it'd be perfect for this coming weekend's festivities.

This salad is light and fluffy. It's salty and sweet. It's smooth yet crunchy. I could go on and on. Lol! It's just really yummy and it's all the flavors of a caramel apple from the fair all together in one wonderful salad.

First of all, take a 3&1/2 oz. package of instant butterscotch pudding mix and pour into a large bowl. Then take 8 oz. of crushed pineapple, and 8 oz. of cool whipped topping and dump them in too. Mix all together well.

Then take 3 c. of apple that's been diced. The recipe called for that much anyway, but I didn't measure. I had large apples and I think I ended up using about 1 and 1/2 of them. It really depends on how large or small you dice them I did mine in bite sized chunks and not really finely diced. I think it's best to kind of eyeball how much you think looks right.

Fold in the apples.

Then take a cup each of mini marshmallows and honey roasted peanuts and add them to the salad.

Mix them in well. They really add the yummyness to this dish - especially the peanuts give it the more authentic taste of eating caramel apples and great crunch. So good!

Once everything is mixed you can either eat right away or keep chilled in the refrigerator until you're ready for it. This is a recipe I found in the Gooseberry Patch Fall, Family & Friends Cookbook. I've had different "taffy apple" or "caramel apple" salads before that have snickers candy bars cut up in them and they are yummy too, but I think I like this one even better. I highly recommend it - and it's a fun way to make a different kind of "fruit salad". Enjoy!