Recipe Share: Gingersnap Fruit Salad

Hello from "Patch-A-Heaven!" Fall is such a great time of year to live in Utah. I'm lucky to enjoy the Fall colors all around me. There are so many things I love about this time of year! The leaves changing, all the beautiful colors, the thoughts of Thanksgiving and all we have to be grateful for, and Eggnog! Yes....I said Eggnog. One of my favorite things about this time of year is Eggnog. It is a seasonal item (good freaking thing or I might be 200 pounds!) and the Meadow Gold Pumpkin Spice Eggnog is my fav. It's been out now for a while and every time we go to the grocery store my kids see it and say "Can we get Eggnog, please?!" and I love it too, so the answer is always "Yes!" I'm lucky to belong to a family of talented cooks and so Thanksgiving is always a treat! One of my Aunt's (not sure which one of these talented, amazing ladies) brought the "cookie salad" first. But it has been a staple at our family functions ever since. Today I bring you a different version of this "cookie salad" based off the one that's always brought to our family functions. I came up with this version I am sharing today based off the original version. You can view the original version on this link here:
 Link to Cooks.com


Here's my version of a "cookie fruit salad" I call it "Gingersnap Fruit Salad":
What you will need:
1 Cup Meadow Gold Pumpkin Spice Eggnog
 3oz box Vanilla Pudding Mix (you just need the mix dry, not mixed with milk!)
8oz Cool Whip
1/2 Cup Gingersnap cookies, broken into pieces
2 11oz cans of Mandarin Oranges
1 20oz can Pineapple Chunks

Directions:
Drain liquid from Mandarin oranges and Pineapple using a strainer, set aside. Put 1 Cup Eggnog and contents of pudding mix into a bowl, mix with wire whisk until smooth and well combined. Then fold in the Cool Whip until mixed. Break up Gingersnaps into pieces, put 1 cup of them into the mixture and fold in, then gently fold in the fruit, I say Gently, because if you stir too much your oranges won't look like oranges anymore. So be gentle and fold just until adequately mixed. Then sprinkle the remaining Gingersnaps on top. If you want the cookies to have crunch when served, don't mix salad until ready to serve. They will get soggy if mixed ahead of time. You can however mix the Eggnog, Pudding and Coolwhip and refrigerate, and then mix the fruit and cookies right before serving.

Hope you enjoy this Fall/Holiday Inspired Spin on the "Cookie Salad!"