No-Bake Pineapple Lush Dessert Lasagna

Familiar with angel lush? Imagine it without the angel food cake and instead with vanilla wafers, some extra creaminess and you will have pineapple lush dessert lasagna!

This past weekend was our annual Jife trip with friends that live in Knoxville. What the heck is a “Jife”? Well, there’s a story behind it that involves sparklers and a time exposure but all you need to know is that every year the group rents a cabin (in the mountains, on a lake, etc) in East TN and we just hang out, cook, and enjoy the company. This year was the first ever repeat location, which Bob and I were excited about because we missed last years due to not having enough time off (because of that whole wedding thing). The place they rented was a little Western-like village all to ourselves, with a common saloon complete with kitchen, performance stage (handy for the artsy outgoing folk in the group), and general seating area, and then several small sleeper cabins on the grounds. The pictures looked so cool from last year we were excited to experience it ourselves!

That was until we got the text saying they found bed bugs and the landlord was doing nothing to remedy the situation. We got our money back, but since we were already in the process of driving south we decided to continue on! Mostly because we were offered a place to stay, and various people were going to host gatherings at their respective homes throughout the weekend in order to make the best of it. Especially since some people had taken off of work and/or purchased a lot of food for the occasion. For example: we had 14 pounds of pork loin, a big bowl of corn salsa, and this dessert lasagna. It’s basically a pineapple angel lush cake but instead of angel food cake I used vanilla wafers. And yes it is as delicious as it sounds.

Also, originally I didn’t plan on paying a visit to my dad and step mom because we were going to be over an hour away (and they are coming to Ohio next weekend), but with the cabin fiasco we ended up right in Knoxville. So I surprised my dad on father’s day by showing up for breakfast Sunday morning before hitting the road back to Ohio. I even brought him a slice of this dessert lasagna! I don’t think I’ve surprised him with anything my whole life and he said it was the best father’s day gift ever :-D. Can’t wait for them to visit this weekend to see our house finally! Gonna put them to work in our garden haha ;-).

P.S. Speaking of the garden, we weeded all the purslane from our tomatoes/peppers and potted some of it. Hopefully the weed control sheet I put down afterwards will help prevent it from coming back. I also bought bird netting to keep our blueberries protected because I’m selfish and want them all!

Two years ago: Slow Cooker Loaded BBQ Pulled Pork Nachos

Three years ago: Weekly Meal Plan: June 20-26

Four year ago: June 2015 Stitch Fix #9

Five years ago: Easy Honey Mustard Chicken

Six years ago: Cookie Dough White Chocolate Fondue

Seven years ago: Prague

NO-BAKE PINEAPPLE LUSH DESSERT LASAGNA

Serves 24

Ingredients:

PINEAPPLE FILLING

1 cup heavy cream (or full fat coconut milk)

1 (3.4 oz.) package vanilla instant pudding

3 (8 oz.) packages cream cheese, room temperature

1/2 tsp vanilla extract

16 oz. frozen whipped topping, thawed

1 (20 oz.) can crushed pineapple, drained

2 (14 oz.) boxes vanilla wafers

TOPPING

8 oz. frozen whipped topping, thawed

Sliced strawberries, blueberries, and pineapple

Directions:

1. Prepare the pineapple filling: In a large mixing bowl, whip together heavy cream, pudding mix, cream cheese, and vanilla. Whip for 2-3 minutes until fully combined and smooth. Add the thawed whipped topping and continue to whip until fluffy and light. Fold in the pineapple until evenly distributed. Set aside.
2. In a 9 x 13 inch dish place one layer of vanilla wafers. Spread 1/3 of the filling over the wafers. Gently press the next layer of wafers into the filling. Top with a second 1/3 of the filling, repeat the wafer layer, and end with the final 1/3 of the filling.
3. Top with more whipped topping, more pineapple, sliced strawberries, and blueberries. Chill for at least 4-6 hours.
4. When ready to serve, cut into 24 squares and serve.

Source: Adapted from my No-Bake Coconut Strawberry Shortcake Dessert Lasagna.