• I had the pleasure of attending a fun beach themed baby shower last weekend. Mom and dad had designed. Hawaiian and surfing themed nursery for the soon to be born son and extended the theme to their shower. In addition to being a fun shower, complete with leis, Hawaiian shirts, and barbecued food, they served us what was called sandbox pudding. Each of us got a small little beach pail. It held maybe a cup or so, and a mini shovel. I’m glad I had a shovel, because this stuff was surprisingly good and I enjoyed shoveling it into my face.

    Sandbox pudding is essentially supped up pudding layered with what looks exactly like sand, made from finely crumbled cookies. It was so delicious I had to get the recipe to share with the world. I had never heard of sandbox pudding, so I feel as if I can safely assume many of you haven’t either.

    Here is what you need to make your own:

    Sand-
    1 box of vanilla wafer cookies
    3 chocolate sandwich cookies

    Pudding-
    2 packages vanilla pudding
    1 brick softened cream cheese
    1/2 stick butter, softened
    2/3 cup powdered sugar
    2 3/4 cup milk
    12 oz whipped topping thawed

    First make your pudding by combining the pudding with the milk. In a separate bowl cream the butter, sugar, and cream cheese. Once it is smooth, blend in the pudding mixture. Finally fold in your whipped topping.

    To make your sand, add the entire box of vanilla wafer cookies into the bowl of your food processor. Pulse to begin crumbling. Add the chocolate sandwich cookies one at a time. Continue to pulse until the cookies are the texture of sand. The three chocolate sandwich cookies make the sand look more realistic. You can add less or more depending on how you like your sand to look.

    To serve, add a generous dollop of pudding into your bowl, or bucket if you’re super cool like that. Smooth and flatten it a bit with your spoon. Next add a good portion of ‘sand’ on top.

    I imagine this would be fantastic for themed birthday parties, or play dates. I know my kids love this just as much as they love the good old fashioned cup of dirt!