Ambrosia

They don't call it "the food of the gods" for nothing. I hosted book group tonight and one friend brought this celestial concoction in honor of her mother, a Southern lady who used to make this and stuff like it all the time. It comes from a book called Suck Your Stomache In and Put Some Color On!: What Southern Mamas Tell Their Daughters that the Rest of Y'all Should Know Too, by Shellie Rushing Tomlinson.

Combine:

1 large can of mandarin oranges
1 can of pineapple crushed or tidbits
coconut (about 1/2 cup or more if you like)
2 bananas cut up
1/2 jar of cut up maraschino cherries
1/2 cup of mini-marshmallows
about 1 cup of whipped cream (turns out you can get a natural version of Cool Whip at Clover's, who knew?) OR vanilla yoghurt
1/2 cup of chopped pecans

I can understand if this is not to your taste, but I also grew up in the South and have many happy childhood memories based on stuff like this.