I really liked this and my kids loved it too. I used strawberry jello so it looked red for the Christmas party!

The recipe turned out great!!!

I did not use pineapple. I used:

15 oz tropical fruit (no pineapple)
15 oz fruit salad
small can mandarin oranges
(all well drained)
8 oz of cool whip
3-4 oz cream cheese
3 oz box of orange jello

The orange jello made it taste just like a creamsicle base. Very yummy!

I did not like this at all. I followed the directions and I used strawberry jello and it made the salad such a dark pink it was almost red. much too sweet. I would suggest using two containers of cool whip and 1 oz of jello powder (instead of the 3oz as in the directions).

Your recipe is very similar to one I make (I use cottage cheese and half the fruit cocktail), but mine keeps turning out runny on the bottom. Last time I even used 1/2 the pineapple, a large Jello plus a packet of gelatin, and drained the fruit very, very well. Do you ever have problems with runniness? Thanks.

It is probably runny due to the cream from the cottage cheese. Did you ever try draining the cheese before mixing?

It is runny because pineapple (fresh and frozen) naturally contain a chemical substance that inhibits jelling. The box of Jello says not to mix with pineapple.

If you heat the pineapple, it will jell.

Hi Cindy,

The recipe calls for using canned pineapple, which has been heated during processing, which deactivates the enzyme that prevents the jelling, so it's OK to use canned pineapple when making gelatines.

-- CM