• 2 large boxes Jell-O cook-and-serve vanilla pudding
• 6 cups low-fat milk
• 1 box vanilla wafers
• 6 large well-ripened bananas, sliced into quarter-inch slices

1. Cook pudding according to directions on box, using the 6 cups low-fat milk.
2. Let pudding cool until it is still warm but not hot.
3. Pour enough of the pudding into a large bowl to cover the bottom of the bowl, about a quarter inch thick.
4. Place vanilla wafers on top of pudding layer, until wafers are evenly distributed.
5. Place banana slices on top of vanilla wafers, until slices are evenly distributed.
6. Continue layering pudding, vanilla wafers, and banana slices until pudding is used up. Top layer should be either banana slices or vanilla wafers.
7. To make the pudding look extra classy (or more like a pie), top with meringue.

I prefer to avoid boxed mixes, and the pudding part of the banana pudding can be made fairly easily from scratch--except that the usual scratch recipes involve a double boiler, which I don't have. Jell-O vanilla pudding actually works pretty well in this recipe, when it's got all those bananas and vanilla wafers mixed in with it. I didn't know until I was an adult that this is considered to be Southern banana pudding; I just assumed everybody in the United States (if not the world) ate the same kind of banana pudding. I don't really know what Northern banana pudding is, anyway--maybe something like banana cream pie? (Awful stuff, in comparison with a good hearty Southern banana pudding.)