Little Fish Livin' : Not Your Momma's Four Layer Dessert

Along with this weeks recipe, a lot has happened this weekend so bare with me as I ramble on for a minute.

First off, my best friend since pre-school got engaged!!!!

I'm not going to lie I cried like a baby...a big big baby....there was even a witness.

I would just like to say that there is absolutely no way to prepare for a moment actually occurring that you and your best friend have talked about for two decades.

I couldn't be happier for her and I can't wait to see the bridesmaid dresses!

Second off, I put on my big girl pants and bought my first piece of expensive furniture (a loveseat) for me, and me alone.

I say it is for me alone because it is my dream piece of fancy girly furniture and Kevin had absolutely no say in picking it out.

It does not match the dark leather sofa that we have at all but somehow the stark contrast between the two perfectly symbolizes the two completely opposite people coming together in one living room. (man that was a really sappy way to describe a living room right?)

I wish I could show you, but it's going to take up to four weeks to get here which makes me very sad but I have very pathetically put blue tape on the floor to try and imagine how it will look once in the room.

All I can say is that if Kevin comes anywhere near it with his hot sauce and dirty boots, I'm going to beat his butt.

Ok, on to the recipe!!

The reason I call this "Not Your Momma's Four Layer Dessert" is because it kind of reminded me of the layered dessert my mom always used to make, which included a crust with nuts (yuck-no nuts), a layer some sort of delicious cream cheese concoction, a layer of chocolate pudding, and a layer of whipped cream.
The only difference is that I have adapted every layer into things I like even better.

Plus this has three layers, not four, because laziness is sometimes a virtue.

Ingredients:

1 (16 1/2 oz.) tube of pre-made chocolate chip cookie dough

1 jar of caramel ice cream topping

1 (3.4 oz.) box of dry instant vanilla pudding mix

1/2 cup of cold milk

1 (8 oz.) container of frozen whipped topping

3 1 oz. squares of semisweet Bakers chocolate

3 tablespoons of butter

1 bag of Heath toffee bits

9x13 baking pan

First, very lightly grease your baking pan and preheat your oven to 350 degrees.
Break your dough into pieces and drop them all around your pan.
Use your hands to press them down and into one big piece. Try your hardest to make it all even so that every piece will have the same amount of cookie at the bottom.

While taking pictures of this, I noticed my counter tops look a lot
like cookie dough...not a bad thing in my opinion.

Pop that in your preheated oven for 14-16 minutes, or until golden brown.

Let your cookie cool completely before starting your next step.

In the meantime, you can drool over the ingredient for your next layer...

You will also need to take your frozen whipped topping out of the freezer and allow it to thaw.

Once the pan is cool to touch, you are ready to spread on your caramel.

Pour on just a little at a time and spread it around, just enough to cover to whole cookie.

Look at that ocean of salty sweetness...yum!

Your next layer is going to be a mixture of vanilla pudding and the whipped topping.

First, make your pudding by mixing the dry mix with 1/2 cup of cold milk.

Whisk that together until completely blended and then add the thawed whipped topping. I added a little bit of the Heath bits also just to give this layer a little crunch!!

Fold the whipped topping and Heath bits into the pudding mixture until completely blended.