Strawberry Pretzel Fields Forever

My mom used to make this pretzel salad when we were growing up and going to a picnic or covered dish supper. The funny thing is that I never liked it that much growing up, but boy has that changed. My mom made this for a Super Bowl Party we had this year and OMG!!!!!! it was sooooo good!! Seriously, you have no idea how good it was. And what's even funnier is the recipe is called "My Friend Pat's Pretzel Salad". Ha! I have no idea who Pat is, but her recipe for Pretzel Salad is yummmmy! :)

The first thing you do is take 2 cups of pretzels and crush them. I think the easiest thing to do is to put them into a zip lock bag

and then take a rolling pin and roll it over the pretzels and that's it. So simple and an easy cleanup too. Bonus! Save a few of the crushed pretzels to garnish with at the end.

Next you want to melt 3/4 cup of margarine and then mix that together with the crushed pretzels and 4 tbsp. of sugar. Spread the pretzel/butter mixture over the bottom of a 9x13 baking pan. Bake this for 8 minutes in a 400-degree oven. Cool.

Next you want to cream together an 8-0z cream cheese and 1/3 cup of sugar. Then fold into that mixture 8 ounces of Cool Whip.

Then spread this over the crushed pretzels. Note this looks a bit lumpy and it should not. :) This is because we did not completely cream the cream cheese and sugar first before folding in the Cool Whip. Make sure you do this and it will not be lumpy.

Next you want to prepare a small box of strawberry Jello with 1 3/4 cup of boiling water. And then stir in the frozen strawberries. Pour this over the cream cheese layer. And then refrigerate for 3 hours.

Have you ever had this or something similar? It is really really good. :) You should go out and buy the ingredients tomorrow and then surprise your family with this delicious treat. They will definitely be your besties!! Pinky swear!