Old-Fashioned Strawberry Pretzel Salad

I think this is one of those recipes most people either love or hate. Hubs loved this and ate it within 48 hours. I thought it was just okay; however, my apathy could be because I used Splenda instead of normal sugar in the middle layer. I thought I'd humor hubs for once, and I didn't like the aftertaste. However, since he loved it so much I'm going to make it for him again; we have more Cool Whip and more pretzels. We do not have more strawberries, frozen or otherwise, so I'll try with the fruit we have (raspberries I think), and I'll just leave out the cream cheese since we don't have anymore. I didn't use the amount of cream cheese called for since 1. I didn't have it and 2. we've tried similar layers with cream cheese in jello salads and have not liked it at all. So, this is a variation for our house. I thought the instructions were easy, I froze each layer in between, started the jello first so it had time to cool, and did not have any seepage even though the strawberries created lumps (note: spoon in the jello layer, don't dump like I did!). Thanks for the recipe!

The proportions seemed off in this recipe, even after I added extra whip cream and strawberries on top of the gelatin layer the pretzels still seemed overpowering. Next time I intend to try it with graham crackers instead to see if the tastes go together better.