Got Bananas, Take Two

I was cleaning up my blogs the other day, deleting the ones I started and never finished, and with just one click I accidentally deleted the banana blog that I had just written!  Dang, why isn't there a do-over button on this site?!

So here is my re-write:
The other morning my husband looked at our banana situation (he eats a banana every morning) and said "last night these were green and today they are turning brown".  I struggle with having some ready-to-eat bananas for his daily fix, and buying bananas that are not-ready-to-eat but will soon be ready-to-eat. 

Ripe or over-ripe?

I oftentimes would take overripe bananas and turn them into some delicious baked good, like my sister Mary Lou's Banana Bread.  Since so many people now avoid baked goods, that isn't always a viable solution. 

Of course you can freeze the bananas, but I am disgusted with the liquid-like mess they become.  And in the interest of full disclosure I will admit to finding blackened bananas in my freezer that were beyond use.  I think I could find that in the freezers of many well intentioned cooks!

 

However, if you want to save your bananas in the freezer, who am I to stop you?  I find unpeeled frozen bananas particularly unappealing, so be sure to peel them before freezing.  

Here is my newest discovery for the overripe banana dilemma.  Peel your bananas and cut them into chunks.

Put the chunks onto a flat pan or plate and freeze them for several hours or overnight. 

When you remove these from the freezer you can put them all together in one container, such as a plastic bag, and they will remain separate from one another so that you can take out as many pieces as you want.  Because they are cut up they will also thaw faster, but we love to use them frozen.

Here are some suggestions:

If you have a high speed blender, put several chunks of banana in and turn on as high as it goes for a couple of minutes, until smooth.  Voila!  Banana ice Cream!  Really, you do not need to add anything else, but chocolate sauce and peanut butter might be nice.

Make a Banana Split, smoothie style.  Add strawberries (fresh, frozen, jam), pineapple, chocolate sauce and yogurt or ice cream.  Turn on the blender and mix until smooth and ready to spoon or drink, depending upon the thickness you are after.  You can add milk if it's too thick.

Throw a few chunks into any fruit smoothie.  Bananas make them taste better!

Pull out one or two chunks and eat as is--frozen.  Or dip into the peanut butter and coat with some mini chocolate chips.  This is a great little snack but keep it a secret unless you have a LOT of frozen bananas.  They will disappear in no time!

Try these ideas out! Let me know what you come up with!