photo by KB
My family loves bananas. If I can, I usually buy the cheaper grab bags of ripe or loose bananas at Kroger for 10 cents cheaper per pound. These bags sometimes include organic bananas, too. We often eat them in a few days, but just as often we get a few that end up looking like this.
photo by Debasis
What to do with over ripe bananas? Here are our top five favorites:
- Banana Bread - There are lots of recipes for banana bread out in the world. I personally have about six, but our favorite by far is Classic Banana Bread. I sometimes add chopped walnuts. If I have lots of ripe bananas, I double the recipe and freeze (or give away) a loaf. The recipe makes great muffins, too.
- Banana Muffins - Again, recipes abound for banana muffins. My favorite banana muffins are these Double Chocolate Banana Muffins. I made these tonight and used peanut butter and milk chocolate chips. They were yummy and require a cold glass of milk on the side.
- If I only have one banana, I will make another Banana Snack Cake: Monkey Bars. This tastes like banana bread and are very moist.
- Of course on the simpler side there is always using them in a Fruit Smoothie - the riper they are, the sweeter your smoothie will be. Freezing the banana chunks make the smoothie nice and creamy without any yogurt.
- And the simplest thing of all is Banana Fingers - My friend Linda does this and they were a hit with the children. Simply split the ripe banana down the center into three strips. Put the strips into a baggie and freeze. Eat them while frozen. These are a great snack for toddlers.
