The Rainy Day Baker takes on bananas

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:

1. 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.
2. 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.
3. If I only have one banana, I will make another Banana Snack Cake: Monkey Bars. This tastes like banana bread and are very moist.
4. 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.
5. 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.

Peanut Butter Oatmeal Chocolate Chunk Cookies

A mildly stressful day today. Three tornado sirens for three separate storms. The children and I spent a some time huddled together in our "safe place." Fortunately, the major stuff went around us. We had heavy rain, some pea-sized hail and a bit of wind. Communities to the west and north of us had tornadic activity and very strong winds. We heard several reports of trees blocking the highways and homes lifted from their foundations. Injuries were few and no deaths reported, thank the Lord.

Rainy days always make me want to spend some quality time with my Kitchenaid mixer. Today "old blue" and I mixed up a batch of Peanut Butter Oatmeal Chocolate Chunk Cookies. I've had this recipe in my collection since 1998 (so says the date stamp on the print out). My sister made these for a family gathering (4th of July maybe?) and I was smitten. Chocolate and peanut butter is one of my favorite flavor combinations. (I <3 Reese's Peanut Butter Cups.) There used to be a candy that I loved that was like a Reese's Pieces, but was half chocolate and half peanut butter. For years I thought I was just making them up. No one I asked could remember them. But I found them!

S

Sadly, they are no longer manufactured and peanut butter M&M's just don't compare. Anyway, I don't know that the recipe is available online anymore, either, so I'll just include it here.

Peanut Butter Oatmeal Chocolate Chunk Cookies

2 cups quick cooking oats - uncooked
1 1/4 cups all-purpose flour
1 tsp. baking powder
1 tsp. baking soda
1/4 tsp. salt
1 cup butter
1 cup peanut butter
1 cup granulated sugar
1 cup firmly packed brown sugar
2 large eggs
1 tsp. vanilla
1 (10-12oz) package semi-sweet chocolate chunks (or chips)

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. In a medium bowl, combine the oats, flour, baking powder, baking soda, and salt. Set aside. In a large bowl, combine the butter and peanut butter with an electic mixer until smooth. Beat in the sugar and brown sugar until blended. Add the eggs and vanilla. At low speed, beat in the flour mixture just until combined. Stir in the chocolate chips. If necessary, refrigerate the dough 15 minutes until easy to handle. Roll tablespoons of dough onto an ungreased cookie sheet. Bake 12 minutes until lightly browned. Remove from oven and cool on wire racks.
Makes 6 dozen.

Note: With a 2 tablespoon scoop and considerable snitching of the dough, I made 4 dozen. These make great ice cream sandwiches, too. :)

P.S. If you love this flavor combination, too, Stephanie O'Dea -- aka The Crockpot Lady -- posted a recipe this week for Slow Cooker Peanut Butter Cup Cake. I can't wait to give that one a try. :)