Rainy Day Ponderings … or Freezing Bananas
I love bananas … I could eat 2 or 3 a day as I attempt to meet the recommended daily number of fruit servings. However, not unlike Goldilocks, I am very picky about the ripeness factor of my bananas. I probably like them greener than most people, almost “crisp” if a banana can be such a thing.
You can only make so many loaves of banana bread! I’ve even been known to share what I consider to be bananas-ripe-beyond-edibleness with Jen and her family (who live conveniently right down the street) or take them into work.
I bought some bananas yesterday – they had just the right amount of green and I’ve already eaten a couple. By tomorrow they will be “too ripe” on the ripeness scale! The reason I bought new bananas yesterday is because I had bought a large bunch prior to last weekend thinking I would do some baking before a good friend came to visit. Well, I did bake, but made those yummy Butterscotch Brownies again and some Irish Soda Bread muffins for our St. Patrick’s Day dinner … no banana recipes! So, I had six ripe, but not yet mushy, bananas sitting on my counter … Jen and the kids are out of town and the college is closed for spring break – I couldn’t bring myself to just throw them away, so what to do? I’ve frozen over-ripe mushy whole bananas still in the peel before, which is convenient for future banana bread or muffins, but needed another plan.
I follow the Freezing Your Way Fit blog of one of Jen’s friends (the source of that yummy hummus recipe). Her post on “Unleashing the Power of Your Freezer” under “Getting Started” helped me change the way I was saving leftovers; previously a large container of frozen leftover soup would eventually be thrown away to make room for something else (and probably was harboring some bacteria since larger portions take longer to freeze), but small individual portions go with me to work for lunch … saving time and money! This past year I’ve lost over 50 lbs. (and kept it off without denying myself treats) by doing two things – trying to eat healthy and adding some minimal exercising to my daily routine. Instead of eating half of a pie, my guilty pleasure now is sucking down a frozen fruit/Greek yogurt/honey smoothie!
Back to the bananas … I wondered if they could be frozen in a manner which would be convenient for adding to my smoothies? Yep, it worked! I knew if I just sliced and threw them into a bag they would probably end up in a sticky lump so I sliced and then froze them individually overnight on a cookie sheet. They didn’t even turn brown.
This morning I divided the frozen little nuggets into six freezer bags.
And, then put the six small bags into a larger labeled bag (wouldn’t do any good if I just lost them in the freezer!).
Who would’ve thought I could write a whole post just about bananas? :-) Rain is pounding down outside today, our last day of spring break … I think I saw some split pea soup in the freezer this morning.
Enjoy!
March 23rd, 2012
Another fun thing to do with frozen bananas, is stick them in a food processor with a little low-fat plain yogurt…instant banana ice cream. Super yum!