It’s officially the first day of zero waste week and one food that people often waste are bananas. You have to keep a close eye on bananas as they can quickly turn brown and icky on you when you’re not looking. I like my bananas slightly green and hard without any smell but Mr Ecochick only likes them yellow. John and Gabriel will pretty much eat them in any state so that works well to keep the waste down. Though for baking the blacker the better I say! I thought I’d share some great “use it up” recipes if your bananas get darker than you would like.
Here is my yummy banana and cranberry muffins that are yummy to eat hot, cold and freeze really well. So they are great to make a double match one for now and one for the freezer.
Almond banana yoghurt tea bread is a quick and easy recipe that can be made the night before an event.
Banana pikelets are a great way to use up bananas and eggs and are a quick healthy diary and gluten free snack.
Banana jam or monkey butter as some people call it is yummy and can be made with bananas at any stage of ripeness.
Breakfast protein shakes are yummy and healthy and can be made out of any left over fruit. We like to add bananas.
What to do with all those banana peels? You can use them when you plant your tomatoes or under rose bushes. You can also bury banana peels under trees or plants that are susceptible to aphid attacks. I’m going to bury my peels under my plum and lime trees.
If worst comes to worst and you can’t use the bananas in time simply have a large plastic bag in the freezer and throw your old bananas in. I recommend putting them in a plastic bag as they will taint all nearby food if they aren’t separated (banana flavoured burger buns doesn’t go well with lettuce and eggs). Then when you need bananas just take them out of the bag and defrost them for any of the recipes above. To defrost leave out in the sink overnight or put in the microwave or put in a tub of hot water. What do you do with those over ripe bananas? or how else do you use up bananas?
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