Monday, December 1, 2008

Banana Surplus

Buying bananas is always an adventure for us.  We go through a lot of bananas in our family, and we all like to eat them when they have a little bit of a greenish tint to the peel.  What makes it interesting is that we only go grocery shopping once a week (at our military commissary, 40 minutes away).  Most of the time we get lucky, and we can get pounds and pounds of mostly-green bananas that will last almost a week, but occasionally we have to buy yellow ones.  (I know, horrible, isn't it?!?)  While I am grateful that we CAN buy bananas, no matter what stage of ripeness they have reached, those rapidly ripening yellow bananas often don't get eaten.  And I HATE throwing away food!

Freezing them whole didn't work, and I don't have a food dehydrator...yet.  So I cut them into slices, arrange them on a plate, and stick them in the freezer.  When they're frozen, I transfer them to a freezer bag (or container).  My favorite banana bread recipe calls for 3 mashed bananas, so I try to keep them three bananas to a bag.  The frozen slices thaw quickly when I'm ready to bake, and they work great for using in smoothies, too!

(Have you discovered Kitchen Tip Tuesdays hosted by TammysRecipes.com yet?!?  Go visit!)

2 comments:

Lynn said...

I do this too. It works great.

Hanna said...

I always freeze my bananas whole. I thaw them out on the counter, snip off the end and squeeze them out into the bowl to make the banana bread! Works like a charm. Oh, and you can speed ripen bananas that aren't green (you really shouldn't even buy them if they're green) by preheating the oven to 400 degrees and sticking them in for about 10 minutes. Sweet and luscious bananas pronto for banana bread - REALLY punches up the flavor. Americas Test Kitchen talks about it quite a bit and also has an EXCELLENT recipe for the banana bread.