There’s too much bananas,

B-a-n-a-n-a-s,

What can I make with,

B-a-n-a-n-a-s?

 

My house often has too many bananas. I hate wasting food.

 

As a running household, we keep bananas at our house. We also get them from my kids’ school every week.

I loathe bananas, at least when they’re by themselves. At races, these fruits full of great recovery vitamins, such as potassium, are a staple. Most of the races I go to have bananas that are still green.

After three years of eating these green things as a way to recover after a race, I have developed a reflective palate. As in, I can’t stomach the smell of overripe bananas and almost thrown up when I eat certain foods that remind me of some my my race-day eating disasters.

Like applesauce and yogurt. They feel like those gel packs I used to eat before, during and after a race. I love applesauce, and sometimes make my own. But if the texture is too smooth, my throat and stomach can’t handle it. 

So what to do with all these bananas? I hate wasting food, so I make banana bread. It’s a filling alternative to cereal and can be as healthy or as sinful as you want to make it. The texture is a bread not bananas, another plus. Once you nail the basic recipe, you can experiment, which I do frequently.

 Like some of my other recipes, this is a vegan recipe. While the original version isn’t the healthiest, I’ll list some switches that I’ve perfected. The picture is of one of the variations, I’ll note it below. 

These banana bread muffins are made without salt and subtituted some of the flour with oatmeal and pancake mix.
 

Banana bread

2 1/4 cups all-purpose flour

1/2 cup sugar

1/2 tsp. baking soda

1/4 tsp. salt

3 bananas (I prefer the ones with really brown skins)

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Grease pan or line cupcake pan.

Mash the bananas in a bowl with a fork. Add the other ingredients and mix well. 

Fill the bread pan with the batter. For muffins, fill the liners 3/4 of the way full.

Bake until a toothpick comes out clean, about 18-20 minutes for muffins, 25-30 for bread.

Variations

  • Banana, peanut butter: Add a 1/4 cup of peanut butter to the batter.
  • Healthier flour: Replace a half cup of all-purpose flour with dry oats.
  • For photo above: I ran out of salt, so no salt; substitute 1/2 cup of all-purpose flour with a packet of plain instant oatmeal; add another banana and 1/4 cup Grain Berry pancake mix.
  • Other mix-ins: 1 Tsbp. of flax or chia seeds.

What do you do with extra bananas?