More Uses for Too-Ripe Bananas: "Banana Cubes"

Written Tuesday, February 23rd, 2010 by Penny Hawkins

I am always on the lookout for new ways to use up food rather than throwing it away, and it makes me feel great when I can avoid waste. One of the foods I have the hardest time with is bananas. It seems I am always fighting against them for some reason...those suckers just get ripe faster than I can use them and I hate throwing them out! But, as you may recall from my last post about using "too-ripe" bananas, there is only so much banana bread one family can stand!

Not buying them is not an option for us...my hubby, the triathlete, has one almost daily in his smoothies, and my youngest grandson will eat them until you make him stop (or until he...well...you know). I have tried estimating how many we need for the week and purchasing accordingly, but most weeks I either run out or get stuck with 2 or 3 "too ripe" bananas!

So, what can I do with those darn overly-ripe bananas? Some people say to stick them in the freezer whole and use them for banana bread in the future. Now maybe it's just me, but there is something about seeing those lifeless, blackened bananas in my freezer that just creeps me out! However, I really like the idea of freezing them for later, so I came up with this solution....banana cubes!!

As I mentioned before, my hubby has a protein smoothie almost every day, and I always put a banana in it.  So, I decided to see if I could mash the ripe bananas into a kind of puree and freeze them in ice-cube trays. Well, I tried it and it worked beautifully! Just put the bananas in a dish, mash them up with your potato masher, spoon them into an ice-cube tray and freeze! I freeze them in sets of two per baggie and just pop them into the blender with my other ingredients. They work like a charm, don't turn brown, and help make his smoothie cold, thick and delicious!

So next time you wonder what to do with those pesky "too-ripe" bananas, try making some banana cubes and using them in a cool, refreshing smoothie! Here is my smoothie recipe:

Daryl's After Workout Smoothie

Add all ingredients to blender and pulse on puree setting until blended. Enjoy!

Tags: cooking tips, freezing food items, fruits, recipe ideas

This entry was posted on Tuesday, February 23rd, 2010 at 02:09 pm and is filed under How To, Quick Meal Tips, Trying Something New, Uncategorized. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.