5 Ways to Use Ready to Eat (Now!) Bananas

Ever find yourself with more bananas than you can eat before they start to brown? Ever wanted to take advantage of a good sale on bananas, but weren't sure how you'd use them all? Here are 5+ ideas for those ready-to-eat (now!) bananas.

1. Banana Bread

The recipe I used combined all-purpose and whole wheat flour.  I didn't think it was sweet enough (for me) at first, but the more I munched the more I liked what I was munching.  It was a good platform for blueberry-lemon-honey fruit spread, too.  Here's the super easy recipe:

• 8 tbsp (1 stick) butter, at room temp.
  
• 3/4 cup sugar
  
• 2 eggs
  
• 1 cup all-purpose flour
  
• 1 tsp baking soda
  
• 1/2 tsp salt
  
• 1 cup whole wheat flour*
  
• 3 large ripe bananas, mashed
  
• 1 tsp vanilla (how I make it)

Preheat oven to 350 degrees, grease 9x5x3" bread pan.  Cream butter and sugar until light and fluffy (I used a KitchenAid Classic stand mixer).  Add eggs one at a time, beating well after each addition.  Add all-purpose flour, baking soda, salt, and whole wheat flour to cream mixture, mixing a bit after each addition.  Mix well.  Fold in bananas and vanilla.  Pour mixture into pan, bake 50 to 60 min. or until cake tester comes out clean - cool in pan 10 minutes, on rack.  Makes one loaf.

*I mill my wheat flour using a WonderMill.  In this recipe I used what I had on hand, which was flour from organic hard white wheat berries.

 

2.  Banana Jam

I had never heard of banana jam before reading this post at Confessions of an Overworked Mom.  It sounded delicious, and it's something that may be preserved with water bath canning.  I gave it a go and was not disappointed.  It's swe-eet, though.  I might lower the sugar amount next time, cuz there will be a next time.  Here's the recipe (adapted from Ellen's, linked above):

• 2 cups mashed bananas (about 4-5)
  
• 2 cups sugar
  
• 2 tbsp lemon juice

Put all ingredients in a pan (I used a 12-inch nonstick skillet) and simmer on medium-low heat, stirring occasionally, until bananas are broken down to your liking. I like some texture, but still want it to spread easily.  Know what I mean?

Now let the jam roll at a full boil 5-6 minutes.  Everything will reduce and thicken.  Ladle jam into jar or jars.  I got a bit over 12 oz.

3.  Chocolate, Peanut Butter, & Banana Smoothie

I've been making this off and on for more than a year.  It's got enough good for you stuff to be a nice breakfast or snack.  Yet it's got enough chocolate flavor that I had it for dessert just last night!

Click here for the Chocolate, Peanut Butter & Banana Smoothie recipe!

4.  Blueberry Banana Cake Donuts

These came about when I planned to make some blueberry donuts and at the last minute decided to throw in an overripe banana.  Good stuff happened there – moist, tender, blueberry freshness, with a hint of banana.

Click here for the Blueberry Banana Cake Donuts recipe!

5.  Strawberry Banana Soup

Ok.  I know "soup" is a poor choice for this often made traditional dessert.  You could think of it as a sauce.  If you want to make an angel food cake a little more special, add this strawberry banana mixture.  It wouldn't hurt to top your ice cream with it, either.

All you do is slice up a bunch of strawberries and bananas.  Toss them in a bowl with some sugar and fruit juice.  Just enough of each to bring out the natural juice of the strawberries.  It really is yummy all by itself.

There you have it! 5 ways to use some ready-to-eat (now!) bananas…But I did type 5 plus in the opening paragraph, didn't I? Well, don't forget banana pudding.  The best way is to go all out and make the custard from scratch, of course, but I was short on time the first night we procured the bananas.  So semi-homemade it was.

Get some banana (or vanilla) pudding mix and whip it up.  Get a bowl and layer the following:  vanilla wafers, pudding, and sliced bananas.  Then repeat until the bowl is full or your ingredients are gone.  You have a pretty nice trifle style dessert.

And last, but by no means least, I really enjoy sliced bananas in my breakfast cereal.  Sounds obvious, but you'd be surprised how many times I forget to take this simple step to enrich my morning when I'm in a hurry.

Now the next time you see those marked down several pounds bag of bananas in the produce department, have no fear.  You have at least 5 (or 7) ways to use them!

Shared at Clever Chicks Blog Hop, Simple & Sweet Fridays, Freedom Fridays, The Homemaking Party, Tuesdays Rubies, Happiness is Homemade, and Tuesdays with a Twist.

Disclosure: This post contains affiliate links, which means I may receive a very small commission if you click a link and buy something. This helps support my mountain homestead dream as well as my blogging activities, and the price you pay will be no different than if you arrived at the same destination through any other link. My opinions are my own, to be sure. If I link to a product and say I like it -- I truly like it! Thanks for reading, following, and supporting Stephlin's Mountain.

From my mountaintop to yours!

Rice Pudding and (Real!) Caramel Sauce

I like to bake. It's actually what I do for a living -- in a production dominated setting with not a lot of play time. But, truth be told, I don't do it at home often enough. I'm trying rectify that.

So, to get started, I simply walked into my pantry and opened up the first cookbook I saw. My guy really enjoys cooking the savory, so the book on top was one of his faves: Three Guys from Miami Cook Cuban. I didn't expect to find much in the way of desserts, as that section is a bit small. I was proven wrong, however. I adore rice pudding (without raisins) so that was an easy pick. A couple of pages later was a caramel sauce recipe (which I have never made unless you count unwrapping the candies and melting them), so I knew I had found my first endeavor. Since this is a Cuban cookbook, it's officially called Arroz con Leche and Dulce de Leche Salsa.

Here we go!

Rice Pudding ingredients (pg. 198):
1/2 cup uncooked rice
1 1/2 cups water
1 lemon rind (I omitted this)
1 cinnamon stick
5 cups whole milk
1/4 tsp. salt
1 tsp. vanilla extract
1 1/4 cup white cane sugar (I used regular granulated)
ground cinnamon (I didn't use since I was making the caramel sauce)

I cooked the rice and water with the cinnamon stick for about 15 minutes. The directions suggest you skim off any excess water, but I had very little (as I believe is the correct result). They also say to remove the cinnamon stick, but I did not. Left it in for the entire cooking time.

I next added the milk, salt, vanilla extract, and sugar to the rice. The directions say to cook it uncovered over low heat for 45 minutes to an hour. It's probably my stove, but it took waaay longer than that for me. I eventually turned it up to get it going, then turned it down when it showed signs of thickening. Be sure to stir it often so there's no burning.

Almost done!

On to the caramel sauce! (a.k.a. the Star of the Show)

Ingredients (pg. 203):
1 cup sugar
1/2 cup water
3 tbsp. light corn syrup
8 tbsp. butter
1 1/4 cup heavy cream

Since I had never truly made caramel sauce before, I followed the recipe to a T. There was a whole lot of boiling and stirring -- my arm got quite tired -- but I will never take the short cut on caramel sauce again. I promise you, it's that good.

My warped whisk worked just fine!

I did take the advice of the Three Guys and put the cooled caramel sauce in a glass container so it will be easy to microwave. This stuff is yu-um. I know I ate far too much of it alone with a spoon. BTW, it was good with the rice pudding, too! :-)

I didn't have any cute, dainty bowls handy -- my
Peacock Fiestaware had to do!

Shared at the Homestead Barn Hop, Homemade Mondays, Tuesdays With a Twist, and Tasty Tuesdays.

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Disclosure: This post contains an affiliate link, which means I may receive a very small commission if you click the link and buy something. This helps support my blogging activities, and the price you pay will be no different than if you arrived at the same destination through any other link. My opinions are my own, to be sure. If I link to a product and say I like it -- I truly like it! :-) Thanks for reading and following Stephlin's Mountain.