What To Do With Nearly Bad Bananas: A Runner’s Dilemma

I have a “no freggie left behind” policy in this house.

Which is to say that EVERY fruit and vegetable will find a way to be used before it goes bad. However, sometimes unexpected trips pop up or for no reason at all your bananas magically turn from green to brown while you slumber.

There are of course a plethora of things you could do…but here are three that I’ve done lately, so I thought I’d share some healthy banana recipes!!QUICKIES
You’re heading out for vacation and suddenly realize you’ve got too many bananas left…don’t you dare throw them out! I’m going to give you some easy recipes today and ideas for enjoying all that yellow goodness.

Almost Bad Bananas:

1. Green Smoothies: Blend it, freeze it, love it. — use up all your leftovers! you can freeze green smoothies then thaw and drink the same day you return home
2. Chop the bananas up so you can toss the min smoothies later or use them in recipes below.
3. MUST peel the bananas
4. Ideal to slice and freeze on wax paper, then move to a freezer friendly container
5. Lazy like me? Just toss them into a freezer bag, then you can hit the bag to  break them apart when needed later
6. Put bananas that aren’t bad yet in the fridge to extend their life – the skin will change but the banana won’t turn brown

Too Green Bananas:

1. Over on 250 Degrees will do it in a jiffy (15 minutes)
2. Set them over the fridge or somewhere warm for a couple of days
3. Keep em’ green longer with those green vegetable bags you see!
4. Keep em’ green longer by wrapping saran wrap around the stem

BANANA ICE CREAM
Everyone has been raving about this 1 ingredient dessert for years, so I finally gave it a try. And…well it’s fine, but I can’t say that it changed my life as I’ve heard others rave. Maybe I need to try a little more variety so here are a few fun recipes I found:

• Skinny mocha Banana Crunch Ice Cream from Whole & Heavenly Oven
• Tropical Banana Ice Cream from Five Heart Home
• Chocolate Peanut Butter Pretzel Banana Ice Cream from Athletic Avocado
• Raspberry Swirl Banana Ice Cream from Well and Full
• Mint Chocolate Banana Ice Cream from Rawberry Fields

HEALTHY BANANA BREAD
I don’t bake, we’ve covered that numerous times here. BUT I know that ripe bananas are perfect for banana bread so I set out in search of a good recipe and came upon Flourless Banana Muffins from Running With Spoons!

I stuck to her recipe 80%. I swapped flaxseed for a little Hempseed Protein Powder, used Udi’s Gluten Free Oats, Once Again Nut Butter and I didn’t measure anything, yet still freaking amazing. Her recipe said it made 9 muffins, but I only had a 6 muffin tin so they were slightly larger and thus much more to David’s liking (he thinks my mini treats are just silliness). FREEZE TIPS
Since my banana muffins were larger and I didn’t want to eat them all in 1 sitting, I looked up some info on freezing baked goods!!

1. Always allow it to totally cool before wrapping (prevents soggy or freezer burn food).
2. Set dessert in freezer for 20-30 minutes (without being wrapped)
3. Wrap in plastic and the put inside a ziploc bag
4. Remove all air from bag (you can do this with a straw or just do your best)
5. Pull out and put in fridge when ready to eat!

More Healthy Banana Recipes!!
Blueberry Freezer Pancakes from Rocket Fuel
Chocolate Covered Frozen Bananas {Dairy Free} – RTTF
3 Ingredient Banana Donuts from Healthy Diva Life
Paleo Breakfast Bread from The View From Great Island
Healthy Banana Carrot Muffins from Ceara’s Kitchen {pictured below}
Tropical Banana Coconut Bars from Chronicles of PassionWhat are your FAVORITE banana recipes?

How often do you eat bananas?

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**Scientific evidence suggests, but does not prove, that eating 1.5 ounces per day of most nuts, such as peanuts, as part of a diet low in saturated fat and cholesterol and not resulting in increased caloric intake may reduce the risk of heart disease. This post was sponsored by Planters, all opinions and info are my own.