We are banana eaters in my house. I usually buy between 8-10 pounds of bananas a week yet we always seem to be out of them. This last week I'm not sure what happened but we have a lot of leftover bananas. The only problem is, I won't touch them if they have spots. So it's time to figure out ways to utilize all these ripe bananas!
One great way is to dehydrate them to eat for snacks or use in my Homemade Larabars. Dehydrating usually takes about 3 hours to dehydrate 10-12 bananas. Another thing you can do is peel, chunk, and freeze the bananas for smoothies or banana ice cream. One trick we've learned is that they need to be flash frozen otherwise they all stick together.
Flash Freezing Fruit
1. Line a large baking sheet with tin foil.
2. Cut the fruit down to the desired size, if necessary. I chunk my strawberries, bananas, pineapple, and mango but leave my blackberries, raspberries, and marionberries whole.
3. Place the baking sheet in your freezer. If you have a check or upright freezer, use this for about 1 hour. If you only have your fridge-freezer it takes closer to 4-5 hours to get a solid freeze.
4. Remove the baking sheet from the freezer and immediately slide all the fruit off into freezer Ziploc bags and put back in the freezer. All your hard work will go to waste if you let the fruit defrost at all.
The easiest and most satisfying way to use up spotty bananas is to make pancakes! I've tried many different banana pancake recipes and finally figured out the easiest and yummiest one.
Easy Paleo Banana Pancakes
Serves: 3, 12-15 4" size pancakes
2 ripe bananas
4 eggs
4 TBLS coconut flour
2 TBLS coconut oil, divided
1. In a blender combine all ingredients. Whirl up until combines and smooth, about 1 minute.
2. Heat a non-stick skillet or grill pan over medium heat with 1 tablespoon of coconut oil.
3. Four the batter into the skillet to make 4 inch size pancakes.
4. Wait for the edges to cook completely and the pancake to look firm before flipping, about 3 minutes.
5. Flip and cook for an additional 1 minute.
6. Serve immediately.
These are great topped with fresh fruit, some seared banana bits, warm syrup or however else you prefer your pancakes!
Curry is one of my favorite dishes since it can be done in so many different flavors but always has the perfect combination of spices. When I was pregnant with my son, curry was what I had to eat. I remember dragging my husband to the Thai restaurant down the street to sit outside in 90' weather and eat a piping hot bowl of massaman curry. Since discovering Thai food 10 years ago, we've eaten it a lot. It's one of the few cuisines that seems to be mostly gluten free so I've been able to try all sorts of dishes. I always come back to the curry though.
Since my love for Thai curry can also get a bit expensive, I've started making it myself at home. Now I know there are many different ways to make curry and as a Thai cooking novice, I go for the simple one. I purchase curry paste in tubs at the Asian store, store it in my fridge, and just combine it with coconut milk. What's great is that you can purchase all different flavors such as red, yellow, massaman, panang, or green. I've only purchased the Mae Ploy brand since that's what is available to me. My husband prefers panang so we usually make our curry from that, red or massaman.
Curried Zucchini Noodles with Sausage
Serves: 3
2 medium zucchini, spiralized (I use the Paderno Spiral Vegetable Slicer
)
1/2 red bell pepper, thinly sliced
1/2 orange bell pepper, thinly sliced
1/2 onion, thinly sliced
2 TBLS curry paste
1 can (or 2 cups) full-fat coconut milk
1/2 lb ground italian sausage
2 TBLS coconut oil
1. Heat wok over medium heat. Add coconut oil and italian sausage. Cook sausage stirring continually until cooked through. Remove from wok.
2. Add in curry paste. Using a spatula stir the paste until it starts to bubble slightly. Add in the coconut milk.
3. Reduce the curry paste and coconut milk for 5 minutes until the sauce thickens and reduces by 1/3. Make sure to stir or it will burn on the inside of the wok.
4. Once the sauce is reduced, add in the bell peppers and onions. Cook for 3-5 minutes, so they are cooked but still have a crunch. Add back in the sausage.
5. Add the zucchini noodles and toss to coat. Turn off the heat and do not cook the noodles.
6. Serve immediately.
Note: If you cook the noodles in the sauce you loose the crunchy consistency. The sauce alone will cook them a bit but the dish is not nearly as good with cooked noodles.
