Freeze bananas for recipes – don’t let them go to waste.

This week I would like to share some of my favorite time-saving freezer kitchen tips with you, and today’s tip is how to store bananas so you have them for recipes, even when you don’t have fresh bananas on hand.

Even though I am a good cook, I don’t really like to cook, so I have found lots of little ways to make prep a little easier by doing the work ahead of time and then just pulling things right out of the freezer ready to go, like how to freeze cooked ground beef so it’s ready for taco night or green peppers so they are ready to toss in a recipe.  And because I have 3 teenagers who are always hungry, any way I can find to make cooking faster and save some money by buying meat and produce in bulk is a good thing in my book!

We love bananas at my house.

I usually buy a large bunch each week, and most of the time they all get eaten. It works out well since my oldest daughter likes bananas just past the green stage – so that when she bites into the banana it crunches. Yuck – not for me! My other daughter likes them golden yellow with NO brown spots. My hubby and son like them with a few small brown spots, and I like them with big brown spots (that’s when I think they are the sweetest).

So, like I said, we can usually eat them all before they get past the stage where even I don’t want them anymore, but sometimes there are one or two left. I hate to throw them away.  We do give some pieces to our Guinea pig and hamster, but too much is not good for them, so here is my solution on how to save up bananas for future use.

So, did you know you can freeze bananas easily?

Just throw them in the freezer, still in the peel.  They will look horrible because the peel turns black, but they are perfectly fine.

When your recipe calls for bananas, just grab what you need out of the freezer and let them thaw on the counter for about 15-20 minutes.  Note: they will get very mushy.

Once thawed, just cut the bottom off and squeeze the banana out, kind of like squeezing toothpaste out of the tube.

Yes, it looks really gross (cue the 10-year-old-boy potty humor jokes. Go ahead, I’ll wait…), but it tastes fine. And you don’t get messy hands because you are only touching the peel.

I find these thawed bananas really easy to use in my recipes for banana pancakes and banana bread, because you don’t get lumps.

The best part is you won’t have to feel guilty about throwing away perfectly good bananas when they are too ripe for the banana aficionados at your house.

So, next time you have an extra banana or two, toss in them in the freezer instead of the trash!

So now that you know how to save up those bananas, here’s my favorite recipe for banana bread.  It’s delicious and so easy – you mix up the batter in a blender!

So, I hope you find this banana freezer kitchen tip helpful. Stay tuned for some more tips later this week.

I know tips like these sure save me time when I am cooking, and money, too, since I can save a few cents per pound by buying meat and produce in bulk, and hey, when you’re feeding a family of five, every little bit helps!

Do you have any time-saving tricks of your own? I’d love to hear about them!

Happy freezing!

~Pam

P.S. Looking for some other yummy desserts? Fill out the form below to get a free downloadable copy of recipes for my 10 favorite easy desserts!