Recently my housemate Liv and I have been experimenting with bananas in recipes and I wanted to share some of our ideas! As a student, it can be hard to get your five a day, and sometimes it seems easier to buy a packet of breakfast biscuits than make something healthy. After going home for the weekend and coming back to find a bunch of over-ripe bananas, I needed a quick solution, so here’s some of the things I found:
1. The obvious: Banana cookies
Banana, peanut butter and chocolate chip to be precise. These are seriously tasty! Don’t worry if they’re a little on the soft on the inside when you take them out of the oven – they will firm up and will be lovely and chewy!
- 125g mashed banana – basically 2 bananas I’d say!
- 130g peanut butter – try and buy the unsalted version to cut down on the calories!
- 70g dark brown soft sugar – sadly a little pricey, sorry….
- 100g caster sugar – if you can’t afford dark brown soft sugar, you could just use 170g of caster, it won’t make too much difference!
- 1.5 teaspoons of vanilla extract – not hugely necessary?
- 165g plain flour
- 1 tablespoon of baking powder
- 40g chocolate chips – 40g is a rough guideline, you may want to add more/less depending on what a chocoholic you are!
Cook for 15 mins on gas mark 5/190C! ENJOY!
2. Banana pancakes
I don’t just mean pancakes with banana on top, oh no! These are seriously healthy, energising pancakes you don’t need to feel guilty for!! They’re a great way to make a healthy breakfast feel naughty, and go great with blueberries and honey! This recipe makes 4 medium size pancakes.
Ingredients:
- 2 eggs
- 1 banana
- Yes, that’s it!
Method:
- Mash the banana. You can’t be lazy with this, you’ve got to keep mashing until its very runny! The more you mash the more like normal pancakes they taste.
- Add two eggs and whisk
- You could add cocoa powder and/or honey and whisk at this stage for an extra sweet taste!
- Pour the mixture into a frying pan with hot butter as you would with a normal pancake.
- Add your favourite toppings and enjoy!
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| Photo credit: Liv Ingram (she makes them better than me!) |
3. Nice-Cream (credit to Liv Ingram yet again!)
What’s nice-cream, I hear you ask? Trust in the banana and you’ll find out.
Ingredients:
- Bananas (yes, again, didn’t you read the title?)
- Cocoa powder
Method:
- Mash the banana (well!!!)
- Add cocoa powder and whisk
- I know it looks unappetising, but bung it in the freezer overnight and trust me!
- Serve with fruit, chocolate sauce, cake, anything! (Maybe not cake, this is supposed to be a healthy recipe!!
I hope you’ve enjoyed the recipes and give them a go. Follow these recipes to say goodbye to sadly binning over-ripe bananas.
Got any more ideas? Comment below, I’d love to give them a try! X
