The other day at the grocery store when I encountered a 10 pound bag of organic bananas on clearance for 99 cents I felt that I had struck gold. There was no question of not buying it; for me, that much food for under a dollar is an automatic purchase. It wouldn't have mattered if they were pickled beets (which I hate).
But, back home with my counter overflowing with slightly over ripe bananas, I did begin to have a few doubts. What does one DO with that many bananas? I stuck about 8 bananas in the freezer to be used for banana bread at a later time but was still left with several bunches.
Thankfully, I remembered a recipe I had read a while back on moneysavingmom for peanut butter banana smoothies. I had never tried the recipe before but went ahead and peeled the bananas, sliced them into 1 inch pieces, and froze them on pieces of wax paper in my freezer. Once they were frozen I took them off the paper and condensed the pieces into a large freezer bag. (The banana pieces do not turn brown when frozen
this way)
I modified the smoothie recipe a little bit to fit our on-hand ingredients and to make it slightly more healthful. We LOVED it. It tastes very much like a banana ice cream, and it is so filling I've made it for a light lunch a couple of times.
Here is the recipe as we make it:
Banana Peanut Butter Smoothies
1 1/2 cups sliced frozen bananas
3/4 cup plain yogurt
1/2 cup milk
2 Tablespoons peanut butter
1/8 cup wheat germ
Blend in the blender until smooth.
