Banana Sandwich Loaf: for the Bread Machine

Extended Shelf Life for: Bananas

I don't know if you were able to make necessary assumptions, however we had a recent influx of bananas and after I preserved them every way I know how and took a chance on Banana Vinegar, I still had a few 'fresh' ones to use and opted to break out the ole bread maker and do a fine yeast bread.

Before I dish out the recipe, let me tell you that if you own and use a bread machine, you should get your hands on the cookbook: The Bread Lover's Bread Machine Cookbook. Seriously, if you've struggled with baking bread in a bread machine (especially at high altitude) this book will revolutionize your world and make bread machine baking a breeze! It's probably fantastic even if you're not at high altitude...yep, I'm sure it is actually.

Anyway, here is a recipe I made recently from this book (without any high altitude adjustments, however, if you go here, you'll find some helpful tips for high altitude), and it was a winner, especially with my recent Crockpot Apple Butter -- oh the joys of home-made things!

Ingredients/Directions:

Place the following ingredients into  the bread pan according to manufacturer's directions (mine requires all the wet ingredients to go in first, followed by dry).

1 cup water, 1 Tbsp. Vegetable Oil, 1 ripe Banana (cut into chunks), 3 cups Bread Flour (or all-purpose flour), 1/4 cup dry Buttermilk Powder (or plain milk powder), 1 Tbsp. Vital Wheat Gluten, 1 1/2 tsp. Salt, 2 tsp. Yeast. Set crust to medium and begin Basic Cycle. When cycle is finished, remove from pan, cool and slice! (This is for the 1 1/2-lb. Loaf).

Banana Vinegar

Extended Shelf life for: Bananas (peels specifically)

Much like apple cider vinegar and fruit cocktail vinegar, Banana Vinegar is simply the mixing of banana peels with a 1 quart to 1/4 cup sugar water mix until full. One week of fermenting as is followed by straining and a few more weeks of fermentation and you should wind up with a nice vinegar.

However, at this point, I'm not too confident that this vinegar is going to turn out well. It smells stranger than previous vinegars and has had a really eerie white gunk floating on the top...so, I'll keep you posted!

Preservation Secret: Freezing Tomatoes and Bananas

Extended Shelf Life for: Tomatoes

When holidays with the family come to end, it's inevitably time to start diving again ^^

Fortunately, there's always a wealth of ingredients to be had and we've been at it for so long that I've developed a few tricks of the trade and preservation secrets.

For Tomatoes:

I love to roast my tomatoes for about 20-30 minutes at about 400 F. When you take them out of the oven the skins are easy to remove and a lot of the unnecessary, seedy liquid has drained from them. At this point, I run them through a food processor or our juicer (on the mincing cycle), bag them and freeze them. I'm increasingly passionate about this process and method, especially after reading that even farmers won't eat canned tomatoes because the acid and the tin can are not a healthy combination!

For the Bananas:

I'm working on preserving some (the peels primarily) in the form of vinegar. However, this is about freezing, and bananas are easy to freeze. I've done two-three different things for freezing bananas.

If I plan to make banana bread, pancakes or any other mashed banana treat I simply mash the banana in a large mixing bowl then transfer to freezer bags, each containing about 2 cups of banana mash, the generally required amount for recipes of such sort.

I've also frozen banana 'coins' so that I can easily make banana ice-cream which goes fantastically well with banana (n)ice cream sandwiches!

And finally, I'll occasionally peel the banana and freeze whole to use in smoothies, although making coins would work just as well.

Banana Chips

Extended Shelf Life for: Bananas

As a diver, it's pretty crucial to have a dehydrator that you love.We have one that features varying temperatures which helps to ensure the best dried products possible. When it comes to drying bananas, I've discovered that the flavor and look is better if the fruit is first dipped in orange juice or another citrus juice prior to being dried. I also recently discovered that having mad chopstick skills ensures that my fingers don't get all gunky when drying bananas! Hoo-zah!

Raspberry Banana Bread

Extended Shelf Life for: Raspberries

Ingredients/Directions:

Preheat your oven to 350 F and grease one 9x5x3 loaf pan.

 In a small bowl (cereal bowl is reasonable) sprinkle about 1 cup overripe, mushy Raspberries with your 1-2 TBSP. of your choice sweetener. Let set.

In a large bowl, combine 2 cups All-Purpose Flour , 1 1/2 Tsp. Baking Powder, 1/2 Tsp. Baking Soda, 1/4 Tsp. Salt. Set aside.

In a medium bowl mix together 2 Eggs, 1 1/2 cups Bananas, 1 cup Sugar, and 1/2 cup Vegetable Oil Add egg and banana mixture to flour mixture, stirring until just moistened. Give raspberries a quick stir, breaking down any bigger berries, before folding into the bread batter.

Spoon batter into prepared loaf pan and transfer to the oven where it'll work a bit of chemistry and magic over the course of 55-65 minutes until a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean.

Learn a little more and take part in some banana bread discussions here at Squidoo!

Banana Cream Pie

Ingredients/Directions:

From Delia Creates

Prepare a single pastry crust that has been pricked at 400 F for about 12 minutes or until lightly golden.

Meanwhile, heat 3 cups of Milk in microwave for approximately 3 1/2 minutes. 

While milk is heating, combine 1/3 cup Cornstarch and 2/3 cups Sugar. Add 3 Egg Yolks to the sugar mixture. 

Add 1/2 cup of the hot milk to the egg/sugar mix, stir and gradually add remaining milk, this will be your custard. 

Continue to cook the custard in the microwave at 2-3 minute intervals, stirring in between intervals until you reach the desired consistency. Chill custard.

Layer bananas (2-4 fresh) and custard in the pie crust, chill and serve with whip cream.

I sprinkled some cinnamon and nutmeg on top of my bananas for added pizzazz!

Enjoy with friends on a weeknight card game gathering!

Peanut Butter and Chocolate Banana (n)Ice Cream Pie

Remember the Banana (n)Ice Cream sandwiches?

Well this is basically the same idea...but in Pie form.

Graham Cracker Crust - or Oreos or Nilla Wafers, anything would do.

Banana (n)Ice Cream with Peanut Butter blended in.

Banana (n)Ice Cream with Coco Powder blended in.

Crust, Peanut Butter Layer, Coco Layer = P.B. Chocolate Banana (n)Ice Cream Pie!

Keep in the freezer, let set at room temp about 20 minutes before serving for easy slicing and forking^^

Cucumber-Blueberry Smoothie

This recipe showed up in my email from Vegetarian Times and lead to immediate smoothie creation.

I kept the main theme of Blueberry meets Cucumber but added a couple of bananas, some flax seed and used honey rather than agave nectar. 

Absolutely refreshing and highly, highly recommended!

Banana Beer Bread

This just may be my crowning moment in the world of culinary goodness.

Beer Bread meets Banana Bread and it is alliterative love at first bite. 

I really had no idea how this loaf of bread would pan out, but the idea came and I had to throw it together to find out. 

It was a perfect mix of banana and beer, with an incredible meeting of the dense-ness of banana bread with the lighter, airy texture of beer/yeast breads. 

I could not have been more satisfied with the way this bread turner out - definitely helpful that I get to use my husbands home-brewed beers which are full of flavor compared to Korea's watered down brews.

Ingredients/Directions:

In a large bowl, mix together 3 cups Flour, 1 tsp. Salt, 3 Tbsp. Sugar, and 1 Tbsp. Baking Powder.  You will need a total of 8-12oz Flat Beer (I used a Belgian), add about one cup to dry mixture as well as 3 Ripe Mashed Bananas. Add additional beer as necessary to gain the proper consistency, thick and sticky, not too runny. Pour batter into a greased loaf pan, dollop 2 tbsp. of Butter on top of the raw loaf and bake at 375 F for 30-40 minutes.

Banana (n)Ice Cream Sandwiches

If you spend any time in the blogosphere or on Pinterest, you've likely seen something like this post on Banana "Ice Cream" or single-ingredient ice cream etc. You may even read some posts and discover that some people are now eating ice cream for breakfast...

How magical.

(BTW, I'm posting this weeks later, but want to note that this morning, I had a smoothie...a Pineapple Pie smoothie to be exact ^^ - I think ice cream for breakfast, whether with bananas or not is an acceptable choice)

Anyway, I decided to get in on this Banana Ice Cream action and take it up a notch by placing the mix between a couple of graham cracker like cookies.

Throw those babies in the freezer and I'm coming home for work, desperate to be cool and have a little afternoon snack. I grab one of these ice cream sandwiches and EVERY-TIME, I'm thinking to myself "I should not eat an ice cream sandwich everyday...BUT WAIT, it's not ice cream! It's banana! This is friggin' awesomeeeee!!!!!!!!!!"

Really, every time.

I've done banana plus peanut butter on chocolate lined 'cookies' (really they are graham crackers, but Korean style Digets)

I've also done banana plus watermelon slush cubes.

Both are delicious and refreshing.

Just slice up some bananas, throw in the freezer for a while.

Put them to a food processor, get on them until they turn creamy which will happen after a kind of 'gravelly' texture when the banana melts just a smidgen.

Diget Parfait

Diget's are basically the Korean version of Graham Crackers.

Layered between yogurt and bananas with a sprinkle of cinnamon and sugar, they make for a quick, easy and delicious start to the morning.

Pumpkin and Banana Spent Grain Dog Treats

I care about my dog and her health, a lot really.

I also have a husband who brews beer.

A husband who recently purchased and set up a kegerator.

Spurring a flurry of brewing.

And an abundance of spent grains.

So, I took my basic recipe for Spent Grain Dog Treats and made a couple of adaptations to get these Pumpkin and Banana Spent Grain Dog Treats - which the Lady is devouring.

In a large bowl mix 4 cups of spent grain, 2 cups of flour, 1 cup of pumpkin, 1 mashed banana and 2 eggs - you might need some additional flour to account for the moisture in the pumpkin and banana - the dough should be quite thick and require some muscle to stir. 

Next, cut into shapes or just press into a cookie sheet.  If you press into cookie sheet, use a butter knife to separate the biscuits into bit-size/treat-size pieces for your dog and cook at 350 for 30-45 minutes. Remove from oven and break apart the biscuits (unless you already cut them into shapes). 

Return to oven, reduce heat to 250 and bake for a couple of hours until they are completely dried out. 

Serve up to your pup and watch them enjoy!

Crepe Variations

Having made a batch of crepes (actually a double batch so we could enjoy some crepes throughout the week), it was time to fill them with a variety of delicious things.

We had the standard Nutella with Banana, followed by Peanut Butter, Yogurt and Banana and finally Orange Curd and Banana. I threw some powdered sugar into an empty and thorougly cleaned out spice canister and went to town sprinkling the warm little crepes with sugary good-ness.

What's you favorite way to eat crepes?

Overnight Oats Variation: Strawberry and Banana

Classic and Delicious.

Overnight Oats Variation: Banana, Peanut Butter and Honey

I bet you're thinking of a sandwich right now.

A peanut-buttery, sweet, sticky, honey and banana sandwich.

It'd be delicious. And so would this variation on Overnight Oats.

Overnight Oats + Fresh Bananas + Honey + Slightly melted Peanut Butter.
Sprinkle a little flaxseed on top.

Breakfast perfection.

Overnight Oats Variation: Banana Bread Inspired

One of the latest Overnight Oats variations that was hit at the Harrington's breakfast table was a Banana Bread Inspired mix of fresh bananas, walnuts, a shake of brown sugar and shake of cinnamon!

Overnight Oats will never disappoint.

Banana Nut Rice Porridge

Breakfast is big deal in our home. So is using up whatever random ingredients may be living in our refrigerator and may potentially need to be getting on out of there quickly. Needing to be booted from the fridge this weekend was some rice from a recent dinner of Kimchi Chigae.

If you've scrolled through any of my more recent posts, you may notice I have a slight obsession with Rice Pudding. So, when I was reading through a cookbook on my Kindle and noticed a Rice Cereal/Rice Porridge, I knew I was in for some recipe inspiration!

Saturday morning in Daejeon, South Korea was as rainy as could possibly be making for the perfect opportunity and weather to enjoy a hot bowl of porridge. Throw in some banana and walnut and you're nearing on tastebud ecstasy!

Ingredients/Directions:
Adapted from eBook Superfoods: Simple Breakfast Recipes

In a small sauce pan heat 2 cups prepared rice (brown is recommended, but white will serve the same purpose however less nutritionally) and 2 cups of milk. Boil this mixture until it begins to thicken, stirring occassionally (about 5 minutes). Reduce heat to medium and add 1/3 cup Sugar and 1/2 tsp. Grated Orange Peel, cook an additional 5 minutes until flavors blend and porridge thickens a bit more. Remove pan from heat and add 2 tsp. Vanilla Extract and the following spices to taste/per preference: Cinnamon, Cloves, and Allspice (Personally, I go heavier on the cinnamon and light on the cloves and allspice). Serve porridge into bowls, top with one sliced Banana per serving and a handful of crushed Walnuts, an extra shake of cinnamon and enjoy with your breakfast drink of choice!

 
Find more sweets for your weekends and day-to-day...
 

Overnight Oats Variation: Orange Curd and Banana

Excuse the horrible picture, I just wanted to let you know that Overnight Oats, topped with a sliced banana and a spoonful or two of Orange Curd is a fantastic way to start the morning.

Enjoy!

Sour Cream Walnut Banana Bread

Some of my yogurt didn't turn out that well. It was a bit more like sour cream than yogurt. But of course, I don't let that phase me, I just use that as inspiration, because truthfully, there are a lot of things I'd like to do with sour cream...like make Enchiladas...or Banana Bread!

Ingredients/Directions:
Adapted from Closet Cooking

Mix together, 1 3/4 cups all-purpose flour, 1 tsp. baking soda, 1/4 tsp. salt and 1/2 tsp. cinnamon. Cream together 1/2 cup room temperatur butter and 3/4 cup brown sugar. To the butter/sugar mixture add 2 beaten eggs, 1/2 cup sour cream (or yogurt) and 3 mashed overripe bananas. Mix dry and wet ingredients together. Stir in 1/2 cup chopped walnuts. Bake in a loaf pan at 350*F (177*C) for 60-70 minutes.

Nutella Oatmeal Banana Bread

Remember this?

Well...I wanted banana bread. Wanted the joy of Nutella IN my banana bread. AND wanted to make a recipe from one of my Kindle Cookbooks...because it makes me feel cool, and happy to have a Kindle with Cookbooks.  Because I love Cookbooks.  And every cookbook on my Kindle was free.  And I really love free.

So from the 'pages' of the Gooseberry Patch Thanksgiving Cookbook (cooklet) comes Banana and Walnut Bread minus the Walnuts and Blueberries, plus Nutella.

Ingredients/Directions:

In a large bowl cream together 1/2 cup Butter and 1 cup Sugar.  Add 2 Eggs, one at a time and mix well after each addition; stir in 1 cup of Mashed Banana.  In separate bowl (or not, depending on your perfectionist streak) sift together 1 1/2 cups Flour, 1 tsp. Baking Soda, 1/4 tsp. Salt and 1/4 tsp. Cinnamon.  Fold in 1/2 cup Quick-Cooking Oats (uncooked).  Mix dry with wet if necessary, just until moistened.  Pour half the batter into a greased bread loaf pan, plop in 2-3 spoonfuls of Nutella, swirl, pour in rest of batter, plop in 2-3 more spoonfuls of Nutella, swirl and bake. 350 degrees for 50-55 minutes until center is done. Enjoy with a glass of milk, for breakfast and/or dessert and/or after-school snack.