What to do With Extra Bananas

Extra bananas sound like a joke when you consider we shop in bulk to feed our large family. 5 pounds of bananas will disappear when we get in the door easy. We love bananas so much we even grew our own in Florida. Still, we occasionally get lucky and find a killer deal at the local fruit market and buy more than we can use so we can save money later. When that happens I have to get a bit creative about what to do with the extra bananas.

Freezing Bananas

If you find yourself with a deal and a large chunk of bananas on your hands you have a few options to use them up. My favorite option is to freeze extra bananas. These frozen banana chunks can be eaten as a frozen snack, tossed into a smoothie, or thawed for banana bread.

Freezing Banana slices is easy. Simple Cut, line up on a tray and freeze. Once frozen solid remove from tray and place in airtight freezer bags. This is so simple and my favorite way to freeze them. They make the perfect cooling option for a hot batch of your favorite oatmeal for a young child or toddler. They are great for snacks on a hot summer day when you need to feed your family without heating your house.

For a fun, frozen treat cut bananas in half, freeze then dip in chocolate and return to the freezer. You can make this a great frozen Popsicle by adding a Popsicle stick to each half banana.

For a great toddler or even dog treat slice in half then halve each half into long strips and freeze. These are perfect for teething toddler hands or handing to your dog on a hot summer day.

When freezing bananas always be sure to remove the peel or the bananas will come out brown and mushy. Use frozen bananas still frozen in anything they must have a nice pale yellow color for.

Drying Bananas

Drying bananas is a great way to preserve extra bananas. While using a dryer for such sweet fruit can get dicey so use a tray liner to help keep the mess at bay. Slice into rounds or small thin strips, and place evenly on your dehydrator trays. This process takes 8 to 12 hours. Trays should be rotated often.

How to can bananas

Bananas aren’t something you can just throw in a jar and process, but they’re also not completely useless when it comes to canning. Bananas can be used to make banana butter for canning without leaving you with a weird texture. 

What to make with extra bananas?

Use as an egg substitute for your baking. Everything from cake to brownies can be made with bananas as an egg substitute. For every egg, you want to replace, mash up your banana and use 1/4 cup mashed banana.

Homemade banana pudding. To use up your bananas, try flavoring homemade pudding with bananas and then layering it with pudding. This is a fast and effective way to use up bananas.

Protein shakes and smoothies. One of the best ways to use up an abundance of bananas is to use them to add flavor to smoothies and even protein shakes. The nutrients in bananas are perfect for helping you recover from workouts, so many protein shakes taste better when blended with a banana. Bananas are great for workout recovery.

Add bananas to salads. Generally, bananas don’t come to mind when you think of a salad other than maybe a fruit salad, but bananas actually make a tasty and sweet addition to your favorite salads, and they pair particularly well with baby spinach.

Banana pancakes. Blending bananas with eggs and frying them on a skillet can make a great pancake substitute. By replacing processed flour with fruit, this recipe reduces carbs and gets you a healthy dose of fiber.

Fried bananas. Fried bananas with cinnamon and sugar can make a great dessert or snack. If you add sugar to bananas, they will become sweeter and caramelize when fried, but you can also serve them with vanilla ice cream for a fun dessert.

Chocolate-covered bananas. Whether it’s a kid or an adult, chocolate-covered bananas are a fun treat. You can make them more interesting by adding nuts. Bananas can be sliced into small pieces or larger ones can be placed on a stick like a frozen pop to be eaten on a hot summer day.

Bananas foster. Whether you’re serving it over ice cream, oatmeal, or pancakes, this tasty treat is sure to please. You can use bananas foster as a filling for crapes and maple syrup as a substitute for waffles and french toast.

How about this Banana Sun butter Ice Cream Sandwich perfect for those with dairy restrictions.

I love these decadent dark chocolate banana bites. Hide them so you don’t have to share with the kids.

This coconut banana cream pudding here is a great option.

You can never go wrong with a simple banana bread loaf.

This blogger has the right idea with these large banana puff pastry shock all over the place

What to do when you have extra bananas?

Bananas are one of those amazing fruits most people love and kids can down them fast. If you need just a few extra days you can place them on a banana hook in the refrigerator. They will turn dark on the outside but the inside will stay fresh longer.

 Fresh Organic Bananas Approximately 3 Lbs 1 Bunch of 6-9 Bananas Banana: The Fate of the Fruit That Changed the World Hutzler 571 Banana Slicer Banana Slicer-perfect for fruit salads by Better Home LovesTown Banana Case,3 Pack Different Colors Banana Holder Outdoor Travel Cute Banana Protector Storage Box Presto 06300 Dehydro Electric Food Dehydrator Banana Bag Banana Hook – 2 Hooks Concord Foods Chocolate Banana Pop Kits, 4-ounce Kits (VALUE Pack of 6 Kits)