Wednesday 29 January 2014

Bananas, a Fruit for all Meals : Breakfast and "ice cream"

If you're not into bananas there's probably nothing for you in this post. I'm sorry, I'll try and do better next time. But if you're still with me, read on...

I’ve almost always got bananas in the freezer. They’re in my top 5 fruits and despite eating one a day when I have them in the house, some of them don’t make it. I sometimes get bored of banana and yogurt and muesli or they get bashed about in my kit bag as I fail to eat it in favour of whatever was in the race goody bag and they start looking bruised and unappetising. Rather than throw them out I either make banana bread or break them into quarters and pop them in a freezer bag, specifically for smoothies. BUT! There are other things you can do with them and the most delicious is possibly the following.

Banana "Ice Cream"
This is a super cheats ice cream that you can make up on demand and for as big or small a serving as you want. Take your frozen bananas (1 banana is a nice after-dinner serving), put them in a blender and blitz until they become creamy. Ta-da! It's barely a recipe. It's amazing with all sorts of additions or like nut butter, salted caramel sauce… I would recommend around one tablespoon of sauce or nut butter blended in with your bananas or drizzled on top. This is really what you make of it. Nuts, meringue, chocolate chips, raspberries... anything goes.
Banana "ice-cream" with 1tbsp maple caramel sauce and 1tbsp chopped pecans
If you happen to have a banana that is still good and you're looking for a new breakfast idea, may I suggest the following:

"Weekend Porridge" (so called because I only seem to eat this on weekends as a treat or before races)
Make your porridge according to your preference on the hob or in the microwave. I use 1/3 cup oats to 1 cup liquid.
Stir 1 tbsp Nutella (or other chocolate spread. The Hotel Chocolat spreads are AMAZING if you happen to have been given one as a gift) gently into the bowl and top with a sliced banana.
The heat from the porridge turns the Nutella all melty and the closer you get to the bottom of the bowl the more chocolate and hazlenutty goodness there will be. I haven't tried this with chopped nuts as well but I reckon that'd be pretty good too.
I haven't shared my banana bread recipe here but if you would like it I'm happy to do that another time. Just let me know in the comments or on social media.

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