3 Banana Snack Ideas

Bananas. Mother Earth's solution for your daily intake of potassium and fiber, all zipped up into a funny lookin' yellow suit. But what if you're tired of eating bananas the same way every day? You probably don't drink 100% banana juice or eat bananasauce, so what options are there to get creative with this funny fruit? Here are three ideas on how to make bananas a little more interesting:

#1 - Sticky Slices

Start by preheating your oven to 350 and peeling your banana. If you're doing it from the long stem (where it's attached to other bananas), take some advice from the monkeys: if you squeeze it from the opposite end, it's much easier to remove!

Slice your banana and place the slices on a cookie sheet.

Sprinkle cinnamon over the slices and drizzle with honey.

Pop it in the oven for 10 minutes. When they come out, the honey will probably have gotten everywhere, just to warn you...

Don't expect these to be crunchy. They're mushy but very flavorful. Once cooled a bit, they'd be a great treat for a baby or toddler because they're great finger food!

#2 - Banana Bites

Speaking of finger food, if you prefer yours cold rather than hot, here's an option. Slice up your banana so the pieces are 1/2" thick.

Take some peanut butter and slather between two slices of banana. I found 1 banana = 16 slices or 8 banana bites.

And, if you really want to be devilish, dip it in some melted chocolate.

Place them in the freezer for 2 hours and stick 'em in a plastic bag for tasty treats later on!

#3 - Almond-Banana Smoothie

Lastly, if you don't like the texture of bananas, a smoothie might be your best bet. To make a delicious almond-banana smoothie, you'll need: 

2 sliced bananas

2 Cups of almond milk

2 Cups of ice

2 Tablespoons of packed brown sugar

1 teaspoon of vanilla extract

Nutmeg (optional)

Start by blending the first five ingredients until smooth. This is enough for four 8oz. glasses, which you can then sprinkle some nutmeg on top, if you like. It's savory, it's sweet, and it's ridiculously good.

TOTAL COSTS: Varies per snack idea

TOTAL AMOUNT OF TIME: Varies

Anywhere from less than 5 minutes to 2 hours

EASY-PEASY SCALE (1 super easy - 5 very difficult): All of these were 1 out of 5

I tried to find three creative but also easy banana ideas that any parent, college kid, babysitter, health nut, etc. could execute. My favorite? The smoothie!

Clear Skin Smoothie

When I saw this recipe for a smoothie that helps clear your skin, I figured it probably tastes awful. Lets face it - anything green and in liquid form does not look appetizing and therefore, must taste like snot juice. L.A. is full of healthy hipsters who love to drink this stuff and in no way was I going to enjoy it. So... did I? Well, first off, here's what you'll need:

2 cups of spinach, 1/4 of an avocado, and 1/2 C of red grapes ("contain anti-inflammatory antioxidants")

1/2 C of frozen strawberries (to "help fight free-radical damage, giving skin a more radiant glow")

1 T of almond butter ("offers the minerals zinc and selenium, both essential for healthy skin")

1 t of flaxmeal ("contains omega-3s that help reduce inflammation)


First off, let me tell you I did not buy flaxmeal (it was $5 and for just a teaspoon's worth, it wasn't worth it). Also, I used almond milk instead of almond butter because almond butter was $8!

Second, I doubled the recipe because my husband had just come home from a run and wanted to give it a try. So I mixed the ingredients in a blender for 2-3 minutes until smooth.

Lastly, it will not be the same color as the original post. The original post looks like a Shamrock Shake from McDonalds. This looks like... well... liquid spinach.

It's not bad, but I wish it were sweeter. Honey would have been a nice addition. If you don't add something sweet, your face might freeze like this when trying to choke down something so... so... healthy...

This better make my skin look freakin' radiant.

TOTAL COSTS: About $16 to make as many as you can stomach (prices from Vons)
$1 for an avocado
$3.29 for spinach
$4.34 for red grapes
$4.99 for frozen strawberries
$2.99 for almond milk (versus $8.19 for almond butter)
($4.99 for flax meal, if you choose to add it)

TOTAL AMOUNT OF TIME: Less than 5 minutes

EASY-PEASY SCALE (1 super easy - 5 very difficult): 1 out of 5
Nothing easier than placing ingredients in a blender and hitting the "On" button. The hard part is drinking it.

Healthy Alternative to Wendy's Frosty?

I've seen this post from MealsandMovesBlog.com make the rounds on Pinterest and Facebook claiming to be a healthy alternative to a Wendy's Frosty and when I repinned the post, the only ingredients listed were:

1. 3/4C of almond milk
2. 1/3 of a banana
3. 15 ice cubes
4. 1-2 Tbs. of unsweetened cocoa powder
5. 1/2 tsp. of vanilla (though the original post says 1 scoop of vanilla protein powder, which I wouldn't have had anyway).

One important thing to note is that I didn't include two ingredients that the post recommends and to be honest, I wouldn't know what other recipes to use them in anyway (I think they're available at Whole Foods or Trader Joe's). They recommend:

1. 1/4 tsp of xanthan gum and
2. 1/4 tsp of guar gum (or more xanathan if you don't have guar. All I can think about is the band... ahem... anyway...)

So with that in mind, I gave this a try. I added all the ingredients to my blender.

And gave it a whirl for a couple minutes.

My husband and I tried it and we both came to the conclusion that this tastes like... well... ice mixed with cocoa powder. It's not sweet at all. If you're expecting it to taste like a Frosty, like we did, you will be sorely mistaken. This definitely needs something sweet - maybe chocolate syrup, sugar, honey, SOMETHING to give it flavor! If you do give it a shot, maybe the xanthan gum is the key to making this taste great but without it... well... just grab a couple bucks and head to Wendy's. You'll be better off.

TOTAL COSTS: About $3
$.69/pound for bananas
$2.59 for almond milk
Vanilla, cocoa powder, and ice cubes on hand

TOTAL AMOUNT OF TIME: 6 minutes
4 minutes to add all the ingredients
2 minutes to blend together in a Vitamix

EASY-PEASY SCALE (1 super easy - 5 very difficult): 1 out of 5
It's not hard to add everything in a blender - the hardest task might be finding all the ingredients!