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!

Pancake Bites (Banana, Strawberry, Blueberry, and Chocolate Chip!)

I get up every morning at 6:25am so I can be ready for work at 6:30am. I work from home, did I mention that? Well, even in my half-awake state, I hate making breakfast. I'm lucky if I'm able to get a bowl of cereal together without forgetting an ingredient (you laugh but it has happened). I saw this Pancakes Bites idea floating around Pinterest and everyone seems to have their own take on it (gluten-free, vegan, etc.) so I decided to make try these out and see which flavor tasted the best. Now I challenge you to do the same - the best part? If you can't eat them all, stick 'em in the fridge and have 'em for breakfast tomorrow!

I wanted to try different filling ingredients (even though I prefer my pancakes plain) so here's what I tried:

*Bananas
*Strawberries
*Blueberries
*Mini chocolate chips

Start by preheating your oven to 350 and make your pancake mix however you like (here is a gluten-free and vegan-friendly recipe, if that's your thing). I wanted to make 12 mini pancake bites so I used 1 Cup of Bisquick, almost 1/2 Cup of milk, and 1 egg. Once it's whipped together, grease up your mini muffin pan and fill as equally as possible.

Next, add your fillings without overflowing. The key is to push them all the way to the bottom but also leave some on top.

Bake for 12 minutes (or until you think they're ready) and if you filled them to the top, they're going to puff up like little muffins.

Be sure to have some maple syrup on hand for dipping, otherwise they're a little bland. Here are my notes after trying them all:

*Banana = with maple syrup, really freakin' good, which surprises me. Husband agrees. Both say this is #1
*Blueberry = not bad but my least favorite. Husband says this is his #2 favorite.
*Chocolate = also really freakin' good. This is my #2. Husband not in the mood for chocolate. I say he has no soul.
*Strawberry = juicy inside, wish I added more strawberries to make even juicier

And there you have it kids - an easy, no mess solution to breakfast. Now I'm off to my fridge to make some more!

TOTAL COSTS: About $20 (if you don't have any ingredients - prices from Vons)

$3.50 for Bisquick

$2.29 for milk

$2.79 for eggs (though I only used 1)

$.69/lb for bananas

$3.99 for strawberries
$3.99 for blueberries
$2.50 for mini chocolate chips

TOTAL AMOUNT OF TIME: 22 minutes

10 minutes of prep (though if you don't use 4 different flavors, it'll go by faster!)

12 minutes of baking

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

They're so easy to make, you have no excuse not to try them. Seriously, if you have leftovers, you can stick 'em in the fridge and save 'em for when you're too lazy to make breakfast!

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!

Almost No Fat Banana Bread = Tasty Treat or Terrible Trick?

If you want to stick to a resolution to eat healthier AND enjoy some comfort food on the side, grab those bananas you keep telling yourself you're going to eat (and still haven't) and try this banana bread! I'm not a big fan of things that say "low fat", "zero calories", or "no trans fat" because that's where the flavors are but when I saw this recipe... and my aging bananas... I figured it couldn't hurt, right? Either it'll be "almost no fat" and taste terrible or "almost no fat" and taste good. Here's what I found:

First, preheat your oven to 350 and grease a bread pan. The original post called for a 8" x 4" pan but I only had a 9" x 5" pan and it worked fine.

Next, grab the following 8 ingredients:

Dry ingredients -
1 1/2 C of flour
3/4 C of white sugar
1 1/4 t of baking powder
1/2 t of baking soda
1/2 t of ground cinnamon

Wet ingredients -
1/4 c of applesauce (I used cinnamon applesauce because I can't have enough cinnamon!)
1 C of smashed bananas (I found this equaled to about 2 bananas)
2 egg whites


Next, mix all the dry ingredients together and then add the wet ingredients. It's going to look like the cat vomited in your bowl. You have been warned.

Pour the mixture into your bread pan.

Put in the oven for 50-55 minutes. I put mine in for 50 minutes and I knew it was done when I put a toothpick in the bread and it came out clean.

Let it cool for at least 30 minutes before cutting into it and tell me what you think. Me personally, it lacked any sort of flavor. Nutmeg, vanilla, almond extract... SOMETHING would have been a nice addition but as it stands, this bread has:

Nutrition

• Calories
• 127 kcal
• 6%

• Carbohydrates
• 29.5 g
• 10%

• Cholesterol
• 0 mg
• 0%

• Fat
• 0.2 g
• < 1%

• Fiber
• 1 g
• 4%

• Protein
• 2.4 g
• 5%

• Sodium
• 100 mg
• 4%

* Percent Daily Values are based on a 2,000 calorie diet

I mean, it's kinda hard to argue with those numbers when it's semi-healthy... but again, it's also like eating cardboard.

TOTAL COSTS: About $18 (if you don't own any of the ingredients - prices from Vons)
$1.99 for flour
$2.69 for white sugar
$1.59 for baking soda
$1.99 for baking powder
$4.69 for ground cinnamon
$1.99 for applesauce
$.69/pound for bananas
$2.59 for eggs

TOTAL AMOUNT OF TIME: 1 hour, 30 minutes
10 minutes to mix ingredients
50 minutes in oven
30 minutes to cool

EASY-PEASY SCALE (1 super easy - 5 very difficult): 1 out of 5
It's not hard to bring the ingredients in a bowl, then in a pan, then in your mouth but remember, it's "almost no fat" because it's "almost no flavor." Now if you'll excuse me, I've got some bread that needs to be slathered in butter...