Money Saving Tip: Freezing Bananas
How to Save Money and Reduce Waste by Freezing Them.
Let’s be honest, no one likes to eat an even sort of mushy banana. BUT! There’s still so much that you can do with ripe bananas, and it’s a shame to let them go to waste. That’s true from both a food waste and money-saving perspective. By freezing bananas, you can save what you might normally throw away and use another day.
What to Do with Frozen Bananas
My favorite way of using frozen bananas is to put them in smoothies. In fact, I prefer them in my smoothie. They give it a thicker and creamier consistency, which I love.
You can also use frozen bananas for baking, and we’re not just talking about banana bread. You can use them in pancakes, cookies, muffins, cakes and the list goes on. If you’re looking for ideas on how to bake with bananas, Crazy for Crust offers 66 Banana Recipes that give some delicious options.
Bananas can also be used as a substitute for the following in baking:
- Fats such as butter or oils (I cup of mashed banana for 1 cup of the butter or oil)
- Eggs (1/4 cup of banana puree = 1 egg) ***frozen bananas need to be thawed
- Sugar (1 cup mashed banana = 1 cup sugar) *** frozen bananas need to be thawed
How to Freeze Bananas
Now that we’ve established that freezing bananas is a good thing to do, let’s get to how you do it. Bananas are best to freeze when they’re starting to turn brown and are a little softer but not too mushy. That said, I’ve frozen many a mushy one, and they turned out fine. Remember, the riper the banana, the sweeter it is.
You have a few choices as to what form you freeze bananas in after you peel them.
Option 1: The whole banana. Good for smoothies.
Option 2: Cut the banana in half. Good for smoothies. Since I only use half a banana in my smoothies, this is my preferred way to do it.
Option 3: Cut the banana into slices. Good for baking.
Freezing the whole banana or halves
- Peel the banana.
2. Cut if you’re halving and put them into freezer bags.
3. Put the bag of bananas into the freezer.
Freezing banana slices
- Peel the banana.
2. Slice bananas so that they’re ¼-inch to ½-inch thick.
3. Lay banana slices flat on a cookie sheet. I usually just put them straight onto the cookie sheet, but if you’d prefer to cover the sheet with parchment paper, that works as well.
4. Put the baking sheet into the freezer. Two hours is plenty of time for the bananas to become solid.
5. Put the slices into a freezer bag.
For both of these methods, it’s best to label your freezer bags with the date. Frozen bananas are best used within 6 months.
