Used Bananas

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Do you have to cope with used bananas as I do? One of us routinely takes bananas on a car trip for a snack. More often than not, they come back unopened, bruised, and mushy. Normal people would throw them away without a second thought, but that goes against the grain of a true miser. I usually use them for banana bread or banana pudding. Golly Pete! Are you thinking what I just thought? This must be a devious plan to get favorite items on the menu without having to ask! I can’t believe I have fallen for that all these years. Anyway, we had too many Christmas sweets laying their lethal traps for us. Grandson David requested blueberry muffins during his time here. We had them once before, so this time I added bananas. Only John noticed the Double B Muffins – Blueberry/Banana. I should think of a savory use for abused monkey fruit. Any ideas?

Our weather has been frigid. A few days ago we noticed rime ice on the mountain behind us. After church that day, we drove on the Blue Ridge Parkway, knowing any section could be closed. Before we came to a closed gate, we drove through an area of rime ice. It was the closest we’d been to this beautiful weather phenomenon where ice crystals coat every branch.

123117 Rime ice on Parkway.JPG

Here it is a bit closer.

123117 Rime ice up close.JPG

It was 2F when we went for a half walk this morning. We still have our winter coats from New York, so our bodies were warm. I’m not sure what John might need to walk all the way to the creek, but I should get warm socks. On the other hand, it’s lovely to slack off once in a while. I usually look at the little stream, Park Branch, that we cross. Today it was partially frozen, although still gurgling. The new camera didn’t seem to mind coming out of my warm pocket to record it. The stream is flowing toward me in the first shot. 

010218 Branch flowing top to bottom.JPG

I turned around to record it going down the hill below.

010218 Branch flowing bottom to top.JPG

Published by Anne Mehrling

I'm a retiree who loves to write about life in the mountains of North Carolina.

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46 thoughts on “Used Bananas”

  1. I love the pictures and the description of the little creek and the lovely trees with icicles?- rime ice ? So beautiful !
    Are the roads covered with snow too as you walk to the creek?
    We use mushy blackened bananas for our smoothies, the mushier the better .:)
    No food goes waste in our house, if possible( we are misers too).
    Susie

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    1. We love walking in falling snow, but generally when it is several inches deep, we don’t walk outside. My boots are not comfortable, so I always wear sneakers. They would get wet in snow. Very often here snow melts within a day or so. When night temperatures go down, it freezes. Dangerous!!!! We are too old to walk on ice.

      We never made smoothies, although they are popular here. I’m so happy to hear that you have a good solution for demolishing old bananas.

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      2. I freeze them when they get soft and have brown spots, then they are their sweetest. They are great for tossing into smoothies or making ice cream. Check out my page on Pinterest for good recipes under Everything Paleo board.

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  2. Well Anne…
    You had me looking up ‘rime ice’. Not sure I understand the difference between it and our freezing fog that attaches to everything and looks similar. But I know the one thing they have in common… it has to be freezing cold out to see it. 🙂

    My older bananas usually end up in pineapple/orange/banana smoothies. I think we were raised to not let anything go to waste. I always feel guilty throwing out food. 0.o

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    1. I took photos of frozen fog when we lived in Reigate. I don’t know about a formal definition, but I’d say rime ice is similar. It seems to be much thicker, though.

      Banana must be a prime ingredient of smoothies. That is a good solution to using up unwanted fruit.

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  3. Beautiful pics of the icy trees! Is this cold weather very unusual for North Carolina? Is it warmer lower down? And how far north are you to the next state which is… uh… not sure… Virginia?

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    1. Virginia sits on top of NC, and we share a long border. NC hovers over South Carolina. Cold weather is not unusual for the mountains. The Piedmont and coastal regions of NC are warmer most of the time. John’s sister lives near Charleston SC, and her temperatures are much warmer than ours. They never close their swimming pool, but I doubt they swim much in the winter.

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  4. OH Anne! I had to laugh about the “used” bananas. When my husband goes grocery shopping with me he also heads for the produce in search of “used” bananas. These are dollar bags of bruised and softening bananas. He doesn’t mind eating them that way and I often put them in the freezer for future sweet goodies. Typically I make banana bread out of them but I have used them in smoothies and banana bars as well. I have never made banana pudding…..would you share the recipe for that?
    Your pictures are beautiful. We tend to get the crystals on all the plants and trees in the fall when the humidity is higher and the temps are low. It is so pretty.

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    2. Banana Pudding

      Mix:
      1/2 cup sugar
      2 Tbsp cornstarch
      1/2 tsp salt
      Stir in:
      2 cups milk
      Cook, stirring constantly until it thickens and boils. Remove from heat.
      Gradually stir half the above into yolks:
      2 egg yolks, beaten
      Stirring constantly, boil one more minute
      Blend in:
      2 tsp. butter
      1 tsp vanilla
      Stir in:
      2 mashed bananas

      We cool it and eat it. You could dress it up by lining a bowl with vanilla wafers and pouring in the pudding before cooling.

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  5. B&B muffins? Sounds wonderful. I have a great recipe for oatmeal muffins and they don’t taste healthy at all! 🙂 Sometimes I put fruit in depending on what’s on hand. My husband eats a banana every day but that’s the only fruit he eats. Sometimes I will pop an overripe banana or two into the freezer. They make great banana cake. The fruit seems better for baking after it’s been frozen. We woke up to 9 degrees but “they” say it will warm up starting early next week. Not soon enough for me. I started walking inside our local mall in November because the weather got so “iffy.” Some days too cold or slippery leaves all over. Now we have snow cover. Like you, I don’t like to take chances falling.

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    1. Could you share you recipe for those delicious oatmeal muffins? I’d like to try them. I hadn’t thought of banana cake. Must try that! We walked when it was 18 degrees this morning. That was easy, but the power was off for a couple of hours, enough that the house was starting to get cold. It’s warming up again now. We don’t have a mall nearby for winter walking, but we could go to the rec center. I don’t like walking on a circular track. That’s probably because all the really old geezers were walking twice as fast as I was. Stay warm!

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  9. Anne, I love your wintry photographs. Right now, the predicted N’or Easter is roaring outside my windows. Our coastline of Atlantic City, Cape May is being bombarded with the blizzard. Did it go through your area too, or are you far enough inland for a miss? I love mushy bananas whipped up into banana bread, and like so many others buy the bargain packages when I see them in the produce section. Kathy

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    1. Our temperature at 5 pm is 16, so we have the cold. There were useless flurries all day — amounting to nothing. However, John’s sister near Charleston had over 7 inches!!!! Our daughter in NJ and grandson Nathaniel on Long Island are having snow days because of the same system. As to abused bananas, I get enough via John’s rejects that I never buy them at the store.

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  11. Way down here in Texas, we don’t get much snow and when we do it is harsh and icy. None of the velvety smooth snow from up north. As for banana bread – I need a good recipe. Want to share?! 🙂 I found your page through another blogger I follow. I’m glad I stumbled upon it. Beautiful photos! Thanks for sharing.

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    1. Thank you for reading my post. I use a recipe for banana bread that I first tried in 1982.

      BANANA BREAD

      Sift together:
      1 1/2 cups regular flour
      1 1/2 cups whole wheat flour
      4 tsp. baking powder
      1/2 tsp salt

      Mix together;
      1 cup sugar
      2 Tbsp softened butter
      1 egg
      1 cup milk
      about 1 cup mashed bananas
      Chopped nuts (optional)

      Stir dry and wet mixtures together. Put in one or two greased loaf pans (depending on size). Bake about an hour. Cool before cutting.

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  12. I love your winter treks and the photos of rime ice and the little half frozen babbling brook. As for “used bananas” I too make bread but have discovered if you add a few Tbs of caocao powder you get a chocolatey result.

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  16. Clever you with the muffins which must have been quite tasty. I wonder if these bananas can be frozen for future use if you have too many at once. You photos of rime ice were gorgeous. I recall seeing that several times in Schweindorf, Germany. So beautiful. Ice can be destructive to trees and power lines. But ice makes for lovely photos.

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    1. Rime ice was new to us. We were never in mountains during the winter before we moved here. It forms on the higher elevations, so it’s never right around us. We live on a gentle slope, slightly above the valley floor.

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