One of the least expensive fruits in your local supermarket, per pound, is usually the lowly banana.
Poor Banana! Although grown in tropical regions they are so plentiful and so well known that we sort of take them for granted. I guess it’s true-if something is inexpensive most people tend to think it is unexciting.
Bananas really are a great fruit! They are tasty in their various stages (I like them pretty ripe myself) and although their life out on the counter isn’t too long, and you don’t want to stick one in your BDU pants pocket and then forget about it when you are going through training (ask me how I know. Ewww. Smooshed banana) you can always chuck the extras that are starting to be a bit OVER ripe into a container in the freezer. (note-they will turn to mush when they defrost, but that’s fine for baking!)
Fresh bananas can be eaten plain, sliced into cold cereal or oatmeal, stuck on a stick and frozen as a treat, cooked into Banana Pancakes or baked into Banana Bread, Banana Squares and Banana Oatmeal Drop Cookies.
Here’s another great way to eat your bananas-dehydrated banana slices! They are super easy to make if you have a solar or electric dehydrator.
1. Slice bananas into 1/8″ slices. On one website I saw it mentioned that 1/8″ is about the same width as two quarters stacked on top of each other.
2. Lay them on the dehydrator sheet almost touching. If you like you can spray them with a bit of lemon juice to keep them from darkening. It’s mostly an aesthetic thing. If I’m in the mood to do that I just put my lemon juice into a clean spraybottle that I ONLY use for lemon juice. Spritz it on (over the sink please!) and go.
3. Dehydrate at around 105 degrees (if you have a thermostat) for about 10-12 hours. I like to flip mine over about half way through. You sort of have to peel them up off the tray. When they are done they will be smaller, thinner, darker but still bend, like I’m doing in the photo. They are actually more like banana fruit leather bites. They are NOT going to get hard and “snap” the way the banana chips at the store will.
4. Store in a zippered baggie, plastic container or glass mason jar. Enjoy as a very sweet and chewy snack. If I was packaging them for longer term storage I’d either use a vacuum sealer or some oxygen absorbers–and I’d still be aware that they would probably all stick together in a lump 🙂
If you want to, you can reconstitute them into a banana mush by soaking them in just enough warm water to cover them. Then you can use them in any baked good or just eat as banana mush 😉 I know in my house they all get eaten as if they were banana candy by the kiddos-I never get the CHANCE to store them for longer time periods.
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Disclosure: This is a sponsored post I am participating in with the Walmart Moms. Walmart has provided me with compensation for this post. My participation is voluntary and opinions, as always are my own.
How do you make the banana chips that crunch?
Lance ==)————–
Lance-I did some bananas along with this batch that were quite green-those came out crunchier around the edges. I’m going to assume that when they have more starch and less sugar they are somewhat crunchier. I’ve also heard that dipping them in a honey wash will make them harder. My kids loved them the last time I made them that way, but it was messy and I didn’t think they were much different. All I can assume is that the crunchy commercial ones either have a process I don’t (ie adding some additive) or else they are doing a different process that you need to have commercial equipment for.
Frozen banana chunks blended with yogurt and a little nutmeg makes an ice-cream-like treat.
Do you find your dehydrator to be loud? I’ve been thinking of getting one, but I’ve read that they can be quite noisy, so I’m wondering if I’d want to keep it in an out-of-the-way location, rather than in the kitchen.
Lora-Frozen banana is remarkably like ice cream! It’s a great healthy treat for the kiddos or anyone who is trying to reduce their processed sugar.
The dehydrator I use (the Excalibur) has a fan-so it does make noise. I don’t think it is horribly loud-but my mind tends to ignore repetitive sounds like a fan after a while. . . currently I have the dehydrator set up in the front of the house, but it isn’t really for the noise, rather because I don’t have the counter space in the kitchen right now.
That is too cool. My wife makes a nut mix, maybe I can get her to add this to the mix 🙂
Mmm. That sounds like it would be good Deacon!