What To Do With Ripe Bananas – 5 best easy ripe banana recipes – quick ways to use up overripe bananas including no bake quick breakfast sweet treats, pancakes, cookies and oat ideas.
What To Do With Ripe Bananas
When you find yourself wondering what to do with ripe bananas, there are plenty of easy options to choose from.
You may have a fruit bowl with need to use ASAP brown bananas or find a bounty of reduced over ripe bananas at the supermarket. I often find myself with bananas with brown spots that need to be used in recipes, instead of snacked on.
If you have more sweet bananas than you can use over a couple of days, then chop them up, move them to ziploc bags, remember to label the bags and then store in the freezer until needed. You can even blend a couple of frozen bananas into vanilla ice cream. (Also known as nice cream!)
5 Ways With Ripe Bananas
Here are ideas for what to do with a bunch of bananas, plus a couple of other simple ingredients that are easy to find at a local grocery store.
You’ll find that the natural sweetness of bananas means that you only have to include very little added sugar to your favorite banana recipe to satisfy your sweet tooth.
The best banana recipes and a video when I found myself with lots of ripe bananas are all below for you. These healthy recipes will all help you reduce your food waste by putting old bananas sitting on your kitchen counter to good use in all kinds of treats, rather than sending them to the bin.
1. Banana Breakfast Smoothie
Banana smoothies make the perfect breakfast, thanks to the inclusion of nutritious oats.
To make the great recipe, you’ll need:
- 1 Ripe Banana
- 1 Cup of Milk
- 1/3 Cup of Rolled Oats
- 1/2 to 1 teaspoon Golden Syrup, Honey, Maple Syrup, Brown Sugar or your sweetener of choice
You could also add in a little bit of peanut butter, chia seeds, yogurt or protein powder to the perfect recipe for added protein, nutrition and flavor.
Pop everything into a blender, blend until smooth and then enjoy your sweet banana smoothie. I like using my Nutribullet blender because you can blend and drink all in the one cup if you want to. It’s probably the gadget I use most often in my kitchen. (Here’s my Nutribullet on Amazon.)
2. No Bake Ripe Banana Oat Cookies
I love no bake cookies – you simply mix a whole lot of ingredients together, form cookies, pop them into the fridge to harden and you have an easy sweet treat that needs no time in the oven.
To make the no bake banana cookies, you only need 4 ingredients for the simple recipe:
- 1 Ripe Banana
- 1 Cup of Rolled Oats
- 1/3 Cup Peanut Butter or Almond Butter
- 2-4 Tablespoons Golden Syrup (Depends on how sweet you’d like your cookies.)
- Chocolate Chips (Optional)
Mash the banana until smooth, add the oats and stir to combine.
Place the peanut butter and golden syrup into a small saucepan over medium heat to form a smooth and creamy mixture.
Move the creamy peanut butter to the bowl with the oats and banana and combine together until you have a cookie dough.
Line a baking tray with well greased baking paper and drop a teaspoon of batter per cookie onto the baking tray.
Fill the baking tray with cookies, you can flatten them down if you like. Sprinkle over the optional chocolate chips, if you’d like to create banana oatmeal chocolate chip cookies.
Place into the fridge for a few hours to harden and enjoy.
3. 2 Ingredient Banana Pancakes
The easy recipe for these banana pancakes have been circling online for years, I’ve made them since my kids were toddlers – they always love them and they are the perfect way to make the most of leftover bananas. All you need is:
- 1 Ripe Banana
- 2 Eggs
Mash the banana in a bowl until smooth. When smooth, add the eggs and whisk until you have a bubbly pancake batter.
Heat coconut oil or butter in a frying pan. When hot drop 1-2 tablespoons of the batter per pancake.
Cook until set on one side and then flip until golden on both sides.
Serve the healthy banana recipe as is or topped with maple syrup or your pancake toppings of choice.
4. Banana Chia Pudding
Chia puddings make an easy dessert, snack or make ahead breakfast. You’ll need:
- 1 Ripe Banana
- 1/2 Cup Milk
- 1/2 Cup Yogurt such as Greek Yogurt or any flavored yogurt you’d like
- 1/4 Cup Chia Seeds
- 1-2 Tablespoons Maple Syrup
Mash the banana in a bowl until creamy, then add in the milk and yogurt then stir well to combine.
Add in the chia seeds and mix to fully incorporate them into the creamy mixture. Depending how sweet you can your chia pudding, add maple syrup to taste.
Give a final stir and ensure that all the chia seeds are mixed in and submerged into the pudding.
You could pop the whole banana pudding into a blender for a smoother texture.
Place the chia pudding into the fridge for a few hours or overnight and enjoy.
5. Banana Bread French Toast
I’ve been cooking this Banana Bread French Toast for years, in fact I first shared the recipe on my blog back in 2013!
This tastes like a warm healthy banana bread or banana cake, but without the effort. Start by heating a frying pan and melting coconut oil or butter.
Mash a ripe banana until creamy. Then, whisk in 3 eggs and 1/4 teaspoon of cinnamon.
Whisk until you have a smooth mixture and then dip bread into the french toast batter.
Place the french toast onto the heated frying pan and cook until golden on both sides.
Enjoy the tasty treat as is or topped with chopped banana, maple syrup or even cream cheese frosting.
What To Do With Ripe Bananas Video
Here’s a video showing you how to prepare my go to favorite ripe banana recipes that the whole family enjoys. Hit play below or click here to watch on YouTube.
More Easy Banana Recipes
Gluten Free Banana Chocolate Chip Muffins
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