What To Do With Ripe Bananas

 We went away for a couple of days.  When I got back, my bananas had ripened significantly.  Ripe bananas are the absolute best to use in cooking.  Even though they may not look so pretty, they are perfect for cooking.  So, don't ever throw them away!  If you can't use them right away, freeze them with the peels on, and use them later.  When you are ready to use them, just let them thaw, and the peels will come off easily and the bananas will be ready to be used.  

I didn't have a lot of room in my freezer, so I had to face my ripe bananas right away.  I decided to make three healthier recipes that I had never tried before:  Peanut butter banana bars, flourless banana muffins, and healthy banana muffins.  I like a lot of recipes from the website Chelsea's Messy Apron, so that is where I looked and found them.  They use honey, maple syrup, and coconut oil, so that batter is slightly different.  

Peanut butter and banana is ok together for me, so I wasn't the biggest fan of the bars, but my husband really liked them.  They would be a good breakfast on the go or healthy snack to send for lunch or just during the day.  That is, if you like the combination of peanut butter and banana.

I loved the Flourless Banana Muffins.  You take oats and grind them up into oat flour to use instead of regular wheat flour.  It was like an oatmeal chocolate chip cookie in a muffin shape.  In fact, just thinking about it right now makes me tempted to go and pull one out of the freezer to thaw.  Maybe I will...  We didn't grease the muffin tins as well as we should have and some of them stuck a bit.  So, if you make them, grease your muffin tins well.  

The Healthy banana muffins were also good.  I think I would put them in the middle in comparing the three recipes.  For some reason, healthy and white flour don't mix in my mind.  So, even though a lot of the ingredients were healthier than regular muffins, I thought they should have wheat flour instead of white to really be healthy.  I put pecans in them, but you don't have to.  For healthier muffins, this is one of the better recipes I have tried, and I have tried several.  My husband used to ask if I was making cardboard muffins, when I would try different healthier recipes.  Now, he just eats them and enjoys them since I have found a few good recipes since then.  You wouldn't know you were eating healthier muffins when you have these.  They can definitely stand on their own.