There are a few staple foods that always seem to go bad really quickly. At my house two of those are bananas and bread. My kids either eat all the bananas as soon as I buy them or they won’t touch them with a ten foot pole. There’s no in-between. The other food I end up with a lot of is bread. Since I make sourdough bread several times a week, there’s always part of a loaf that’s goes stale before we finish it. Freezing bananas for smoothies and freezing stale bread is the perfect way to be sure those things are eaten instead of tossed.
The problem of food waste
A shocking amount of food goes to waste in America every day. Food is wasted, from the farms where it’s grown, to processors, grocery stores and restaurants, and in the home. Just looking the statistics for bananas and bread is appalling. Americans throw out around 5 billion bananas every year. More than 240 million slices of bread are wasted every year in this country alone. Bread is the most wasted food in America. The good news is that both of these foods are easy to save and use in delicious recipes!
Freezing bananas
Whether you have a bunch of overripe bananas or even just one, you can quickly turn them into a perfect smoothie ingredient. There are several methods to chose from. You can put the banana, peel and all straight in the freezer. Supposedly after it thaws for a few mintutes you can peel it and use the fruit. I don’t like this way of freezing bananas because you have to deal with a mushy thawing whole banana.
For years I peeled the banana and tossed it into a ziptop bag and froze it. When I wanted to make a smoothie I put the whole frozen banana in the blender. However it can be hard to blend it up unless you have a really powerful blender. I tried breaking it into chunks and freezing them but I would end up with a huge clump of frozen bananas. It may be therapeutic to bash it with a rolling pin but it’s also messy when the bag breaks and bananas fly everywhere. Here’s my new and improved method.
Prep the bananas
Chose a tray that’s big enough to hold the bananas in a single layer and line it with parchment paper. I’ve spoken of my love for parchment paper before. It is deep and abiding. I buy this kind at Sam’s Club. Peel the bananas and set them aside on the tray. The peels go in my compost bucket. They also are great fertilizer. If I’m repotting a plant I’ll put a few banana peels in the bottom layer of dirt in the pot to give the new plant a boost.
Break them up and freeze them!
You can slice the peeled bananas with a knife or break them in 1 to 2 inch piece. I prefer to split the fruit into thirds lengthwise before breaking them in pieces. If you’ve never done this with a banana, give it a try. Starting at one end, gently press on the banana and it will split into three parts naturally. Then break into 1 to 2 inch pieces. Spread them out on the tray in a single layer so they can freeze easily without sticking. Set the tray in the freezer for a couple hours so the pieces can freeze solid.
Frozen and ready to store
You can break up any clumps and get them ready to store for all those future smoothies once they are frozen solid. There’s no set time you have to get them in a ziptop bag but I try to get them sealed up in the next 24 hours. Food left uncovered in the freezer will get freezer burn. This is a layer of ice crystals that form on the surface of the food as moisture evaporates. It doesn’t ruin the item unless it’s really severe and the food is shriveled and dehydrated looking. This is easily prevented by storing it in an airtight container or bag and removing as much air as possible.
After you break up any stuck banana pieces, lift the parchment paper and use it as a funnel to pour them into a labeled ziptop bag. Next, squeeze the bag to remove as much air as possible and put it back in the freezer. Now you have kept food from going in the trash, saved grocery money, and have a whole new ingredient for smoothies.
Lots of people like freezing bananas to make banana bread and this works just fine. If you want to do that just freeze 3 or 4 bananas per bag. This gives you the perfect amount for your recipe. Just thaw them in the bag and mix into the batter. I don’t make bread with frozen bananas because of the mush factor. Thawed bananas are about the mushiest thing in the world and I’d rather not mess with them. For banana bread I just make the bread instead of freezing the overripe fruit. We make smoothies on a daily basis so having a big bag of frozen bananas ready to go is perfect at my house.
Freezing stale bread
This method works great for store-bought bread or homemade. Any bread is going to get stale fairly quickly and can mold faster than you expect. Before any mold shows up, take a few mintues and prep the bread for freezing. I like to slice the bread into roughly 1 inch cubes before freezing. Then I can use the bread to make croutons or breadcrumbs. The croutons are great to sprinkle on a simple soup or add to a salad. I use breadcrumbs for topping casseroles, adding to meatloaf, or mixing into meatballs. Here’s a post about making breadcrumbs.
Like I said, I cut the bread into 1 inch cubes. You can tear the bread into pieces if you want rustic croutons or just don’t feel like getting out a knife. Put the cubes of bread straight into a labeled ziptop bag and add any breadcrumbs from the cutting board. Squeeze out as much air as you can and seal it before tossing it in the freezer.
Be Resourceful!
These are just two common tasks I do around my house that save money and make sure I’m not wasting food. With grocery prices as high as they are and as many mouths as I have to feed I can’t be wasteful. Also if you bake your own bread the last thing you want to do is throw it away. Try these ideas out at your house and see if they inspire you to be even more resourceful!
