Do you have that song stuck in your head?  You know you do 🙂

Anyhoo, I’m doing a little pre-emptive strike with some potential food waste.

You see, the babes is addicted to bananas.  When she gets up in the morning she has a banana.  When she gets us from her nap-she has a banana.  She begs for them.  She moves the kitchen stools to try to get at them and often when she has her chubby, little paws on one she takes a BIG bite and…doesn’t want it anymore.

I don’t like throwing them into the composter (if we’re having a tough week this could happen twice a day) but I don’t want to say no to her wanting such a healthy ‘nack.  Thus I’ve been stashing them in the freezer.  Each time I open the freezer one drops out and lands on my foot.  Have you ever been hit on the foot with a frozen banana when all you wanted was a Soy and coconut, almond bar?  You say bad things, you hop around and your kid laughs at you and steals your ‘icecream bar’.  This is not good so the bananas have got to go.

I’ve got a lot so I’m going to try something a bit fun and then a total standby that has never failed me.  Both require the same moderate oven (about 350) so they can be friends while toasting.

I did a little search for cookies and found bakingbites, the description of these cookies was terrific and who is better friends than peanut butter and banana?  Ok, maybe peanut butter and chocolate. Oh, and peanut butter and brown sugar sandwiches are beyond amazing but other than those examples, what could be better?

Preheat oven to 350F. Line a baking sheet with parchment paper.
In a medium bowl, whisk together flour, baking powder, baking soda and salt.
In a large bowl, cream together sugars and butter. Beat in egg until smooth, then mix in the peanut butter and mashed banana. Working by hand or with a mixer on low speed, blend dry ingredients into the peanut butter mixture. Stir in the oats.

Adventuresindinner note:  You know me by now 1)  I doubled this because cookies seem to disappear into thin air around here and 2)  I creamed the sugars, butters, egg and banana together and then dumped the dry ingredients in.  If you are patient then use the original instructions.  I’m simply proud of myself I even made these into cookies.  I was going to press them into a baking pan and have bars 🙂

Shape dough into tablespoons and place on baking sheet, flattening each slightly with your fingers.
Bake for 10-12 minutes, until cookies just begin to turn golden around the edges.
Cool on a wire rack.
Makes approx 2 dozen.

But I still have a lot of defrosted bananas mashed so I’m taking out an old favourite. 

I really thought that I had posted this recipe but I can’t find it.  Don’t hold the fat free against it-it is one of the tastiest and easiest banana breads I’ve ever come across.  I’ve added dried fruit and chunks of chocolate to this and it is lovely but that isn’t even necessary.  Just dump everything, mix as little as possible (if it seems a bit dry I add a dash of water) and bake in a loaf pan (or you can make muffins but come-on muffins tins are a pain in the petootie to wash, why would you do that to yourself?) until a knife comes out clean (about 30 minutes).

Fat-free banana bread
2 cups flour, 1/2 cup. sugar, 1 tsp. baking powder, 1 tsp. baking soda, 1/2 tsp nutmeg, 2 cups bananas

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