Seven pounds of ripe bananas and a bit of creativity
Remember the reduced $0.19/lb. bananas I mentioned getting on Saturday? I bought about eight pounds since this was almost half what I would usually pay for bananas. We ate as many as we could the last few days and today, since they were starting to get quite ripe, we turned them into baked goodies for the freezer:
Of course we made our staple family recipe for using up bananas: a double-batch of Banana Chocolate Chip Muffins. Then I tried out a new recipe (which looks scrumptious!) for a dessert to take to a function later this week: Tammy's Chocolate-Banana Squares. Lastly, since I'd made enough stuff with chocolate and wasn't really in the mood for banana bread, I decided to find a recipe which was more on the healthy side. A double batch of Banana Oatmeal Muffins fit the bill. I left out the chocolate chips and used whole-wheat flour and organic rolled oats to make them a bit more healthful. Though not my favorite muffin recipe ever, they are hearty and good - especially for not having any oil or butter in them.
This is the kind of cooking I love to do - finding creative uses for inexpensive items I find reduced or on great sales at the store. Yesterday, I browned up five pounds of ground beef (good beef, too, not that cheapy stuff you can get for a dollar or so a pound!) that we got for free this past week from a coupon flyer our store recently sent out. I divided the meat up into enough portions for eight or nine dinners. I made a triple batch of sloppy joes with part of the meat using ingredients I had gotten for free as well from a recent Kroger deal and then we served part of that for dinner last night on whole-wheat buns I got for free with a coupon. I froze the rest of the sloppy joe meat for later dinners.
I know that some of you may be thinking, "I can never find such good deals." Well, put away that mentality and start looking! I've lived in three different towns quite a ways from each other over the last four years of my life and have always been able to find good deals. It takes some practice and a little bit of time, but once you get it, I think you'll be amazed!
Of course we made our staple family recipe for using up bananas: a double-batch of Banana Chocolate Chip Muffins. Then I tried out a new recipe (which looks scrumptious!) for a dessert to take to a function later this week: Tammy's Chocolate-Banana Squares. Lastly, since I'd made enough stuff with chocolate and wasn't really in the mood for banana bread, I decided to find a recipe which was more on the healthy side. A double batch of Banana Oatmeal Muffins fit the bill. I left out the chocolate chips and used whole-wheat flour and organic rolled oats to make them a bit more healthful. Though not my favorite muffin recipe ever, they are hearty and good - especially for not having any oil or butter in them.This is the kind of cooking I love to do - finding creative uses for inexpensive items I find reduced or on great sales at the store. Yesterday, I browned up five pounds of ground beef (good beef, too, not that cheapy stuff you can get for a dollar or so a pound!) that we got for free this past week from a coupon flyer our store recently sent out. I divided the meat up into enough portions for eight or nine dinners. I made a triple batch of sloppy joes with part of the meat using ingredients I had gotten for free as well from a recent Kroger deal and then we served part of that for dinner last night on whole-wheat buns I got for free with a coupon. I froze the rest of the sloppy joe meat for later dinners.
I know that some of you may be thinking, "I can never find such good deals." Well, put away that mentality and start looking! I've lived in three different towns quite a ways from each other over the last four years of my life and have always been able to find good deals. It takes some practice and a little bit of time, but once you get it, I think you'll be amazed!
posted by Crystal Paine at 4:44 PM
13 Comments:
I have used a couple of Tammie's recipes and loved... I tried to comment, but for some reason didn't work. :o( I am gonna try the banana oatmeal muffins, they look delicious!
Cristina
I am constantly amazed at the great deals that you find. I continue to pray and read fine print on sale ads as well as ask God for help with using coupons wisely. (I'm still learning with the coupon thing.)Do most of the stores in your area double coupons regularly? I'm just wondering, since only one store in our area doubles them and their prices are higher anyways, so it doesn't seem to save me much. I do, however, go to their triple coupon days that they have every couple of months and I've been able to get lots of stuff for almost free that way!
you can freeze whole ripe bananas for banana bread later on. I also slice and flash freeze and bag for use in smoothies or a fruit slush. Bananas give the texture of cream without the fat.
caroline
I love finding creative ways to use up large amounts of one thing too! Once we had cups and cups of sour milk (we had soy milk plus ours plus our neighbours') so I spent the morning baking with it. My brother thought it was a waste of my study time--but it was really a chance to get real-life education! I ended up making three batches of different kinds of muffins and two loaves of buttermilk herb bread.
wow! that looks great!!
All of your baked goods look delicious! Especially since its abt 0630 am and I'm ready for breakfast!
LOL! There must have been something in the air yesterday as I too baked up banana-goodness. We eat so many bananas in our home that we often don't have many overripe ones left. What I do when we do have one or two that no one will eat is peel them and pop them into a freezer bag in (well..duh) my freezer. Then wehen I have enough or just feel like having a baking day I pull them out, nuke them, mash them and cook 'em up.
I have to say the banana choco-chip muffins look very good for next time!
Have a great Valentine's Day. We're snowed in and loving it up here in Maine.
We buy ripe bananas at discount all the time! Also, if you find overly ripe bananas NOT on discount, you can usually comment "These are the kind that are usually on sale" and sometimes they will give it to you at that price! :) We cut up our bananas and freeze them for later use. We make a LOT of smoothies around here (the kids love them). And you know what else we do with frozen bananas? MAKE ICE CREAM!!! Just blend or food process the frozen bananas with some vanilla extract and some salt crystals (if you don't have the cyrstals, just use regular salt). Stir in chocolate chips and blend up some frozen strawberries with honey for a topping. You can also stir in walnuts etc. When we make banana ice cream, we usually just put ice cream in bowls and have toppings all out along the table for the children to make their own sundaes with. HEALTHY no fat version of ice cream (well, no fat without the toppings). If you try it, let me know what you think. My girls LOVE it!
We make "ice cream" like Paula and serve it with waffles for breakfast. My boys think I've lost it when they get ice cream a la mode with waffles for breakfast. They ask if they can really have ice cream for breakfast!
Those look really good! You know, it is true, you do have to look, sometimes for a long time for the stores with deals. No one here doubles coupons and I have gotten some really good coupon deals, but we also do not live near a large town that has coupons in the Sunday paper...
Our lone grocery store (the only one within 25 miles) doesn't do many great sales, just small ones here and there. I guess with no competition....
On another note, I am very upset that somebody handed you a camera! Now I am craving banana treats. Guess I am going to have to get baking, lol.
You know, I was so inspired by all of your Kroger's deals last week (or was it the week before? I forget) that even though I am Canadian and we don't have Krogers, I got on the internet and searched my little heart out for one anywhere relatively close to us in Washington (we live in BC, which is directly above WA, about 3 hours north of Seattle). I wanted the deal badly enough to sit through border traffic and make an evening of it with my hubby and little girl! But alas, there are no Krogers within an hour of the border. Sigh... :( No cheese and cream cheese and mayo for me.
I must say, it's much harder up in Canada to find deals like this. When my dd was first born two winters ago, I took out a bunch of books on cheap groceries and cooking and couponing from the library. I attempted couponing for a couple of months, but it's just not really done on a very large scale up here, coupons are very difficult to come by, and stores don't do double coupons, etc. I also attempted once-a-month-cooking, which was convenient, but we didn't find it really saved us all that much money.
I love reading in your blog (and others) about ways that people have found to get good deals on food (other than couponing) or ways to cook well on a cheap budget, as those are my best strategies right now. I am also trying to restructure my budget to leave more extra room for stocking up my pantry and freezer when I find really good deals.
As for the bananas, your baking looked yummy. I'm inspired to bake today. :) I also always freeze my bananas, and we use them mostly for frozen fruit smoothies every morning, or chocolate/carob smoothies at night (so good!!!), or baking (I just thaw them on my counter for a couple hours). I try to only buy bananas when they are ripe and on clearance and keep my freezer stocked with them that way.
One other thing (sorry, this is becomming a novel!) is that I've also recently learned the power of asking for mark downs. I prefer to buy organic milk to make homemade yogurt, but it's very pricey. I recently asked someone what they do with the close-to-date milk, and he replied that he could mark it down for me if I wanted it. So I got 4L of organic milk for $2 (a very good deal in Canada, where dairy is more expensive). I've also asked about goats milk for my daughter, ripe bananas, etc.
They will almost always mark it down for me!
Happy deal-finding and baking, everyone!
Stephanie
I had overripe bananas and chocolate chips in the pantry, so I made these for an afterschool treat. My sons and their friends demolished them, and this morning my youngest asked if I would make more. Great, easy recipe. Thanks for the tip. Kris
Post a Comment
<< Home