Purple Smoothies
Leo loved these smoothies as a two-year-old, and we made them most weekends, until he learned to blow bubbles with his straw and we needed a tidier breakfast option. The original recipe calls for red cabbage, if you’re looking to make them even more nutritious.
Steve’s Birthday Banoffee Pie
Our Scottish friend Steve spent his 30th birthday in Austin with us, and we celebrated with this banoffee pie. It has a lot of steps, from making caramel, baking the hazelnut crust, slicing bananas, and making whipped cream, but it is decadent and worthy of a special celebration.
Nikki’s Healthy Cookies
These butter-less, flour-less, egg-less (but delicious!) cookies contain ripe mashed banana, coconut oil, oats, almond meal, coconut, and chocolate.
Tim’s Banana-Nut-Chocolate Muffins
I’m not a huge fan of muffins, but I love these. Be sure to include the chocolate chips — they add the right amount of sweetness.
Banana Blueberry Pancakes
Blend whole wheat pancake batter in the food processor and add fresh blueberries for a healthy weekend breakfast.
Banana Pudding
For this classic, layer vanilla pudding, sliced bananas, and vanilla wafers.
Kelly’s Hummingbird Cake
One of my neighbors baked this cake in secret at my house for her husband’s birthday one year. The cinnamon, pineapple, banana, and pecan cake with cream cheese icing was one of his childhood favorites, and he was thrilled.
Banana-Nut Bread
Saving those browning bananas feels especially virtuous when you use nonfat yogurt to replace some of the fat in the recipe. Toasted pecans add a little healthy fat back in.