Urgent Really Ripe Bananas - What to Do When Camping

[esavvymom]

Ok...situation is my grubmaster for our camping trip on Friday just called to say that there are alot of really ripe bananas in the boxes of fruit he got (he has two boxes if I heard him correctly). He said some are fine, but a few too many are really ripe, and by Saturday's breakfast, will be even MORE probably.

So he wanted to know what we might be able to do with them to get the kids/adults to eat them. We have 165 people on this trip. Since we are camping, we have NO way to cook them like you would traditionally do with overripe bananas.

Any ideas? I'm thinking we can punt and get a few extra ingredients and make some big fruit salad! Add some grapes, strawberries (in season here and cheap to get in some places). Recipe I found calls for kiwi too and canned peach pie filling (??). But I thought I'd see if anyone else had ideas of a simple or simpler fruit salad or other idea of how to get kids to be able to eat the bananas and not notice they are ripe (not brown flesh obviously...we wouldn't do that to them!)

Thanks

 

[Tracy99]

I guess you are assuming that people don't like over ripe bananas? I LOVE them super ripe. My husband wants them as green as possible. So I think there is a chance you would have some people who don't care that they are ripe. Unfortunately, I don't have a great idea for fruit salad or another use. Fruit Jello came to mind but I don't think you could do that camping. What about mixed with oatmeal? Can you make oatmeal camping and have them put cut up bananas on top? (Can you tell I am not a camper?)

 

[esavvymom]

I'm not even sure how many are what he'd call "overripe". It's not like they'll eat all of them anyway. And if we have some left, I'll bring them home and cook them up or use in smoothies! But you are right...some folks may not care! I don't think they are cooking oatmeal (we're in the south- they typically do Grits...*gag*).

 

[kam]

I am definitely a "green banana" gal - so is a friend at work. We JUST had a discussion today about overripe bananas.

We decided we would un-peel them, slice them and freeze them. Then dip the frozen banana pieces in CHOCOLATE SAUCE!!

That was just our solution!

 

[lt1jane]

when I was a kid going to girl scout and 4-H camps, we would do banana boats. You take a banana in the peel, slice it down the inside of the curve, stuff mini marshmallows and chocolate chips in it and wrap them in tin foil. they can be put in the coals or on top of a grate until the marshmallows and chocolate chips are melted. Take them off th fie and unwrap. Eat with a spoon. Ripe bananas work best because you are cooking the bananas anyway. Green bananas end up being too hard and difficult to eat.

I am normally a green banana person myself, but this is one recipe I will use with ripe bananas.

 

[nikked]

For a really simple (but YUMMY) fruit salad:

Zest & juice 1 lemon
Stir in a teaspoon or so of sugar (more if you like a REALLY sweet fruit salad)
Slice two bananas, stir into lemon/sugar mixture, and let sit while you:

Dice two apples
Peel & dice two oranges
And add some grapes or other fruit

So easy, yet so GOOD! Multiply as necessary (when I'm taking it to a potluck, I'll use two or three lemons, and then multiply the ingredients based on the number of lemons you are using). Always a hit...the lemons keep the fruit from turning (of course) and it will last a couple of days in the fridge (provided it's not eaten by then, which it usually is!).

Happy camping!

 

[nikked]

when I was a kid going to girl scout and 4-H camps, we would do banana boats. You take a banana in the peel, slice it down the inside of the curve, stuff mini marshmallows and chocolate chips in it and wrap them in tin foil. they can be put in the coals or on top of a grate until the marshmallows and chocolate chips are melted. Take them off th fie and unwrap. Eat with a spoon. Ripe bananas work best because you are cooking the bananas anyway. Green bananas end up being too hard and difficult to eat.

I am normally a green banana person myself, but this is one recipe I will use with ripe bananas.

LOVE banana boats...forgot about those! YUMMO! I like to add redhots to mine...mmmmmmmmmmm

 

[BethCooks4U]

Why not take your MFP with you and make smoothies.

 

[esavvymom]

when I was a kid going to girl scout and 4-H camps, we would do banana boats. You take a banana in the peel, slice it down the inside of the curve, stuff mini marshmallows and chocolate chips in it and wrap them in tin foil. they can be put in the coals or on top of a grate until the marshmallows and chocolate chips are melted. Take them off th fie and unwrap. Eat with a spoon. Ripe bananas work best because you are cooking the bananas anyway. Green bananas end up being too hard and difficult to eat.

I am normally a green banana person myself, but this is one recipe I will use with ripe bananas.

I just remembered these too! I'm thinking that gives them a great option for our dessert time. We'll be breaking into smaller campfires for 15-20 people at each...so easier for them to manage if they want to do the banana boats.

I think the committee should definitely do that Friday evening (everyone is on their own for dinner on Friday because they'll be coming in all night).

 

[esavvymom]

Why not take your MFP with you and make smoothies.

If it was just my family or a couple of us...I would (I'll have it with me for something else)....but 170 people....do you think the guarantee would cover that much use? haha.

 

[mom4angela]

I instantly thought of BANANA pancakes. Slice them up and put them in the pancake batter for breakfast... the riper the better! We LOVE them. But then again, we put peanut butter on the pancakes after they're cooked, and then add syrup on top, too!!! YUMMY!

 

[babywings76]

Are we talking big, black, spotty peel overripe? Then they are perfect for banana pancakes. Like Mom4angela mentioned. I mash mine up with the mini whipper and add it to the already mixed pancake batter. I also add mini morsels, too. Pour, cook, enjoy! Makes them extra moist and flavorful. I just add butter and eat them like that because they have so much flavor and have enough sweetness, but my kids like to add syrup or peanut butter and syrup, or my DH taught them how he likes Peanut butter and applesauce on his. (that's a bit much for me! )

 

[esavvymom]

I don't know the exact condition- since I've not seen them. While banana pancakes sound good...they won't appeal (haha! I made a funny - accident!) to everyone. We've got 165 on this trip, so it's not made-to-order cooking either. Maybe we can offer the ripe ones for folks to take him on Sunday and let them make banana bread or pancakes or muffins! I know that's what I'll do (although DH is allergic to bananas).Thanks for the great ideas!! We'll see what we can do.

 

[Brenda.the.chef]

You can always take what you don't use and mash them up and freeze them for muffins, bread, or pancakes somewhere down the road. Most people just the banana by the peel. They could have some sugar spots, but they are super sweet! I just ate one this morning. However, If you refrigerate them now, they will not ripen any further.

 

[byrd1956]

when I was a kid going to girl scout and 4-H camps, we would do banana boats. You take a banana in the peel, slice it down the inside of the curve, stuff mini marshmallows and chocolate chips in it and wrap them in tin foil. they can be put in the coals or on top of a grate until the marshmallows and chocolate chips are melted. Take them off the fie and unwrap. Eat with a spoon.

I was going to suggest Banana Boats, too! Loved them in Girl Scouts and still love them now...I always thought they were better than S'mores.

 

[esavvymom]

We ended up giving them away as best we could. Our Saturday night S'mores/Dessert plans were washed away- literally. We bumped up our dinner hour by one hour because of approaching rain that threatened to last several hours. Then as dinner was wrapping up and cleaning up, we realized it was turning severe. Long story short- we ended up having to bug-out of camp quickly due to severe t-storm warnings and VERY bad lightning all around us. Our camp was then hit by torrential rains, and we later heard by one unlucky family who didn't heed our warnings and didn't pay attention to all of us LEAVING, he said there was hail and high wind. THEN he decided to leave. DUH. Anyway, so we just gave away what we could to whoever was still around camp (about half left that night or were at hotels) the next morning. Anything else was just a loss. Lesson learned by grubmaster to check the stuff more closely when accepting delivery. Thanks for the suggestions though...because we'll have to try these for our own family campouts or our Webelos camping trips.

 

[Teresa LM]

Bummer on the weather. I am glad that you are all OK.