Throwing out ripe bananas and expired bread? Not so fast!


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Sari Castro | Daily Trojan

Sari Castro | Daily Trojan

It’s always unfortunate when food goes bad and you’re forced to throw it away, but before you do that, here are some ideas to salvage some of those goodies.

Ripe bananas

If you bananas have gone ripe, don’t worry! That’s the perfect way for them to be used in the next two delicious desserts:

A) Banana bread

Ingredients:

  • 1 ripe banana, mashed
  • 3 tablespoons of self raising flour*
  • 1 tablespoon of white sugar
  • 2 tablespoon of brown sugar
  • 1 egg, beaten
  • 1 tablespoon of olive oil
  • 1 tablespoon of milk

Process:

  1.     In a mug, add the raising flour (*if you don’t have self raising flour, just use all-purpose flour and add a ¼ of teaspoon of baking powder). Add the white sugar and brown sugar. Mix those three ingredients with a fork.
  2.     In a separate compartment, lightly beat the egg.
  3.     Add the egg to the mug containing the flour, white sugar and brown sugar and mix with a fork.
  4.     Add the olive oil and milk, and mix.
  5.     In a separate compartment, mash the banana and then add it to the mixture in the mug
  6.     Mix all ingredients and put in the microwave for 3 minutes and enjoy!

B) Banana pancakes

Ingredients:

  • 1 cup of all purpose flour
  • 1 tablespoon of white sugar
  • 2 teaspoons baking powder
  • ¼ teaspoon salt
  • 1 egg, beaten
  • 1 cup of milk
  • 2 tablespoons of olive oil
  • 2 ripe bananas, mashed

Process:

  1.     Mix flour, white sugar, baking powder and salt. In a separate bowl (bigger than the one you used for the flour), mix the already beaten egg, milk, olive oil and the mashed bananas.
  2.     Gradually stir flour mixture into the banana mixture. It’s okay if the batter is a little lumpy.
  3.     Slightly oil a griddle or pan (wherever you’d like to make the pancakes), and heat it to medium high.
  4.     Pour ¼ cup of mixture onto the griddle (or pan), and cook until pancakes are golden brown on both sides and enjoy!

Expired sandwich bread

As long as it’s not growing mold, sandwich bread can be used for bread budin. It’s not as fresh, but it’s fine.

A) Bread budin

Ingredients:

For the caramel

  • 7 tablespoons of sugar
  • ¼ cup of water

For the budin

  • 1 loaf day-old bread
  • 4 eggs
  • 2 teaspoons of vanilla extract
  • 4 cups of evaporated milk
  • 1 ¾ cups of water
  • 1 ½ cups of white sugar
  • ¾ teaspoon salt
  • ¼ cut butter, melted

Process:

  1.     Preheat oven at 350 degrees. Get a loaf pan ready to use.
  2.     Pour the ingredients for the caramel on a saucepan over medium-high heat. Occasionally stir in order to dissolve the sugar completely, but stop stirring once the mixture comes to a boil. Be careful not to burn the sugar, and once the sugar turn LIGHT golden brown pour it into a loaf pan. Set aside.
  3.     Remove the crusts from the bread, tear it into small pieces (cubes work, but don’t have to be perfect), and place in bowl. Add evaporated milk and water. Distribute all contents evenly and set aside for about 10 to 15 minutes to allow the bread to absorb liquid ingredients.
  4.     Whisk the eggs in a bowl along with the sugar, vanilla extract, salt and melted butter. Stir this mixture into the moistened bread (after the 10-15 minutes have passed).
  5.     Put mixture in loaf pan over the caramel and bake for about 1 hour and 15 minutes. Wait for it to cool, and enjoy!