Bananas are fantastic – not only are they a vital part of your wellness and wellbeing, they are also fun and interesting. What’s more entertaining to a child than peeling a banana and eating it, after all? There are loads of great ways to include bananas in your diet, and the nutrition and flavour that they add to a number of dishes makes them as flexible a staple as you could hope to find.
In summer, the best ways to enjoy bananas is as a banana-sicle. To make them, peel four ripe bananas and cut them in half (across the middle). Put a flat wooden ice cream stick into the flat end of each piece of banana, and then place the pieces onto wax paper and pop them into the freezer. When the pieces of banana have frozen, serve them up as yummy, freezy banana-sicles. If you want an extra-special bite, dip your frozen bananas (very quickly) into some melted butterscotch or chocolate, and then sprinkle with chopped nuts or coconut.
Banana leaves are also a great way to tenderise a roast, and are traditionally used in Asian countries to wrap meat and make it more tender. Next time you do a roast, add a ripe, peeled banana to the roasting pan, and see how it makes the meat soft and fall to pieces on your fork.
It may sound crazy, but you can also use bananas to polish silverware and leather shoes! Banana peel is used for this, but just make sure you remove any stringy material from the inside of the peel first. Rub the inside of the peel onto your shoes or onto silver, and then afterwards buff up the object in question with a soft cloth or a paper towel. You can even use this same technique to restore leather furniture. Just test it on a small area first before you attack an entire leather chair!
