Throwing away food never feels good. I’m always scouring magazines & blogs for tips and tricks to prevent foods from going bad too quickly, ways to store food and to make meal prep easier..

I have been getting into the ‘let’s freeze it’ mindset simple because freezing is easy and will save time in the future (that’s always a good thing). This is great with bananas because they become more nutrient dense as the ripen, and frozen bananas work beautifully in just about any smoothie and make an easy healthy vegan ice-cream.

It’s so simple but so often many people forget about this simple money saving trick and end up throwing away usable foods.

With a couple minutes of prep work, banana’s can be transformed into frozen nuggets perfect for smoothies. (Don’t just toss the unfrozen chunks into a freezer-safe bag; if you done this before, you know they’ll freeze into a brick of banana chunks that’ll need to be chipped apart before using.)

Freezing Banana’s in 5 Easy Steps

Start with overripe, spotty bananas (they have much more flavor).
Peel all of the bananas.
Slice them into 1- to 2-inch chunks. Smaller pieces are much easier on your blender; even a high-powered blender, like a Vitamix, can have some trouble with a whole banana. You can also just cut in 1/2 and freeze too, which ever you prefer.
Arrange them in a single layer on a parchment (wax-paper) lined rimmed sheet pan and put in freezer.
Once frozen, transfer to BPA freezer-safe bags, press out the air & put the date on it. We like to separate them into individual bags that hold 1/2 banana in chunks for one smoothie, no future guesswork or measuring needed.

Bonus: You can do this with fresh berries, apples, peaches, pineapple, and many veggies too that might go bad before you can use them.

Tip: Use a BPA container or BPA free freezer bags like Ziploc.

Vegan Ice Cream

Serves 1

1-2 tablespoons almond milk
1 whole frozen banana (2 frozen halves or 2 bags of cut: see step 5 above) )

Mix in a food processor until blended. If necessary, add a little bit more almond milk until you get the consistency of ice cream. Scrap down sides as well.

Yummy Toppings

chia seed “sprinkles” (1 tsp)
handful of blueberries on top or mix a little right in with the banana too
1 tablespoon dark chocolate chips (70% or more cocoa)
1 tablespoon chopped nuts
1 tablespoon coconut
dash of cinnamon
optional: add 1 serving of high-quality, organic chocolate or vanilla protein powder if drinking post workout