Cinnamon Bananas

Since I've been trying to fatten up my skinny butt baby the past couple of months, I've started to switch out his plain mashed bananas with these cinnamon bananas because they're cooked in butter. His pediatrician specifically said to give him butter, so there you go. This is a recipe that I adapted from one of my Annabel Karmel cookbooks. I think it would be good if you spooned it over ice cream. That is, if you happen to like bananas. (I don't!)

For every banana you plan to cook, melt between 1-2 tablespoons of butter in a medium saucepan.

Please don't use margarine. Ick. I made four bananas and used 5 tablespoons of butter. Mostly because that's what was left of the stick in the fridge and the rest are frozen. I decided five was plenty this time, but last time I did use all six. (See above - skinny butt baby)

Next, peel your bananas and slice them up.

Add them to the pot with the melted butter.

I tried to turn this picture but Blogger is insistent that it belongs sideways. You can just uh, tilt your head to the right a smidge.

For each banana, add one generous pinch of cinnamon. NOT cinnamon sugar. Just plain, old powdered cinnamon.

Go ahead and give it a good stir and cook for five minutes over medium heat, stirring occasionally.

Did you know that you should never store spices in clear jars or on a rack that is exposed to the sun? Sunlight causes them to break down and get stale faster. That's why those fancy folks at Dean and Deluca sell theirs in little tins. I can't afford to shop there, so I bought these little tins at Market Spice in Seattle (next door to where they toss the fish at Pike Place) and made my own labels on the computer. Then I buy the cheap spices in the Mexican food aisle to refill them. You're not really supposed to keep them longer than six months anyway, so this ensures that I waste as little as possible and my spices are fresh. I think that it might be better for the environment too.

Just promise you'll never buy those giant containers at Costco. Unless, of course, you will use a couple of pints of paprika in 6 months time. Then it's okay.

Back to the bananas! They will get kind of thickened up by the end of the cooking time. This is okay! For each banana you make, pour 2 tablespoons of orange juice into the pot.

I know I shouldn't be using a dry measuring cup to measure a liquid, but the measuring spoons and the measuring cup were both in the dishwasher and I was too lazy to get them out. Since I'm cooking here and not baking it's okay.

Slowly stir in the juice. This will thin the banana mixture out.

Now at this point, you can add a bit more juice to thin these out to serve over vanilla ice cream, or you can leave them as is for baby food. For a younger baby, I would puree these with my immersion (stick) blender, but since Bubba's getting better at this eating business, I just sort of mash them a bit with the potato masher.

If you find that they are still too thick for your liking, add a little bit more juice.

Let them cool for a bit and then you can freeze them. While I'm still using my lovely Wilton silicone brownie pan for single fruit and veggie purees because I like to mix 2 or 3 at a meal, and this makes it so I can pick and choose which ones to serve that day...

(I pureed some mangoes while waiting for the bananas to cool)

I'm using these Beaba silicone trays for foods that are served as I make them. Things like spaghetti sauce, turkey with butternut squash & tomatoes, etc. Since I usually serve the bananas alone, not mixed with any other fruit, I put them in this.

I own three of them now, but four bananas fills one just right. Each section holds 1/4 cup of whatever, so 4 bananas made just over a cup and a half of cinnamon bananas. Using a disher makes quick work of transferring the bananas over.

These also have a lid, which is nice. :)