Too ripe to me means they are extremely soft inside and the skins are mostly black. I would freeze or dehydrate bananas before they got too ripe to be used. That goes for produce that might die of loneliness in the crisper drawer - the dehydrator to the rescue.......

Wasted food is the most expensive food you purchase, as the old saying goes. On my $125 / month food budget (for 2 adults), there's not room for waste and I'm very good at avoiding it as much as possible ;-).

-Grainlady

I try to avoid wasting as much as possible but I will throw out the odd banana, I don't want to be tempted by banana bread in the house so it's cheaper for me to just throw out a banana once in a while.

If you're a regular maker of banana bread/muffins, you're better off freezing the bananas. You can freeze them whole in the skins, if you have lots of room, or peel them and freeze them in the quantities needed for your recipe.

Mom loved it when I would give her a large bag of bananas that were on the discount rack. She would freeze them for baking.

This post was edited by jasdip on Sun, Nov 3, 13 at 19:40

I have a fruit, greens & vitamin powder shake daily & only want ripe bananas
I use everything possible as compost once I've eaten/used all I can.

DH's aunt had emergency surgery & my squash lay in the garden & got huge & hard while I stayed at the hospital.

I was just sick over it. I LOVE squash & had looked so forward to it.

Betty

Not much gets thrown out here. Either the chickens like it or the pigs like it or the cows and horses like it. There are a few left over things like coffee grounds and potato peels, those get composted but Elery and I are good at using food up before it goes bad. Things like the chicken carcasses and leftover brown rice get saved for soup, frozen if I don't have enough or won't get to it soon.

Once a week I clean the refrigerator and then the animals have a feast. Right now the pig bucket contains stale corn bread, the remains of an egg I dropped on the floor this morning, the scrapings from the kids' plates on Halloween. Chicken bucket has red pepper "innards", the end trims from the broccoli that went on Amanda's birthday "cake", which was a veggie pizza, about a cup full of Cheerios that got stuffed to the back of the pantry some time ago and are now stale.

Betty, that squash would have been chopped up and fed to the cows here, they love the stuff and they process it into beef, so I still get to eat it, after a fashion.

Annie

Maybe next spring I'll get a pig or half dozen chickens. I am afraid of bonding with a single pig so it would have to be several. As a child I took care of a variety of the runts and disabled piglets - I love pigs. They are very smart. Excellent for preparing for new garden beds and using up food waste...

I prefer the bananas very very black. It makes a much stronger banana bread flavor. I only throw them out if they get tough and kind of shrink down.

When bananas are really ripe but still hold their shape well, I peel, cut them in half, stick a craft popsicle stick into each one and freeze them. Later I dip them in chocolate shell and ground nuts. DH and DD love them. They'd be good in smoothies too. If they are too ripe, they do make wonderful banana bread that everyone loves.

A few years ago, sister was able to use corner of good friends yard for a garden... not possible at her townhouse... lack of space and sun. When she started getting over run with zukes (and co-workers were no longer interested), she shredded them up and froze in MEASURED containers for future breads... sweet and savory.

Used to have a Super Fresh market near by. They always had less than "perfect" produce in a specific area. NOTHING nasty or rotting, just not pretty anymore. Brought home many of that produce. Bananas with speckles... are PERFECTLY ripe... all yellow ones aren't. I did a puree into measured containers for future banana bread. Can honestly say, it didn't look great when thawed (a bit dark) but made tasty bread. Brought home a bag of organic apples that were slightly banged up... made baked apples and some apple sauce. Did same thing with MANY tomatoes of all sorts... peeled, chunked and canned for pennies.

For me I don't call being frugal " cheap", penny-pinching, miserly, stingy--------------. As a matter of fact, I donâÂÂt even call it frugal. I call it value conscious.

Greenish bananas is $0.79 a lb, but yellow bananas with very few black spots are marked down at $0.39 a lb, and as you know, yellow bananas with a few spots are at the best ripeness for eating.

I was going to make pork chops, after having read ChaseâÂÂs pork chop thread. But pork chops are $4.99 a lb and pork shoulder is $0.99 a lb. Sous vide pork shoulder is more flavorful and more tender than pork chops.

I was going to make prime ribs, after having read Ann_tâÂÂs dinner, then this week London Boil (boneless) is $0.99 a lb. I think Prime rib is $17.00 a lb? Sous vide London Boil is just as tender and may be beefier.

I enjoy giving leftovers the Cinderella transformation, and free-range organic âÂÂweedsâ on the front lawn the gourmet promotion.

Over the years, several thousand gallons later, there has never been one oz of kitchen scrap not composed. That includes meat, bones and fat, something normally people cannot compost.

My simple tools for composting everything:

A garden shredder to pulverize large bones
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tUn3SCoCFFc

A simple home-made convertable small rototiller to bury kitchen scraps 36â deep. The video shows the tool is digging into earth which was still frozen.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1i9LSzb-U0g

dcarch

Nothing gets wasted here. We have a large compost pile for scraps. As far as bananas go, we only buy green ones. Then, all but two or three go in the refrigerator. They come out a day or two before they are ready to eat. The peels will be brown and not very appetizing looking but the insides will be firm and fresh.

Only one thing I throw out is the fat from marrow bones after simmering them for three days. Anyone have a use for that?

Not much waste here, lol. My crisper veg drawer rolls out easily and onto the counter it goes.
I go through it and check for things going off. Out of town a few days and did a check. Big meaty arugula was good for a sandwich for tuesday but a bit limp for a salad...made a quick salsa for tacos and left a bit in the baby cuisinart and made an arugula pesto adding a bit of lime and olive oil...
Bananas? Not a standard here but when i buy a few, into the fridge when ripe, into the freezer if brown. I know its there and will use it somewhere...or a good dog treat if i need one.
I hang onto kale and collard stems and juice them...other veggie ends and cut offs go in a freezer bag for stock...
I made vinegar out of my garden fruit scraps...