I hate bananas. 

I am sitting here trying to think of another food that I can say that about, and there are zero. I am not a picky eater whatsoever, but bananas just don’t do it for me.

However, I appreciate them for their nutritional value and mostly for their ability to act like ice cream when they are most certainly not ice cream. If you’ve never tried this- trust me, I was skeptical too. When frozen, they  blend into a lovely soft-serve consistency, and they pair especially well with toppings like chocolate and peanut butter.

I would eat just about anything covered in chocolate and peanut butter.

When I found myself with a few extra bananas beginning to brown, I felt inspired to do something different than my usual slicing and freezing for the next batch of smoothies. So as anyone would do, I googled:

“What to bake with two ripe bananas”

Apparently many others have asked this question- in fact, a blog that I am familiar with came up, Chocolate Covered Katie, who listed not 1 but 15 recipes to use! Jackpot!

If you love chocolate peanut butter cups as much as I do, you will love the decadent sweet and salty flavors of these Bites that are bulked up by the healthy mashed banana and the added crunch of the chopped almonds.

I’m posting a recipe about bananas? Who am I?

Chocolate Peanut Butter Banana Bites 

Adapted from Chocolate Covered Katie

You will need:

• 1/4 C + 2 tablespoons unsweetened cocoa powder
• 1/4 C coconut oil, melted. I use Trader Joe’s Organic Virgin Coconut Oil
• 2.5 Tablespoons honey
• 1 large ripe banana, mashed
• 2 Tablespoons reduced fat peanut butter
• 1/8 cup chopped raw almonds [optional]

Combine the cocoa powder, melted coconut oil, and honey in a bowl – stir to make chocolate sauce. Line a mini cupcake pan with 12 liners. Pour a small amount of the chocolate sauce in the bottoms of each. Only use enough to cover the bottoms as you will need to reserve the rest for the topping. I tilted the pan around a few times to let the sauce slightly run up the sides of the liners. [Be careful not to let them fall out!] Place in the freezer for about 8 minutes so they can harden.

In the meantime, mash up your banana in a bowl with a fork. Add the peanut butter and mix in well. Stir in the chopped almonds.

It may look like baby food, but just stay with me on this one, okay?

When the chocolate has formed into shells, evenly distribute the mashed banana mixture. Cover with remaining sauce. Don’t worry about them being perfectly covered- they will freeze up beautifully regardless.

Put them back in the freezer until they are solid….if you can resist.

Mangia!