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Help, need creative cooking ideas

Angela Toucan

Angela Toucan

I keep looking for THAT wardrobe
Pollywog
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Nov 6, 2017
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We benefit from a free weekly food parcel on Fridays, that I am very grateful for. The quantity and contents vary each week. Some weeks the contents will last days, sometime the contents are common, other times strange.

Today's parcel contains LOTS of these 4 items. All of which need eating today or tomorrow at the latest. Enough for several meals.

I'm in need of creative ideas please. What can I do with
  • over ripe bananas
  • soft turnips
  • parsnips
  • limes
 
bananas - make into banana bread, cookies, cake, pancakes - smoothies with some added yogurt and milk or juice. You could make it a 'tropical' smoothie with the limes and maybe some orange or pineapple juice.
I love limes, but I've always just used it mostly as an accent flavor except in dessert items like lime bars or meringue pie. Could you juice them and freeze the juice in small quantities (like an ice cube tray - once frozen you put the cubes in a plastic bag or container for more compact storage) for use later as needed?

I am no help with the parsnips and turnips at all
 
Ideas from my DH:
Banana bread, banana pudding, banana fritters. Parsnips and turnips could be used to make a creamy soup or puree. Or maybe even a dip with some lime juice to give it bite. Roasting the root veggies will overcome limpness as well. Could then be eaten directly or used in other things.

Personally, I like the idea of soups with the parsnips and turnips because you can easily freeze those.
 
I mash turnips with potatoes and make mashed potatoes.. adds a little extra flavor ..

Banana bread is easy... I just throw a couple mashed bananas and few eggs in a cake mix and bake.. nothing else.. simple and always turns out so good...
 
In addition to the other suggestions:
- you could add the root veg to a stew/casserole
- you can freeze bananas for future baking use, best if you peel them first as the skins are hard to get off once frozen, when the bananas re-thaw they are mushy but perfect for banana cake/muffins etc.
 
Limes ; quarter them if , small, in 8 if larger, make sure they are washed, then freeze, all winter you have a nice piece of lime to add to hot tea, or just hot water and honey.
Turnips and parsnips , cube and freeze, they are both excellent in soup. , If you want you can roast parsnip in the oven ,brushed with oil,salt,and pepper, maybe some paprika. or add them to potatoes you want to mash.
Over ripe Bananas , breakfast bars for the kids . Mix mashed bananas ,with oats About a cup pr 2 banana,some grated coconut,and if you have some chocolate chips, if not some cocoa powder , No sugar, no butter.
mix together.
Butter a baking tray ( lots of butter or stork margarine) put big spoonful's of the mixture with a nice distance between them, or use muffin trays, bake at 180 celcious for about 25 minutes. Done. You can put them in a tin, they last a week, and taste great, and they are filling.
 
we freeze overripe bananas whole (skin still on) and defrost them in a bowl or with short bursts of low heat in the microwave (in a microwave safe bowl) and just squeeze the liquidy mushy banana out for banana bread or anything really where replacing an egg is possible (so mostly cakes or biscuits) - but banana milkshakes/smoothies (with some Milo/Nesquik/choc topping for icecream or peanut butter) are our other go-to (allergy dependent obviously with or without milk substitutes )

my DS is mad for parsnips - they can be cooked like honeyed carrots https://www.bbcgoodfood.com/recipes/honey-roasted-parsnips and are good mashed with some boiled potato and cauliflower florets to reduce the carbs/calories

turnips i'm not so sure of (i get swedes and turnips mixed up and all i know to do with them is soup or stew with some meat and a handful of pasta or lentils)

when we have a lot of lemons, i peel or zest it (i add those bits to a ziplock bag & freeze it because recipes ask for zest often for added flavour) and then juice it and freeze the juice in icecube trays but we have bought commercially frozen lime wedges before, i think it was for a thai stirfry probably, so in theory they can be frozen as just cut up wedges
 
Another recipe, hehe, but not for foods. I love making DIY kitchen cleaners using citrus fruits like oranges, limes, lemons. To make it, just cut up the fruits and place inside a spray bottle, then fill it up with some vinegar and water. Let it sit for a while. Then you can use it to clean kitchen surfaces. Love the fresh scent of lime, aaahh..

Here's a recipe: https://momforallseasons.com/diy-lime-kitchen-spray/#_a5y_p=3501029
 
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