Banana Bites

Lindsay and I had planned an evening in to drink wine and watch Modern Family (she needed to catch up on last season's finale before this week's season premiere).  I knew there wouldn't be much time to cook a full dinner, but we didn't want to settle for takeout and Linds needed to use up some veggies before they went bad.  We made a no-lettuce salad with all the produce in Lindsay's fridge (cucumber, bell pepper, shaved carrot, greek olives, mushrooms, pecorino romano, grape tomatoes, and cajun chicken cutlets that I grabbed from the prepared section of whole foods).  There were so many fresh and flavorful ingredients that we dressed the salad simply with oil and balsamic.  It was simple, healthy, and incredibly fulfilling.

Wait a minute - why am I even telling you about this salad?!  Sure, it was fine enough, but a little on the boring side.  And you don't come to this blog for boring.  Don't worry, things got interesting for dessert when we made the opposite of boring: banana bites.  Fresh Direct had sent Linds a bunch of extra bananas and she needed to get rid of them before they spoiled.  If you ask my Mom what she would do in this situation, she would scream "banana bread" (or maybe "chocolate chip banana bread"), but that requires baking so the option was off the table for me.  Instead, we made an easier and healthier treat: frozen chocolate covered bananas.  

It takes no time to melt chocolate chips in a double broiler (use dark chocolate to keep it healthy).  Once it's melted, simply dip 1/2"-3/4" slices of banana in the chocolate and put it on a parchment paper-lined cookie sheet to set.  I wanted to top the bites with sprinkles or coconut for color and contrast but couldn't find any at the store.  Instead, we crushed up Oreos for a makeshift topping that didn't look as fun as sprinkles but tasted much better.  By the time we were done eating supper, the banana bites were ready to come out of the freezer.  The bananas take on the texture of really firm ice cream without all the pesky calories.  They may not be terrible for you, but they certainly taste decadent.  They're also perfect for parties thanks to the quick prep time and pop-ability.  By pop-ability I'm referring to the ease with which you can just pop these suckers in your mouth.  It's an important factor to consider.