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Big Banana Tips for Your Weight Loss Plan
Article by Diet Bites
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This page is filled with diet tips that feature the healthy banana. Bananas are such a versatile food and can be used as a dessert, as part of the main dish - or even as a sauce for vegetables.
Bananas are so popular that diets have even been built around them. And what's life unless one has experienced a tasty and rich banana split? But as we're dieting, let's skip the split - at least for now and move onto our zippy dieting tips that feature this lovely yellow wonderment of nature.
- Place a whole banana into the freezer for about half an hour. Remove peeling and carefully slice into thin circles. The banana should be very cold and firm - but not solidly frozen.
- Use the freezing technique mentioned above using a small banana. Peel and place into a blender. Add 3/4 cup of skim or low fat milk, a dash of imitation vanilla and blend into a thick skinny shake.
- Add ripened banana slices to hot and cold cereal for a potassium bonus.
- Add pureed banana to your homemade recipes rather than the recommended amount of oil. If the cake recipe calls for 1/2 cup of oil, then add the same amount of banana. For a moister cake, add one cup of mashed banana.
- Fresh banana pairs well with almost-all fruits so let's try combining a few then adding a bit of light whipped cream (15 calories per serving). These combinations work well: sliced banana and pineapple chunks served in the pineapple juice; fresh whole strawberries and sliced banana; sliced peaches and banana sprinkled with ground cinnamon and brown sugar; purple grapes and sliced banana.
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- To prepare an easy dessert featuring bananas, place a banana that has been sliced lengthwise into a non-stick pans with 1/8 cup of light or dark brown sugar and the same amount of water. Add ground cinnamon is desired. Cook until banana is caramelized.
A terrific sauce can also be made using this method. Rather than adding solid banana, puree to a smooth paste. Add the water and brown sugar and heat until bubbly. Use as a sweet sauce for light cakes and fresh fruit - or even sweet vegetables such as the acorn and butternut squash - or pumpkin.
Now for that banana split that we mentioned. The key to keeping calories and fat content under your control is to half the recipe. So we'll use 1/2 of a small banana that has been cut in half, lengthwise - and placed into a serving dish. In the center of the banana place only 1/4 cup of strawberry, chocolate and vanilla scoops of reduced fat ice cream OR frozen yogurt. Allow 100 calories for the ice cream and 40 for the banana.
Add some chocolate sauce to the top of the ice cream - only 45 calories worth. Add a teaspoon of strawberry preserves and a teaspoon of pineapple preserves (45 calories total).
Sprinkle on a few nuts - a teaspoon of chopped nuts should suffice (25 calories). Spray the top of the ice cream with light whipped topping for 15 calories per serving. You'll need three servings - or good squirts (45 calories).
So how did we do where calories are concerned? The total comes to about 300 calories which is a challenging amount to insert into a calorie-restricted diet plan. Hum...perhaps that banana split should wait for us a bit in our future.
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