Bananas are my go-to snack for many reasons — they fill me up, energize me, and easy to eat on the go. Bananas are also packed with nutrition, but did you know there are lots of ways to use this fruit that don’t involve eating?

Health benefits and flavor aside, bananas can be used for far more than a snack. We’ve rounded up 10 unusual ways to use bananas–both inside and outside the home–that will definitely change your opinion of this common fruit.

10 Unusual Ways To Use Bananas

1. Egg Replacement

Ripe bananas can be used as a vegan replacement for eggs in baked dishes like breads, cakes, and cookies. One mashed banana is equivalent to one egg. This is not only a great way to make animal-friendly desserts but also a way to put overripe bananas to use.

2. One-Ingredient Ice-Cream

Got bananas? A blender? Good. Peel, chop and freeze the banana in a zip-lock bag. Remove from the freezer, and place into a food processor or high-speed blender. Mix until fluffy and smooth. Serve with your choice of mix-ins, such as chocolate chips or dried fruit and nuts.

3. Face Mask

Banana is full of water, vitamins, minerals, enzymes, and nutrients. Thus it makes for a great moisturizing face mask. Mash a banana in a small bowl with the back of a fork and apply to a clean face. Let sit for 20-30 minutes before rinsing and drying clean.

4. Shoe Polisher

Want to go au naturel with your shoe polishing? Before dropping that banana peel in the compost pile, let it hit your shoe first. Peel off any stringy skin from the inside of the peel and then rub it against your shoe to shine it. Use a towel to wipe down the shoe after shining.

5. Fertilizer

With more than 10 percent of the RDA of potassium in one serving, bananas offer a great alternative to chemical fertilizer. Dehydrate banana peels during the winter. When spring is just about to arrive, blend the dried banana in a food processor and then use it as mulch for seedlings.

6. Butterflies and Birds

Birds and butterflies are beautiful, especially when they are leisurely flying around your garden. Place overripe bananas on an elevated or hanging platform in the center of your garden. The sugary fruit will attract winged wildlife to your backyard.

7. Pesticide Removal

In a recent study conducted in Brazil, banana peel s were used to remove pesticides like atrazine and ametryne from the water supply.

8. Hair Conditioner

According to Dr. Oz, banana is one of the best natural hair conditioners. All you have to do is blend a few ripe bananas until completely smooth – adding a little water if you need to. Brush the mix into your hair with a fine-toothed comb. Let sit for 20 minutes before rinsing out.

9. Heart Disease Prevention

You love bananas with all your heart, but did you know eating them actually strengthens that very organ? The potassium in bananas helps to lower blood pressure and reduce cardiovascular disease mortality.

10. Reduce Puffy Eyes

Eat bananas to treat a bloated gut or puffy under eyes. The potassium in bananas reduces water retention in the body. For this effect, you can either consume them or rub the peel under your eyes.

Related on EcoSalon:

Sunday Recipe: Healthy Banana Bread

Fiber Watch: Fabric From Bananas?

Sunday Recipe: Simple Vegan Banana, Chocolate Hazelnut Ice Cream

Photo Credit: Darwin Bell

The post 10 Unusual Ways To Use Bananas appeared first on EcoSalon.

The stalk of a banana plant contains fibrous strands that can be processed into anything from paper to kimono-grade silk.

Fabric from bananas, from the stalk of a banana plant to be more precise, has been utilized by cultures in Japan and Southeast Asia since the 13^th century. The fiber from the stalk of banana plants is incredibly durable and is actually a waste product of the bananas grown for the food industry. Spun into silk yarns, woven into fabrics for interior decoration and even used as paper and packaging materials, the fibrous stalks of this large, fruit-bearing plant offer numerous possibilities as a natural and sustainable textile and fiber material.

Originating from the tropical areas of Southeast Asia and first cultivated in the area we now know as Papua New Guinea, bananas have grown to become an essential part of life for several cultures. Many of us are dependant on bananas as a daily source of creamy, sweet and vegan nutrition, even in Western countries where bananas rarely grow. But who would have thought that you could wear and decorate your house with parts of the banana plant?

Much like the fibrous stalks of other fast-growing flora, the banana plant contains long and strong fibers in its sturdy stems. The outermost layers of the stalk contain the coarsest fibers, while the inner layers contain fine fibers that can be spun into luxurious fabrics such as silks. After a banana harvest, the cut stalks are stripped of their fibers by a decortication method, whereby the stalks are crushed by a roller and then the fibers are scraped by machines that have sharp, revolving wheels on them. Stripping can also be done by hand, which involves removing narrow strips of the stalk with a serrated knife. A banana fiber separator machine has been developed in India, which takes the agricultural waste of local banana harvests and efficiently and quickly extracts strands of the fiber.

Fiber extraction is followed by boiling the strips in an alkaline solution to soften and separate them. After boiling and washing the strips, the skins and fibers are separated from one another, after which the fibers are joined through a tedious and time consuming method to create long, continuous threads. The threads are then ready for spinning, during which they must be kept wet in order to prevent snapping or breaking. Dyeing and weaving the yarns are the final parts of the process, producing a high quality material that can be used for various applications. The fineness of the fiber determines the thickness of the yarn, as finer yarn is used for clothing, medium grade yarn is used for table cloths, curtains and cushion covers, while thicker, coarser yarn is used for basket weaving, floor mats and bags.

Processed banana fiber resembles bamboo and ramie fiber, but the high grade fiber is actually much finer and easier to spin. Despite its fineness, this high grade banana fiber is extremely durable, and has a natural luster that gives it a satin-like appearance. Spun banana yarn and woven banana textiles are very moisture-absorbent and since their processing does not involve chemicals, they are completely biodegradable.

Since the Japanese have been processing banana fibers for nearly 800 years, they have perfected the art of creating banana cloth. The finest fibers of the banana stalk are reserved for kimono dresses and kamishimo, a formal garment worn by the samurai. Nepalese artisans have also been creating beautiful and lavish rugs out of banana fibers, as their moisture-wicking properties make them the ideal floor coverings for tropical climates. Alongside these traditional uses, banana fibers are also used for interior purposes such as cushion covers, curtains, tablecloths, bags and even paper and journals. The International Institute for Environment and Development has even launched a program to educate women in Rwanda in making low cost and environmentally friendly sanitary pads out of banana fiber.

The time and skill required to efficiently make strong and evenly spun yarns can take a lifetime to learn, however, the process of banana fiber production is nonetheless a sustainable one. Banana plants do not require pesticides or fertilizers when grown in the tropics, and are often cultivated by small farmers who own their land. The fibers are spun, dyed and woven by small artisan communities that continue to pass down their trades to younger generations, keeping age-old traditions alive. These communities often thrive as a whole on the work they accomplish, sharing the benefits equally among one another.

Products made from banana fabric are difficult to find unless visiting a country where the material is currently produced, such as the Philippines, Japan, Nepal, India or Kenya. Some items such as bags, coasters, pillows and clutches can be found online at Fair Trade marketplaces like Handcrafting Justice, Harkiss Designs and Nkuku Fairtrade. For the craftier type, beautifully dyed banana silk yarns can be found from Frabjous Fibers. These skeins are handspun by women in Nepal, and kettle dyed or hand painted into an array of  brilliant colors. THIS Co., a fabric distributor that has worked with the likes of Comme des Garcons, offers woven, semi-sheer banana fabric at $47 per yard.

Images: SQUAREROOT, THIS Co., kamsky, Nkuku Fairtrade, Frabjous Fibers

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The frappuccino gets a major health revamp.

While it is high in calories, sodium, and cholesterol, it’s really the sugar content that blows one of Starbucks’s beloved beverages out of the water. Starbucks’s Caffe Vanilla Frappuccino Blended Smoothie contains 310 calories per 16-ounce serving, in addition to 3 grams of fat, 2 grams of saturated fat, 10 milligrams of cholesterol, 220 milligrams of sodium, and 67 grams of sugar.

Sugar will go straight to your head, give you a short-term high, and then leave you lethargic and glum. It spikes your blood sugar levels, leads to weight gain, is nutritionally empty, contributes to candida, and, to put simply, is actively bad for you. If you are going to consume sugar, get it from something a bit more decadent and lasting than a down-in-a-hot-second drink, regardless of how delicious it may be!

My version of a vanilla Frappuccino smoothie is sugar-free, save for the optional chocolate syrup glaze and whipped cream, using a few drops of zero-calorie, low-glycemic stevia instead. The recipe also goes a step further by replacing cow’s milk with almond milk. Almond milk is a mere 40 calories per 8-ounce serving and avoids the common issues that arise when ingesting dairy, such as hard-to-digest proteins, hormones, depletion of enzymes and vitamins through pasteurization, saturated fat, synthetic chemicals, and a boo-ing cow.

Cutting corners in so many other ways, it’s up to you whether you want to indulge with a topping of whipped cream and chocolate syrup. You can find vegan variations of both in your local health food store.

Enjoy!

Sugar-Free Vegan Vanilla Frappuccino

Ingredients:

• 1 cup coffee cooled
• 1 cup almond milk, soy milk, rice milk, or skim milk.
• 1 banana
• 1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract
• 2 handfuls of ice
• 1 tablespoon cocoa powder
• 4 drops of liquid stevia, or 2 packets of powdered stevia
• Whipped Cream (optional)
• Chocolate Syrup (optional)

Directions:

Combine all ingredients in a Vitamix and blend until smooth.

Bon Appetit!

Aylin Erman currently resides in Istanbul and is creator of plant-based recipe website GlowKitchen.

Image: Starbucks

The post Nutritional Breakdown: Vanilla Frappuccino appeared first on EcoSalon.

Banana bread revamped and loaded with essential fatty acids.

When it comes to recipes, we all have a few go-to classics, many that we grew up on. Be it apple pie, banana bread or oatmeal cookies, these are our comfort foods. But a lot of the comforting concoctions stashed in our mothers’ and grandmothers’ recipe books were born straight out of the 50s, a time certainly not equated with being health conscious. Fortunately classic recipes can be revamped, and this month in Sunday Recipe we’ll be doing a little experimenting in the kitchen to bring you healthier versions of our favorite classics.

EcoSalon’s Managing Editor Amy DuFault came to me with her mother’s recipe for banana bread, along with the comment, “Been eating this since I was a kid, and this is still how I make it- help!”

Challenge accepted. Here is the original recipe:

Elly D’s Banana Bread

• 2/3 Cups Shortening
• 2 1/2 cups flour
• 1 2/3 cups sugar
• 1 1/4 teaspoon baking powder
• 1 teaspoon baking soda
• 1 teaspoon salt
• 1 1/4 cups mashed, ripe bananas
• 2/3 cup buttermilk
• 2 eggs

A pretty straightforward recipe, the main culprits are the mass amount of sugar and the shortening, and although I tend to always err on the side of “more butter” in recipes, there is always a time and place for trying new things. Enter, avocado. Yes, avocado. It’s a great substitute for butter and in this recipe, it makes for a very dense and moist bread. And while we’re packing this bread with essential fatty acids, why not throw in some walnuts and sprinkle it with flaxseeds for a nice finishing touch?

Elly D’s Banana Bread Revamped With Avocado and Flaxseeds

Ingredients

• 1 mashed medium size avocado
• 1/4 cup canola oil
• 2 1/2 cups whole wheat pastry flour
• 1 1/4 teaspoon baking powder
• 1 teaspoon baking soda
• 1 teaspoon sea salt
• 1 teaspoon cinnamon
• 1 1/4 cups mashed, ripe bananas
• 2/3 cups nonfat plain yogurt
• 1/4 cup hempmilk (you can use any type of milk)
• 1/3 to 1/2 cup honey (this depends on how sweet you want your bread)
• 2 eggs
• 1/2 cup chopped walnuts (optional)
• Flaxseeds for topping (optional)

Directions

Beat eggs and add in rest of wet ingredients. Beat with a whisk until you get a pureed consistency.

In a separate bowl combine dry ingredients.

Mix all ingredients together and pour into greased baking pan. Sprinkle with flaxseeds.

Bake at 350 for 40-50 minutes, or until knife inserted into center comes out clean.

If you’re really feeling decadent, top it off with some chocolate hazelnut spread.

Every month on Sunday Recipe, we bring you a new theme of recipes, perfect for whipping up on a Sunday. For March it’s all about revamping classics into healthier versions. Enjoy!

The post Sunday Recipe: Healthy Banana Bread appeared first on EcoSalon.

I can’t say I’ve ever given much thought to the humble banana skin. Once I peel the banana, the skin is simply thrown into the compost. But work currently being done by scientists at The University of Nottingham has opened my eyes to the fact that it has the potential to do more than simply rot away.

Joel Chaney, a PhD student at the university, has developed a method for turning banana skins (and leaves) into fuel briquettes that could be used for cooking and heating.

The process involves using a domestic meat mincer to turn the banana skins and leaves into a pulp, then adding some sawdust to create a consistency that allows the mixture to be molded into briquettes. After being baked in an oven at 105 degrees, the dried briquettes turn into an effective fuel source.

It’s such a simple idea that offers huge potential for communities in the developing world. In places like Rwanda, where bananas are a staple crop, these banana briquettes could be the answer to the problem of dwindling firewood, a direct result of intense deforestation.

Watch how Joel makes his banana briquettes with this video at Test-tube.org.

Image: Jason Gulledge

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