Banana Boats

I was browsing the popular pins on Pinterest when I noticed this non-Paleo recipe for banana boats. Apparently this is a standard Girl Scout campfire recipe, but I had never heard of it. You stuff bananas with chocolate or peanut butter chips, marshmallows, shredded coconut, etc. and then wrap them up in foil and put them on a campfire (in this case the recipe was modified to put the bananas on a grill).

After I wiped the drool off my iPad I thought that this would be a perfect recipe to Paleo-ize. In fact, at least technically it would be Whole30 compliant, since it certainly could be made without sweeteners. I still haven’t figured out that slippery slope of what is and isn’t allowed as far as a fruit-based dessert-type dish on Whole30. Larabars are allowed, but putting a frozen banana in the food processor to make a natural banana ice cream-like concoction is considered dietary dry humping. Things that make you go hmm… Perhaps the $40 e-book explains it, but I am holding a grudge against Dallas and Melissa Hartwig for convincing me to give up wine and dark chocolate for 30 days, and I don’t want to encourage them. Maybe I’ll decide it’s worth it by the end of it, but so far all I’ve noticed is increased irritability. I decided that Paleo banana boats were Whole30 compliant for me since I had never eaten a regular banana boat, and therefore i couldn’t crave a banana boat with added sugar. Anyway, I had fantasies of creating the ultimate Paleo banana boats, submitting the dessert to dessertstalker, and becoming this famous Paleo blogger who would be sought out for advice and invited to speak at the Paleo Summit and the Ancestral Health Symposium. That lasted about 30 seconds. Then I found this recipe for Paleo banana boats on dessertstalker with a picture of the banana boats in an actual campfire. I can’t compete with that.

All I’ve got is a picture of parchment paper, and it’s not even on fire. When I set my iPad down while I’m cooking/blogging, it looks as if I’m taking random pictures of what’s on the counter. So sometimes Jewel snaps a picture. Overall I’m glad the kitchen isn’t on fire, of course. Dora opted out of this dessert in favor of leftover raspberry truffles. She’s not a fan of cooked bananas. Tom, Jewel and I each made our own boats. They used dark chocolate chips, peanut butter chips, nuts, and coconut bones. I used coconut butter, almond butter, pecans and coconut bones. Everyone liked it, but I was certainly the most excited about it, even though I didn’t get any chocolate. I really like the taste of cooked bananas. I ate plantains at every meal when Tom and I went to Costa Rica. So I’ve started making these occasionally (ok, less than daily) as a snack or dessert. The melted almond and coconut butters go well with the creamy cooked banana.

I figured out that you can make these in the toaster oven. I asked Tom if I could set the toaster oven on fire, but he said no. At least this looks something like fire. It takes 10-15 min in a 400 degree toaster oven to cook a banana boat. Now if you’ll excuse me I’m going to chow down on a banana boat and figure out another plan to get famous.