Breakfast recipes | smoothie recipes | Chiquita bananas

Breakfast with Chiquita bananas

We all know that breakfast is the most important meal of the day. Breakfast boosts your energy levels, and helps with weight management and concentration throughout the day.  Did you know that the word breakfast literally means “breaking your fast”. Overnight your energy levels drop – so by eating a healthy breakfast in the morning you are replenishing your glucose levels – giving you energy for the day. And there’s no better way to start the day than with a nutritious energy-packed Chiquita banana breakfast!

Healthy smoothie recipes

For a healthy lifestyle, smoothies are the quickest and easiest way to get your daily dose of fruit and veggies! These healthy Chiquita banana smoothie recipes are true breakfast heroes. They’re packed with goodness, ready in a flash, and delicious enough to get us out of bed on Monday mornings!

Congratulations! You found the BEST banana bread

Discover a whole universe of banana bread recipes right here! Try one or try them all – we did! There’s recipes for every preferences and diets – vegan, vegetarian, gluten-free, sugar-free with combinations of oatmeal, coconut, carrot, pancakes, mugcakes, waffles and more!

Overripe bananas are perfect for banana recipes!

For all vegans and vegetarians, this yellow fruit is made for you. From vegan banana bread and muffins to fruit salad and desserts, our vegan recipes are healthy and delicious.

Banana Stages of Ripeness

Ready to Eat?

While partly green bananas are perfectly safe to eat, the banana does not reach its peak of ripeness until it has begun to produce brown freckles and spots. At the browning stage, the majority of the starch has converted to sugar, offering the highest level of sweetness, hence why many are using bananas as natural sweeteners or sugar replacements. The best time to consume a banana is, in fact, when most people would consider it to be beginning to rot.

Storing Your Bananas

Bananas keep best at room temperature in open air. Keeping bananas in a plastic or paper bag will accelerate the ripening. You can slow the ripening down by placing bananas in the refrigerator. The fruit will be preserved longer, though the browning of the skin will accelerate.

Ripe VS Unripe Bananas: Which are Better for You?

Unripe Bananas

• Benefits: Unlike yellow bananas, green or unripe bananas contain less sugar, making them ideal for a low sugar diet. Unripe bananas also have a high resistant starch content and probiotic bacteria that is essential for colon health. What’s more, this unsung hereos help your body absorb nutrients, such as calcium, in a more efficient and effective way.
• Drawbacks: If you’re after antioxidants, you’re better off waiting for a slightly older yellow banana, as a banana’s antioxidant levels increase with time. Also, whilst we love the high resistant starch content of green bananas, they can sometimes lead to bloating and gas.

Ripe Bananas

• Benefits: As mentioned above, the older and riper the banana, the higher the level of antioxidants. So it’s best to wait for them to turn yellow if that’s your endgame. Yellow bananas are also easier to digest as the resistant starch becomes a simple sugar with a higher glycemic index.
• Drawbacks: To avoid the loss of micronutrients as a banana ripens, it’s best to store them in the fridge. If you’re on a low sugar diet, it’s best to avoid ripe bananas as they are higher in sugar than their younger green friends.

The Conclusion? Both yellow and green bananas are great! But they have different benefits so it really depending on what you’re looking for. The main difference is that yellow bananas are higher in sugar and should be avoided if you’re on a low sugar diet.