This is the skinny on eating better!
A Banana Split for Breakfast?! Try this fruity and granola laden Banana Split with your favorite cereal. And, you can make it low cal. Or, for a few more calories, include ice cream for breakfast – the kids will LOVE you for it! Get them involved and let them build their own splits.
Fruits are delicious when they are in season, but with today’s convenient and timely supply lines, it seems fruits are in season all the time. I was hungry for fruit so I stopped by the produce department in one of our big box grocery stores. They must have been overrun by a huge delivery of fresh fruit because they had endless displays of the colorful fruits. After checking them for freshness and doing the smell test as my Mother taught me, I decided to purchase a few 6- and 12-ounce packages for this Banana Split recipe and a Fruity Parfait recipe I plan to make a couple of days from now. I like to plan ahead and combine recipes whenever I can so as to save myself time and money.
Mom taught me to always smell the fruit for freshness, saying that if a melon had a strong smell, it could be overripe. If the skin of the melon was soft - overripe. She also taught me to check for shininess of blackberries. (I’m used to picking blackberries in my own garden in the summer, but in a pinch, I’ll buy them in the store in the winter.) If they are shiny, they are nicely ripened. If they have a dull dimpled surface, they are overripe. She was right. One time I ignored her advice and bought the dull versions and found they were just too soft and fell apart, having little flavor. Today’s blackberries at the store are nice and shiny and have a delicious flavor. For blueberries, they need to be dusty looking as are the ones in my own garden. That’s what they were today…delicious. Raspberries should be firm – they are very tasty today, as are the strawberries. The strawberries were not as red as I like them, but they had a nice aroma, and do have a wonderful flavor. Today, all was right in the produce department.
As a youngster, I remember being fascinated by the teenager (soda jerk) behind the ice cream counter making Banana Splits. I’m sure he’d made hundreds, judging by the way he knew his way around the different silver lidded containers behind the counter. He knew exactly where the syrups, sugared jam-like fruit mixtures, nuts and whipped creams were all located. It was fun to see how fast he could make the splits, easily sliding the banana out of its peel, scooping your favorite ice creams, clicking and clacking the silver syrup lids up and down, drizzling everything over the bananas and ice cream, dolloping the whipped cream, dropping the cherry on top and presenting the colorful treats without skipping a beat. That’s what we’re making today, but sans ice cream. If you like ice cream, go ahead, splurge and substitute it for the yogurt in my recipe. Just because it’s ice cream doesn’t mean you can’t eat it for breakfast.
This is a fun way for the kids to get breakfast going on a weekend. Have them gather all the items below, plus more of your own concoctions, onto your breakfast table. Have the banana split boats or bowls available and bananas ready to peel. Be as fancy as you like with a charcuterie board of fruit and dry cereals. But why not keep it basic and less work for all, displaying the boxes of cereals on the table alongside the clear plastic boxes of fruit and yogurt containers.
If you want to get really fancy, scoop rounds of the ice cream into a long low bowl ahead of time and place in the freezer with plans to bring it out just before you construct your banana splits. Ice cream can be so much fun for breakfast!
Banana Split Ingredients for two:
1 Banana, large, to your ripeness
4 Strawberries, rinsed
8 Blackberries, rinsed
8 Red Raspberries, rinsed
10 Blueberries, rinsed
1 C Yogurt, your favorite
½ C Granola, your favorite flavor
½ Cup of your favorite colorful cereal
Drizzles of Chocolate syrup and/or other syrups
1 C Cool Whip or homemade whipped cream
2 Maraschino cherries, preferably stems on
- How about some colorful sugar sprinkles? (Not low-cal)
Build your Fruity Granola Breakfast Banana Split:
- If you have a clear glass banana split boat, that’s the vessel to use, two of them. Otherwise, a regular soup or salad bowl works just fine.
- Peel and split the banana lengthwise.
- Place one banana length on each boat or plate. Then split each lengthwise again and pull apart a little so you can easily start piling on the ingredients. Just cut the banana to fit, whether you cut it lengthwise or crosswise.
- Layer half of the yogurt on each of bananas. Here’s where you drop in your favorite ice cream if that’s the direction you’re going with this fun breakfast meal.
- Drizzle with a syrup of your choice.
- Sprinkle most of the granola on top of the yogurt in each boat, saving a little to sprinkle on top of each split just before the cherry is plopped on top.
- Sprinkle your cereal on next, saving a little to drop over the top before the cherry is added.
- Drop dollops of the whipped cream on top all along the length of the banana.
- With each of the four strawberries, make 3-4 slices from the point almost to the stem end without cutting all the way through. I like to leave the stems on. Spread out the slices a little and lay 2 of the cut strawberries on each serving.
- Sprinkle the rest of the berries on top of each banana split, adding more whipped cream if you like.
- Sprinkle a little more granola and cereal over the top of each for more crunchies.
- Create a taller dollop of whipped cream in the middle and plop the cherry on top along with colorful sugar sprinkles. Kids always like sprinkles.
Make it a contest:
- Take pictures of each person’s Fruity Breakfast Banana Split creation and vote for the best looking, craziest, most colorful, etc. But it you have ice cream in the mix, don’t wait too long to dig in.
Warning:
To keep this scrumptious meal a low-cal meal, watch out how much of the whipped cream and ice cream you use. The more fruit and less creams you use, the more low-cal your concoction will be. Whatever you do, have fun!
Options for your masterpiece:
- The sky is the limit for your Fruity Breakfast Banana Split. Use your favorite ice cream.
- Try other fruits that you enjoy; kiwi, melons, pineapple, etc.
- Change up the cereals and granola.
- What about peanut butter heated in the microwave for a few seconds to drizzle over the fruit?
- Instead of whipped cream, try it with a fruit dip.
- Don’t like cherries on top? Substitute a mini chocolate bar.
- Garnish with a chocolate chip cookie or frosted sugar cookie.
- Don’t like bananas? Add a thin slice of chocolate cake or a split cupcake as your base.
Trying this with the kids can get them out bed faster and teach them how to make something different for breakfast. You can also dress it up for a more elegant and nutritious meal later in the day, like a fancy parfait. Whatever you do, playing with your food can help you while “Baking your own Memories!”
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