Recipe Monday: Banana Boats!

Happy belated Father’s Day to all the dads out there. I hope everyone had a great weekend! We spent the weekend outside. It was awesome. We got a firepit on Saturday, roasted marshmallows and had s’mores on Saturday night, then spent the day hiking and playing in the Chagrin river on Sunday. And we grilled out both nights.

Happy Father’s Day, daddy!

Hikin’

Post-hike snack, pre-creek walk.

I also tested my log cabin fire-building skills. I must say, I did a pretty good job even if it was a small fire!

What started out as a log cabin… Not too shabby, though!

You may recall from posts past how much I love and miss my camp days at Birch Trail Camp for Girls in the north woods of Wisconsin. Today is the first day of camp for the 2014 season. I was talking with a camp friend last night about how we should have been packing for camp this weekend. This conversation, combined with Boo finding my Super Soaker from camp last week, coupled with the fire pit and hiking, brought back a flood of memories. It has been 17 years (oy vey) since I was last at camp as a camper or CIT, but I still miss it every summer. And winter. And spring and fall. I can’t wait to send my kids up north so I can live vicariously through them. 🙂

I had a different recipe ready for today, but in the spirit of the first day of camp, let’s celebrate with something fun and messy — banana boats! Banana boats are so insanely delicious they taste like More. What is More you ask? Something that tastes so good you want more, of course! (Thank you, tripper Chad for that gem. My husband still looks at me like I’m crazy every time I say it to my kids!)

Note: since I haven’t actually made banana boats since last summer, the photos below are stock photos, not my own. But I assure you, they are just as delicious without my personal photos to contribute.

Banana Boats!

Ingredients/Supplies

Charcoal or wood for the fire
Fire ring with a grate, OR you can put these on the grill
Tinfoil
Bananas (as many as you’d like! Or a general rule of thumb is one per person)
Chocolate Chips
Marshmallows (mini marshmallows are easiest to use, but you can use the big ones too)

Directions

Lay out a sheet of tinfoil, making sure the foil will be long enough to have “handles” at the ends once the banana is inside.

Make a slit in the banana lengthwise, leaving the peel intact, except the part that you slit. Place the banana in the center of the foil.

Inside the banana, place marshmallows and chocolate chips. Once the banana is full to your liking, you will wrap the banana in the foil. Don’t wrap too tightly. You want to make sure you don’t squish the gooey goodness on the inside! Make sure you created some handles so you can easily move your banana boat around on the fire for optimal roasting and melting.

Place the wrapped banana on the grill or fire grate. Leave for 5-10 minutes, or until the inside is melted and gooey. Carefully unwrap the foil, grab a fork, and dig in!

Tip: You can basically add anything you want into your banana boat. You can use peanut butter, almonds, coconut — whatever sounds tasty!

We usually make banana boats on the 4th of July. I don’t know why. It has just become kind of a tradition! You can make them any time a s’more would be appropriate. They are a great cookout activity, especially for kids. But they are also a great dessert just for adults. 🙂 Enjoy!!

Happy Monday, everyone! And happy “first day of camp day” to all of the BT girls! A wonderful summer awaits you.

“We welcome you to Camp Birch Trail, we’re mighty glad you’re here…”