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Have you entered the Chiquita Cooking Lab Recipe Contest yet? There are only a few more weeks to get creative in the kitchen and enter your winning recipe for the chance to win $4,000 as the Grand Prize winner! I can think of quite a few things I could do that with that extra money and I am sure you can too. Bananas have always been one of my favorite fruits and snacks. Since they are naturally sweet and delicious it isn’t very hard to work them into a recipe.

Each week I have paid a visit to the Chiquita Cooking Lab landing page to check out which two new ingredients have been added. One week they challenged participants to use chocolate while another had spinach that needed to be incorporated. This week’s challenge includes Chiquita Bananas, pumpkin pie filling, and pecans. These are the ingredients I was hoping for and I was inspired to create a Fall recipe right away. Check out my easy recipe for Mini Pumpkin Pie Cheesecakes & Caramelized Banana Topping!

Ingredients:

• 1 egg yolk
• 12 mini graham cracker pie crusts
• 2 packages of 8 oz. cream cheese (softened)
• 2/3 cups of sugar
• 2 eggs
• 1 15 oz. can pumpkin pie filling
• 1 1/2 tsp of ground cinnamon
• Cool Whip

Banana Pecan Topping:

• 2 whole Chiquita Bananas chopped into slices
• 1/4 cup of chopped Pecans
• 2 tbsp of butter 
• 1 cup brown sugar
• 1 tsp vanilla
• 1/2 tsp cinnamon 

 

Directions:

1. Preheat oven to 350°. In large bowl combine cream cheese, sugar and eggs. Beat on medium speed until smooth and creamy. Add pumpkin filling and cinnamon. Continue to mix until all ingredients are well blended together.

2. Whisk egg yolk and brush on pie crust. Bake for 4-5 minutes and set aside to cool.

3. Spoon mixture inside mini pie crusts and bake for another 30-35 minutes or until crust begins to brown. Remove and allow to cool. In the meantime you can create your banana topping.

 

4. Melt butter on medium heat in large saucepan. Slice up your two bananas and toss them in, making sure they are lightly coated. Add brown sugar, cinnamon, vanilla, crushed pecans and a pinch of salt. Lower the heat and stir constantly until bananas are caramelized.

5. Top mini pumpkin pie cheesecakes with a heaping scoop of Cool Whip and a spoonful of caramelized banana pecan topping.

The Chiquita Cooking Lab Contest will end on November 24th and each week the ingredients will changed so get brainstorming now! We already know that the main ingredient will be bananas so you do have an advantage when it comes to creating a unique yummy creation. One lucky winner will be chosen each week to receive $4,000. Their recipe will also be featured in a stop motion video that will be shared on Chiquita’s social networks like Twitter and Facebook. Also, four other random winners will be chosen each week to win fun Chiquita swag.

What mystery ingredients are you hoping to see within the upcoming weeks?

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