Love is a fruit in season at all times, and within reach of every hand. Mother Teresa

There can be times when the fruit bowl drops out of favour such as during the Christmas and New Year period due to abundance of other goodies.  Or maybe there are a couple of bananas and a lemon destined for the bin because you are going on holiday for a week or two.  Perfectly good fruit should not go in the bin but you cannot take it with you, so what choice do you have?

The key is to have a freezer.  A small ice box inside an under counter fridge is okay for a few fish fingers but it is useless when it comes to saving money.  At the end of a days trading, the largest volume of supermarket marked down items come from the bakery department and the fresh fruit ail, making a freezer worth its weight in potential savings.

In my experience, Aldi pineapples are reasonably priced but they do not keep for very long in the fruit bowl.  I buy them to use with breakfast cereal or in smoothies and so once I have cut into one, I freeze the balance.

Remove the skin and core before cutting into bite size wedges / cubes.

Place a sheet of greaseproof paper on to a baking sheet.  This makes it easier to remove the frozen fruit later.  Cling film will work but I do not think it works as well as paper. 

Greaseproof paper on baking sheet

Spread the chopped pineapple out over the greaseproof paper, preferably so that the chunks do not touch each other.  This ensures the fruit does not end up frozen in clumps.

Chunked fresh pineapple spread out on baking sheet

Freeze in the top freezer compartment or in the fast freeze compartment of your freezer if different.  After two to four hours remove the tray from freezer and place the fruit in to a freezer bag.  I favour zip lock bags as these give easy access to remove as little or as much fruit as needed.  Although they are quite expensive, they are reusable.

Chopped frozen fresh pineapple in bag

Fruit can be stored in the freezer for up to three months.

Frozen banana pieces

I have used this method to prolong the life of avocado, mango, banana, and raspberries. 

If you have a busy morning schedule but like to take a smoothie with you on the train or in the car, why not make up mixed fruit bags ready to tip directly into the blender.

Mixed frozen fruit bag for smoothie.