One of my favourite discoveries during lockdown has been frozen fruit... It is such a useful tool in the low calorie diet, can provide a significant increase to your vitamin and fibre intake and freezing fruit is cost effective!

Try the following for an ice cream alternative:

200g frozen fruit of your choice

60ml milk

Either 2 egg whites or a scoop of your favourite whey protein

Mix all ingredients and then blend together using a hand blender or food processor. It will be difficult to blend at first and if using a hand blender, may seem to ‘scatter’ a bit, but persevere and when the fruit starts to break down into a liquid, it won’t take long. Top with sauce as desired. Tip: if using whey, it may help to mix the whey and milk first.

Other than fruit salad, it is unlikely that there are other snack or desert dishes that offer such a high quantity of fruit, so this can be used as an ideal opportunity to top up your vitamin intake in one go. It is so refreshing on a sunny day!

Many will be familiar with frozen yoghurt. Add approx 50g frozen fruit to 200g Greek yogurt 30 minutes before snack or dessert time, in a Tupperware box and place in the freezer. Stir after 15 minutes. The frozen fruit will have helped your yoghurt freeze and the cool yoghurt will have assisted the fruit in thawing so  that your ice cream alternative is just perfect.

Also, blending a portion of frozen fruit to your protein shake offers a cooler, more natural tasking shake with added nutrients. My favourites are adding raspberries or banana to a vanilla shake! Banana will give you more energy while topping up your fibre intake.

Of course, frozen fruit is not only for the low calorie diet, I have used frozen raspberries and berries in cake baking with great results. I have bought frozen fruit from the supermarket when I have needed a lot but usually make best use of fresh fruit by freezing some.

Fruits such as raspberries or strawberries do not have a long shelf or fridge life. I found that we often didn’t finish the box before they started to deteriorate and so they would be wasted, so I started to freeze what was remaining once they were past their best. However, I now just put approximately half the box into a freezer bag and into the freezer as soon as I buy them. Decant the remainder into a small Tupperware box to save on fridge space too! For strawberries, I’d recommend hulling and halving them first, to lessen the time it takes to blend them when frozen. Grapes and blueberries freeze well too.

I have already mentioned frozen banana as one of my favourites... To effectively freeze banana, peel it and chop into discs, place discs on baking paper on a flat surface such as a plate, oven tray, chopping board, pop in the freezer for 30 - 60 minutes and then pack them into a freezer bag. This method stops the discs clumping together.

I have just put some pineapple in the freezer, I will let you know how it turns out and what it is good for. Maybe an impromptu pizza topping!

I am sure there is still a whole world of frozen fruit out there that I have not yet discovered. Let us know how your experiments have worked out or what ideas you have by posting a comment.