Recipes to cram five portions of fruit into yourself

This post is by Lorna Cowie, an artist and self-described “extreme foodaholic”. Her pirate salad made me grin; she knows my love for all things piratical… These are both office-fridge-friendly recipes, though The Office Diet will not be held responsible if your boss catches you with rum-scented breath…

Woe, woe are we all. I am totally getting sick of all the adverts saying “Eat five fruit or veg a day” or ‘One of your three portions of bran a day.’ I mean really, do we have to hear this whilst they advertise their new and improved apple? I think not.

Anyway, rant aside, I have found a delicious and almost naughty feeling way to get some of your “five a day” into your mouth, and to keep with the theme, they are all office related (for a change!)

Pirate Fruit Salad

I created this to cheer up Ali when she had been poking about something for me to write about for this website. I think it’s delicious and also you have full rights to talk like a pirate whilst you eat it.

Fruits:

• 1 Apple
• 1 Orange
• 2 Rings of Pineapple
• 1 Banana
• Some grapes
• Any other fruit you enjoy like strawberries etc etc.

Rum Syrup:

• 4 tbsp water
• 2 tbsp sugar
• 2 tbsp rum

Add all the ingredients for the rum syrup into a pan and bring to the boil, set it on simmer for 2 minutes and let it cool down completely.

Peel and chop up your fruit to make a normal fruit salad. I suggest chopping up half the orange and squeezing the other half into the rum syrup. Add the syrup and mix well before placing into a leak-proof box and putting into the fridge. Make sure you remember it in the morning when you go to work and enjoy with a good round of “YAAAARRR!” and “Where HAS all the rum gone”?

Baked Peach Melbas

• 2 Peaches or Nectarines cut in half with stone removed
• Handful of raspberries

Simply put the cut fruit onto some tin foil, fill the holes left by the stones with raspberries and fold them up in the foil so they are contained. Bake for 40 minutes in an oven at 180 degrees and leave to cool. Deposit into containers to take to work, put in fridge when you get to work and eat when you desire. These can be eaten hot or cold, don’t microwave the foil obviously, and you can even serve them with some fresh natural yoghurt.

What ever way we think about it, eating fruit and vegetables are good for us, so get as many as you can in you whilst you can and the above recipes beats chewing on a carrot stick, no?

(Image above by marinegirl)

The Office Diet has a new post every weekday – don’t miss out! If you enjoyed this article, why not subscribe to our RSS feed?