Autumn is on its way, and as the sun rises later and later each day, waking-up can begin to feel like a bigger struggle.

Look around outside on your way to work or school; you may have noticed apples are in season, so why not get your day off to a refreshing start with this juicy fruit!

As well as providing a great source of fibre, apples also contain beneficial polyphenols.

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Try out the following simple recipe as a new way of eating apples?

Spiced pork tenderloin with sautéed apples

Ingredients:

• 3/8 teaspoon salt
• 1/4 teaspoon ground coriander
• 1/4 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper
• 1/8 teaspoon ground cinnamon
• 1/8 teaspoon ground nutmeg
• 1 pound pork tenderloin, trimmed and cut crosswise into 12 pieces
• Cooking spray
• 2 tablespoons butter
• 2 cups thinly sliced unpeeled Braeburn or Gala apple
• 1/3 cup thinly sliced shallots
• 1/8 teaspoon salt
• 1/4 cup apple cider
• 1 teaspoon fresh thyme leaves

Cooking time: 20min

Recipe:
1. Heat a large cast-iron skillet over medium-high heat. Combine first 5 ingredients; sprinkle spice mixture evenly over pork. Coat pan with cooking spray. Add pork to pan; cook 3 minutes on each side or until desired degree of doneness. Remove pork from pan; keep warm.
2. Melt butter in pan; swirl to coat. Add apple slices, 1/3 cup shallots, and 1/8 teaspoon salt; sauté 4 minutes or until apple starts to brown. Add apple cider to pan, and cook for 2 minutes or until apple is crisp-tender. Stir in thyme leaves. Serve apple mixture with the pork.

If your children are not a big fan of eating fruit in the morning, why don’t you amuse them with bunny shaped apples and encourage them to eat before they go off to school.

How to cut apple rabbits:

1. Cut each apple into 6 or 8 wedges.
2. Cut the core out of each apple wedge.
3. Carefully score the apple skin with a knife in an inverted V shape.
4. Insert the knife under the apple skin and carefully move the blade to a little over the edge of the inverted V shape.
5. Remove the triangle section of apple skin. Soak apple rabbits in salt water for a few minutes to prevent them browning.
6. Serve apple rabbits for dessert or pack them in lunch boxes.

The information above was obtained from the following websites:
http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/B9780124078253000125
http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0308814613002847
http://www.myrecipes.com/recipe/spiced-pork-tenderloin-with-sauted-apples-10000002012820/
http://japanesefood.about.com/od/howtocook/ss/how_to_make_apple_rabbits.htm#step-heading