Cherry Blossoms (Sakura) are blooming all over the world and they are just so beautiful. They don’t last very long, but they are Spring’s snow. Some love it and some hate them. Just don’t park your car under a cherry blossom tree or else you’ll be having a bad time. When the cherry blossoms bloom, it’s really pretty and photographers flock from all over to capture it’s natural beauty. In the early 1930s the mayors of both Kobe and Yokohama presented Vancouver’s Park Board with 500 Japanese cherry trees for planting at the Japanese cenotaph in Stanley Park honouring Japanese Canadians who served in WWI. Currently, the City of Vancouver has over 130,000 cherry blossom trees and continues to grow.
I wanted to take the beautiful inspiration of Cherry Blossoms and create some easy healthy breakfast items using Almond Breeze. Almond Breeze is an almond beverage used as a substitute for milk and soy. I really like the sweetened original flavour.
Berry Banana Smoothie
An easy item to make is a berry banana smoothie. To get the natural pink colour, I used berries. I find that Strawberries, Raspberries and Pomegranates work best. Cherries are good too but it ends up giving it a darker colour. Take all the ingredients and throw it into a blender. Very easy and you can’t screw up.
- Half Banana
- Handful of berries (strawberries and raspberries)
- 2 cups of Almond Breeze
Red Berries Chia Pudding
For a quick breakfast on the go, chia pudding is very simple and easy to make. You can prepare it the day before or in the morning if you have time. I like to keep my ingredients simple, so here is a 3-ingredient chia pudding.
- 2 table spoon of chia seeds
- 3/4 cup of Almond Breeze
- handful of berries (cherries, pomegranates, raspberry and strawberry)
Blend the berries and Almond Breeze in a hand blender. In a mason jar, mix the chia seeds and berry almond mixture. Easy and can be done in 5 minutes or less. You can change up the berries in your chia pudding too. I used frozen berries as it was on sale in the store and it keeps for much longer than fresh fruit.
