A berry medley smoothie is also berry nice!

BERRIES...

I adore berries.  The word berries makes me giddy.  I'm smiling right now as I type this!  They are like nature's candy.  You can eat them while picking them.  They color your fingers and face with their berry colors.  I call berries my cheery fruit.  I hope I'm not alone in thinking this.

Fresh berries are always the best, but if that's not an option then frozen berries are great too.  Even when I go to the farm and pick my own berries, I still freeze the majority of them.  You can also preserve them by canning (glass jars) them, especially as jam or jellies.  Fresh, frozen, or canned (and even freeze dried in the supermarket), there are a bunch of ways to enjoy them.  My favorites are in smoothies, fruit salads, pies, jams, and jellos.

Now, what can I say about berries?  Strawberries, raspberries, blueberries, and cherries are all delicious and full of antioxidants, which means that they have immune-boosting properties.  They are often high in vitamin C and potassium.  Berries, like strawberries and raspberries, are also high in fiber.  Berries are low-calorie foods and have colorful skins, which provide phytonutrients that help fight diseases, such as cancer, heart disease. Various berries have been known to lower blood pressure, improve vision, and aid in brain development.  Google this for yourself!  Eating berries just is not a hard sell because they are so delicious and so very good for you.  No wonder so many artificial flavors try to mimic them; however, NOTHING beats the real thing!

Today, I'll share the berry medley that I had for breakfast the last Monday of May, Memorial Day.  It's an antioxidant dream to drink!  It's a very cold berry breakfast smoothie.  It is my original recipe and involves a handful of this and a handful of that, but I tried to use approximations to get the recipe down to one, or two, servings.  I usually eat or drink nothing else with this smoothie, and so the superfood powder allows me to not be hungry in a couple of hours, but can be left out.  The honey may not be necessary depending upon the sweetness of the berries.  Also, the mint leaves provides that cool addition that you really only need on a hot summer day.  If I'm  making this smoothie in the winter, I usually leave out the mint.

A BERRY MEDLEY SMOOTHIE

Ingredients:

• 1/2 cup strawberries, fresh
• 1/4 cup cherries, frozen
• 1/4 cup blueberries, frozen
• 1/4 cup raspberries, frozen
• 1/4 cup pineapple juice, or fresh pineapples
• 1 cup almond vanilla milk
• 1 tablespoon raw honey, optional
• 5 large mint leaves, optional
• 1 tablespoon superfood powder, optional

Instructions:

Combine all ingredients in a high-speed blender. Blend just until foamy.  Serve immediately.
Makes 1 servings, about 16 ounces... or half of that if you want to share.  Enjoy!

My berry medley breakfast smoothie ready
to consume!

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I hope you like it as much as I do.  Do you choose other berries for your berry medley, such as blackberries, boysenberries, cranberries, gooseberries, or any other berry?