I love berries, especially strawberries. When I was a child my parents used to have a small field of them. I remember each year around mid-June spending hours out there helping them pick them up… hard back breaking work but it didn’t stop me loving them.

Anyhow, I find that now-a-days shop bought strawberries, or any other fruit for that matter, hardly ever tastes like the real deal, but better them than nothing, right?

One day, last month I was very lucky to return home from a bloggers meet-up with a brand new Philips blender in my bag thanks to Currys and Joe Blogs. Now, there is no stopping me. Most days I blend something in the hope of creating something special.

This strawberry drink is my latest invention and I really hope you will like it.

Ingredients:

• 250ml vanilla yogurt
• 250g fresh strawberries
• 2tbsp ground almonds
• Pinch of cinnamon
• 1tsp honey (optional)

Method:

Wash the strawberries and remove the green stalk.

Pop them into the blender and blend until smooth.

Add the yogurt, ground almonds and cinnamon and blend some more.

The final shake isn’t sweet, so if you prefer a sweet/er option, add a spoonful of honey and blend until smooth.

That’s it, you are all done.

Now drink and enjoy!

Top Tip: Ground almonds will add a bit more substance and tons of vitamin E into a drink but not a lot of flavour. If you prefer a stronger almond flavour and don’t want to use any artificial flavouring, you can use whole almonds and process them yourself. Take a good handful of whole, good quality almonds (the ones from Wonderful Almonds are perfect for this job), spread them on baking tray and roast them in an earlier preheated oven at 175C or 155C if fan assisted for about 5 minutes. Then remove them from the oven and stir well making sure that they are all turned over and pop back into the oven for 2-3 minutes… remove them and check if they are ready (there should be a wonderful powerful aroma filling your kitchen and they should be hot to the touch). If needed pop them back into the oven for another 2-3 minutes, after another invigorating stir. They shouldn’t take longer than 15 minutes to roast, normally it takes only 10. Ideally when finished you want your nuts to be shade or two darker than when you put them in the oven and the smell! The smell should be very nutty but be careful as you can’t let them get scorched and definitely not burnt. If you think that your nuts are ready remove them from the baking tray and cool in a different cool dish. You might think that this is a lot of messing around to roast some nuts and it is, but trust me it is worth it. Freshly roasted nuts have an amazing aroma and much more definite taste. Once cold pop them into food processor and pulse them until grounded. Don’t wiz to much or they will get hot and the oils will clog them together and you will end up with almond butter, so pulse and take your time, then finally add into your shake.

What’s your favourite fruit shake or smoothie?

Yum