Jeff and I were traveling to a few cities in California last month to close the year of 2019. We visited Santa Barbara county and Palm Springs area, and exploring different local restaurants and food is always on our radar.

My sister-in-law Kelly took us to a Juice Bar in La Quinta called Fresh Juice Bar, and we cannot love it more! They have a few locations serving people organic juices, smoothies and Acai bowls. My favorite one is the Pitaya bowl made with dragon fruit and other ingredients with high fiber. It’s very fresh, and I can just have that as my breakfast every day! So once we are back home, the first thing I want to do the next morning is to make a fresh fruit bowl. I had some left frozen mango in the fridge so I decided to use those first instead of dragon fruit at this moment.

When we were in Santa Barbara, we drove to Ojai one day. It’s a small city located in Ventura County and very quiet and cozy. We found a honey tasting room called Heavenly Honey Company. They have a store in downtown Ojai and carry many flavored honey. The owner is the third generation beekeeper and they bring the honey straight from the hive to keep a high quality. I tried Alfalfa honey, Avocado blossom and Buckwheat honey the first time in my life. They are rich and thick. My favorite one is the lavender infused. It gives you a strong herbal and floral taste. It’s a perfect combination with ricotta cheese on a piece of toast in the morning.

Oh man, having both just gives me such a fresh start of the day! Who still needs coffee?!

Ingredients

Fresh bowl: Frozen fruits, fresh berries, bananas, pumpkin seed granola (from Trader Joe’s), coconut flake, unsweetened almond milk.

Ricotta toast: Ricotta cheese (whole milk), lavender honey, flax seeds, chia seeds.

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