This time of year, I’m all about the fun festive drinks. I’m already dreaming about drinking eggnog, kombucha cocktails and this Gingerbread Latte over the holidays!

The difference between this Gingerbread Latte and the festive holiday drinks you might find at say Starbucks is that this recipe is free of artificial flavours, artificial colours and refined-sugar. Sure, those drinks might taste delicious but they don’t always leave you feeling too awesome. For someone like me who has sensitive blood sugar, it would leave me with a quick energy spike and a quick crash that would result in me being mega tired and brain foggy.

Not this Gingerbread Latte – this one is made up of all #RealAssFood! It also contains a special ingredient you might not typically find in your festive drinks – collagen!

By now, you may have already heard of collagen. You might already be supplementing with it on a daily basis (and of course, reaping the many benefits!).

For those of you that don’t know, collagen is the protein that holds us together. It’s found throughout our connective tissue, including our skin, muscles, bones, blood vessels, digestive system and tendons. The best way to think of collagen is to picture a cute little chubby baby. One word: collagen! After about age 25, our collagen production starts to slow by about 1.5% per year. That’s when we start seeing the initial signs of aging such as wrinkles.

In order to continue to support our connective tissue, skin, as well as our gut health, nails and hair (which also benefit greatly from collagen), it can be really helpful to incorporate a high-quality collagen supplement. You can also get collagen from foods like bone broth or vitamin C-rich foods which help to produce collagen, but a hydrolyzed collagen peptide supplement is going to give you the most concentrated form of collagen.

It comes in a fine white powder and the best part is that it’s tasteless and odourless, which is why it’s so great to add to drinks or recipes. Since each serving contains about 10 grams of protein, it can also help to make your drinks or snacks more blood sugar-balancing since protein is going to help to slow the release of glucose (sugar) into the bloodstream. Plus, you can happily sip away knowing that you’re supporting the health of your hair, skin, nails and gut at the same time!

Speaking of which, if you’ve been following me on social media, you’ll know that a month ago, I embarked on a 30-day collagen challenge. I had used collagen in the past, but I wanted to see if I would notice any notable differences in the quality of my skin, hair or nails if I committed to it for 30 days.

I’ll also preface this by saying is that I by no means intended on approaching this as a diet. But instead, I approached it by looking at it as an “adding” strategy. So much of dieting is focused on eliminating and restriction, but when implementing a new health habit, I like to look at what we can add instead. That way, it doesn’t feel like you're deprived or restricted.

I guess I should also say that I didn’t end up doing it for 30 days straight, but would say in the last month, I had it most of the time. While I didn’t notice any huge differences in the health of my hair and nails, I did notice the texture of my skin change slightly. It looked and felt more plush. I would imagine in order to notice any drastic differences, you would have to be taking it consistently for months on end. However, I’m still happy knowing that even though I didn’t notice a ton of benefits on the outside, I most definitely supported the health of my inside!

Alright, that’s enough about collagen. Let’s get to this dreamy, creamy Gingerbread Latte recipe, shall we?!

Homemade Gingerbread Latte

Ingredients:

1 cup hot water
1/2 cup oat milk (coconut or almond milk would also be nice!)
1 scoop Sproos Marine or Grass-Fed Collagen
1 tbsp dandy blend (if you don't have it, you can still make it without)
1 tbsp molasses
1 tsp cinnamon
1/4 tsp ground ginger
1/4 tsp nutmeg

Directions:

Put ingredients into a blender and blend on high until frothy.

Happy holidays to you and yours (and happy sipping!)