The One Superfood You Can Slip into Your Diet Unnoticed!

We all want to get our family eating more superfoods, and when switching them over to a better-for-you diet, sometimes that's easy, and sometimes, not so much.  Butter and bone broth?  Simple, because who doesn't love those?  Raw milk?  No problem, because it tastes the same (or better) than store-bought.  Liver and organ meats?  Now those are a bit trickier.  (Although I got this beef liver recipe by my teenager once and he hadn't a clue.)  There's another superfood, though, that's really easiest of all to get into your family:  beef gelatin and beef collagen peptides!

First, what are they and why are they good for us?

Collagen protein (beef gelatin) and the collagen peptides both contain collagen.  Collagen is a protein and a building block for our skin, and is protective against signs of aging by preserving elasticity and regeneration.  It also supports bone and joint health and muscle restoration (so athletes love it), and can even help to manage your weight and boost your metabolism.

You've heard about all these benefits from making bone broth, well this is a way to boost those benefits, or add these nutrients to other foods, too!

Collagen benefits:

So now you see why I've been slipping it into our foods anywhere I can.

How to get more into your diet:

As I said, it's so simple!  This Beef Gelatin is what I buy now and here are my favorite uses:

• Homemade Finger Jello — a fast, easy, nutritious snack for the kids!
• I add some to any soup, sauce, gravy, or stew I'm making.
• I haven't tried these yet:  Kid-friendly Gummies!
• I especially love to add it to my stock when I'm on the second or third run on the bones and it's not gelling up as nicely as the first or second batch did.  (Read more about making broth/stock here:  Bone Broth for Rookies.  Or get the “broth bible” here.)
• These homemade sea salt caramel marshmallows melt in your mouth!  (I adapted their recipe a bit and will post that soon!)  I was skeptical about homemade marshmallows, I'll admit, but they tasted just like a marshmallow only BETTER because did I mention they were sea salt caramel marshmallows?

This is the Collagen I buy now and it's cold-water soluble, so you can use it in any of the above AND also the below to boost protein content:

Note that this one is a better choice for foods that you wouldn't want to “gel” — it won't change the texture, or thicken liquids like the gelatin will.

• Add it to Superfood Smoothies to make them even MORE nutritious.

• Homemade Ice Cream

• Homemade Pudding

• Superfood Baked Oatmeal

• Or in flavored waters, coffee, or tea

They both can be used for a much better version of those protein shakes you see people drinking, you know that those brands aren't from pastured animals!