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{Note from Jessica: Today’s post is shared by my lovely friend, Marjorie Saveski, author of the This is So Good website. Marjorie is a blogger and a home cook with a passion for real food, health, and fitness. She hopes to share what she has learned through her real life experience and research with her readers. Stop by her site, This is So Good, to find more delicious recipes and helpful health information.}
One of my favorite comforts is a warm mug in my hands and time to sit back and enjoy the delicious drink. My latest creation, a Vanilla Maca Latte made with herbal coffee, has quickly become my warm drink of choice.
After being diagnosed with severe Adrenal Fatigue in 2009, I had to work diligently to overcome the symptoms and never want to go back! One of the hardest things about the protocol was giving up caffeine and for me that meant giving up coffee. Caffeine affects your body’s cortisol levels which are already dysregulated when suffering from Adrenal Fatigue.
More recently, some blood work showed low thyroid function. Working with a functional medicine doctor, I was able to get my thyroid back on track without medication. I am so grateful for this improvement, but once again, I want to make sure I never go down that road again.
So a few months ago I started noticing mentions on the internet of an endocrine adaptogen called maca. I saw claims that it was helpful in cases of Adrenal Fatigue and hypothyroidism. I was intrigued, but skeptical. After a few months of research, I decided to give maca a try. You can read more about my research and how I use maca in this article.
If you are not familiar with maca, it has a malty butterscotch flavor and a sweet smell. I think it pairs perfectly with fruits for smoothies or with the warm, rich flavors of herbal coffee.
If you decide that maca is not right for you, this herbal coffee latte is just as delicious without the maca, so feel free to leave it out. If coffee is still a part of your daily routine and you feel your body does well with it, you could also make this drink with regular coffee.
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Vanilla Maca Latte :: Gluten-Free, Dairy-Free, Caffeine-Free
Skip the coffee shop and make your own delectable latte at home! The combination of maca and vanilla is so delicious that you won't even miss the coffee!
Ingredients
- 1 cup of brewed Clean Living or Happy Liver Herbal Coffee
- 2-3 Tablespoons of full fat coconut milk
- 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
- 1 teaspoon maca powder
- cinnamon and nutmeg
Instructions
- Place the herbal coffee, coconut milk, vanilla extract, and maca in a small saucepan and warm to just below a simmer.
- If you have an immersion blender, use it to blend to gather all of the ingredients in the saucepan. The coconut milk will create a nice frothy layer on top of the herbal coffee.
- If you do not have an immersion blender, you can pour the warm ingredients into a regular blender and blend until the froth appears.
- Pour into your favorite mug and sprinkle with cinnamon and nutmeg.
- Relax and enjoy!!
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Nutrition Information:
Yield: 1 Serving Size: 1Amount Per Serving: Calories: 270Total Fat: 11gSaturated Fat: 5gTrans Fat: 0gUnsaturated Fat: 5gCholesterol: 788mgSodium: 122mgCarbohydrates: 5gFiber: 1gSugar: 2gProtein: 35g
This website provides approximate nutrition information for convenience and as a courtesy only. Nutrition data is gathered from Nutritionix and we often find their calculations to be slightly inaccurate based on the whole food ingredients we use on this site. Nutrition information can vary for a recipe based on many factors. We strive to keep the information as accurate as possible, but make no warranties regarding its accuracy. We encourage readers to make their own calculations based on the actual ingredients used in your recipe, using your preferred nutrition calculator.
If you are looking for more tasty drinks like this one, check out my Delicious Drinks Board on Pinterest!
Want to Make Your Own Gourmet Herbal Coffee Blends & Support Your Stress Response, Adrenals, Thyroid, and Whole Body Through Herbs?
When it comes to supporting overall wellness, herbs are a great tool to have in your toolkit, especially those who may be dealing with chronic illness of some type. Since 2009, when I started this site, I have met thousands upon thousands of people through my work and by far, the #1 health complaints are:
- adrenal fatigue (or adrenal dysfunction of some sort) (click here to read all of my adrenal health articles)
- thyroid disorders (hypo-, hyper-, or autoimmune) (click here to read all of my thyroid health articles)
Because of this, I wanted to add in a section into this post about the benefit of using herbs with chronic illness. Adaptogens are by far one of the most used herbs when it comes to working with people who have low energy, fatigue, and overall imbalance in the endocrine system (thyroid, adrenals, and blood sugar).
While the benefits of adaptogenic herbs extend far beyond just supporting that one system, this tends to be one of the main reasons people turn to adaptogenic herbs in the first place. That said there are a lot of other herbs out there that offer amazing support for the body, especially those dealing with chronic illness which is why I wanted to share this section today.
If you are dealing with any type of chronic illness, I’m sorry to break it to you, but caffeine may not be your best friend. 🙁 While you can find lots of info online in both the pro- and the anti-coffee camps, the fact of the matter comes down to the fact that are a lot of people dealing with chronic illness, especially thyroid and adrenal problems, that simply cannot tolerate coffee and caffeine.
While those with sluggish adrenal glands tend to feel run down and in need of a regular pick-me-up (like coffee and other caffeinated beverages), in the long run, caffeine can do more harm than good while you are healing. I go into the “whys” around caffeine and your adrenals in this detailed post here. In addition to the caffeine, there are other constituents, molds, and mycotoxins that can show up in coffee that some people find they react to and can further exacerbate the toxic load on the body.
When I was diagnosed with autoimmune disease and adrenal fatigue, one of the first things that had to go was coffee. In addition to dealing with these issues, we suspected that I was having some detox pathway sluggishness so we wanted to also focus on supporting the liver and lymph systems. Most people who are dealing with chronic illness are also going to have issues with detoxification of the body, which is why herbs can play such an important role.
To be honest, I never drank coffee because of the caffeine. I drank coffee for the taste and aroma, as well as the emotional experience I felt to my morning cup of joe. For me, it was a ritual that I looked forward to every day (and sometimes multiple times a day). Whether I was brewing it at home or going to my local coffee shops, the experience was one that I clung to tightly.
But, when I was faced with new health struggles, I knew I had to do whatever I could to support my body and give it the tools it needed to heal. Giving up coffee and caffeine was one step in this direction.
And it sucked.
I turned to the coffee substitutes on the market in a desperate attempt to recreate the ritual I had grown so fond of, but nothing ever tasted the way I wanted it to. Nothing ever gave me that same experience that my cup of “real” coffee did. I knew there had to be something better, but I simply could not find it on my health food store’s shelves.
Necessity is the mother of invention so that is why I created my own coffee substitutes. They were made with organic, sustainably harvested herbs with zero grains, zero gluten, and zero caffeine. Just herbs.
Herbs that not only tasted delicious but supported my body’s function, like liver detox, bile production, digestion, etc. All of the herbs used in my “coffee” blends have been used for thousands of years to support the body’s normal functions and help everything work a little better — something we all need in today’s toxic world! (psst, dandelion is one of the herbs!)
When it came to creating these blends, if I could get something to not only tasted amazing (and helped me recreate my dearly loved ritual), but also did amazingly supportive things for my body, then it’s a no brainer!
I sold these pre-made blends on Etsy for awhile and the demand was more than I could keep up with. People literally LOVED these blends and were stunned at how much like coffee they actually tasted. Customers who had been dealing with a variety of chronic illnesses had given up coffee to heal their bodies, but like me were deeply missing their morning cup of joe ritual.
After careful consideration and work with some highly experienced advisors, I decided to stop selling the pre-made blends and instead share my proprietary recipes in the form of an eBook. That way I could arm people with the knowledge and recipes they needed to make their own caffeine-free, gluten-free, grain-free blends in the comfort of their own home.
That is why I created the best-selling DIY Herbal Coffees eBook: A Complete Guide To Making Delicious Herbal Coffees to Support Healing & Stress Relief.
Now in its second edition, this ebook features:
- All of my proprietary herbal blend recipes to you can craft a homemade herbal cup of “coffee” at home.
- A ton of researched information about coffee’s impact on the health of those dealing with issues like adrenal fatigue, blood sugar dysregulation, autoimmune disease, thyroid disease, and any other chronic illness.
- Information about all of the herbs used, why I selected them, how to source them, how to prepare and store you “coffees”, and much more.
- Access to your own personal coffee shop where I show you how to recreate your favorite coffee shop drinks and pastries with wholesome, nourishing real food ingredients. No junk here. Only real food.
This book truly is a comprehensive guide to supporting your health, reducing your stress, and bringing a little something special back into your healing journey. You can learn more and download your own copy of this revolutionary wellness guide here, or simply click on the image below.