Day 18: The Microbiome Diet (Phase 2)

For breakfast, I had two coconut oil, pan-fried eggs. I also had some ginger tea with a fresh squeezed lemon for breakfast. For my morning snack, I had two stuffed mushrooms, the ingredients can be found on the post from day 17 or in the Microbiome Diet book. For lunch, I had homemade chili beans and a dollop of kefir cheese. The kefir cheese is a good substitute for sour cream, but I think it tastes better and has more flavor. For my afternoon snack, I had a smoothie which I found in the Microbiome Diet book. The smoothie is shown in the picture above. I know I’ve posted about many different smoothies in previous posts, so rather than boring you with the same ol same ol. I’ve decided to feature one of the main ingredients in this smoothie. 

First of all, the “Sunrise Smoothie,” was given its name by Dr Kellman, author of the book. I think this smoothie tasted great, the recipe includes: 4 strawberries, 1 orange, 1/2 an apple, ice cubes, 1/2 cup unsweetened apple cider and 1 teaspoon almond butter. The recipe also called for 1/2 teaspoon ginger root. This was an optional ingredient but since I’d had ginger tea already today, I decided to leave it out. Also, included in the recipe were 2 tablespoons of pea protein powder and 1/4 teaspoon of Lakanto. 

Side note: most of the smoothies in the book call for either pea protein powder, Lakanto, or both. I haven’t tried any of the smoothies with pea protein powder or Lakanto because I have tried both of these ingredients before and didn’t care for them. They taste fake and leave a horrible aftertaste taste in my mouth, so I decided to omit both. 

So, to mention the ingredient that I’ll talk about today: strawberries. I’ll try to keep this post short and sweet (no pun intended) as I’ve been noticing my posts getting exponentially longer everyday. 

Technically, a strawberry is an aggregate accessory fruit, which means that the fleshy part derives not from the ovaries but from the receptacle that holds the ovaries. Each visible “seed” on the outside of a strawberry is actually one of the ovaries of the flower, with the seed inside of it. Wow, that was something I’d never heard. 

Interestingly enough, strawberries are an excellent source of vitamin c, manganese and others. They are also known for warding off inflammation, cancer and cardiovascular diseases. You know what they say about fruits that look like certain body parts? That’s what they are benifical to. Which makes sense. If you think about it, a strawberry is red like a heart and is even shaped as a heart. Similarly, carrots look like eyes when chopped in half and are scientifically proven to improve eye sight. The picture are the top of this post, Is proof to the natural deep red color of strawberries. I thought the smoothie was  beautiful color and wanted to share it with my readers. Hope you enjoyed the facts about strawberries in today’s post. 

Last, but not least, I will mention what I had for dinner. Today was simple, I ended my day with a barbecued hamburger patty, regular  mustard and 1/2 of an avocado. For my veggie, with dinner, I had spaghetti squash. Yum. All is good in today’s food log.  Tomorrow, I will focusing on eating less fruit and more vegetables. Stay tuned.