Grow Microgreens Indoors this Winter

This post is sponsored by UncommonGoods, an online company committed to selling handmade, recycled, and organic products.

For this past month of November, I participated in a 28 Day Gut Reset and Replenish You Challenge by Aviva Romm. As part of the challenge, I cut out all sugar, grains, and dairy and then slowly reintroduced them back into my diet by the end of the month. This gave my gut some time to heal and allowed me to see if any of these foods were causing me any physical symptoms. If they did cause symptoms, I knew my gut would need more time to heal.

I learned a great deal of knowledge by participating in this challenge. I learned about the correlation between the mind and gut, how stressors including lack of sleep affect our adrenals and thyroid, and how inevitably this can all lead to hormonal disruption, depression, and anxiety. Over the past few years I’ve learned and taken to heart that our health is much more than just diet, but needs to be looked at holistically.

However, as I’ve been writing about for years, our health starts in our gut. One thing I learned about myself during this time is that I wasn’t eating nearly enough vegetables as I should have been eating. For the entire month, my plate was filled in vegetables for breakfast, lunch, and supper. I felt great!

I was going regularly (if you know what I mean), lost the bloat, shed some pounds, and felt good. I was able to drop a supplement that I thought I needed, my mind felt clearer, and I was able to slow down and concentrate better.

Eat Your Greens

As we often hear, greens are important to eat regularly. When we think of greens, we usually think of leaf lettuces; however, leafy green vegetables in the Brassica family (cabbage, Brussels sprouts, bok choy, kale, and broccoli) help our liver detox while giving your gut flora the best nutrition possible. They contain fiber that promotes a daily bowel movement which in turn clears out environmental toxins and prevents estrogen excess. For woman, excess in estrogen is a culprit to hormonal imbalances leading to depression and anxiety. Women, eat your greens!

A great way to get the most nutrient dense greens in your diet all winter long is by growing them indoors.

Microgreens

Microgreens are young seedlings of edible vegetables and herbs harvested less than 14 days after germination. Usually, my microgreens come from thinning my garden in the spring; however, you can intentionally grow them indoors to harvest when they’re about 1-3 inches long that can add a powerful punch of nutrients to your winter meals.

According to WebMD, microgreens have up to 40 times more vital nutrients than their mature counterparts. For example, red cabbage microgreens had 40 times more vitamin E and six times more vitamin C than mature red cabbage. Cilantro microgreens had three times more beta-carotene than mature cilantro.

I’ve wanted to grow microgreens indoors for some time now, so I was very excited when I was offered my own MICROgreens grow box from UncommonGoods.

UncommonGoods is an online store that sells unique products with a mission that I can support. I love that they’re committed to selling handmade, recycled, and organic products.

Their windowsill grow box caught my attention right away as I’m making intentional efforts to eat more vegetables and greens. The grow box kit includes the grow box, soil, kale, pea, and carrot seeds to start growing your own greens indoors right away!

This would be a great Christmas gift for yourself or someone you love!

If you’re looking for a special gift for your man or hubby, you’ll need to check out UncommonGoods. I’m eyeing the Chicago Cubs World Series Champions stadium art for my die hard Cubbie fan!

Thank you UncommonGoods for the grow kit! I’m looking forward to adding nutrient dense greens to my diet all winter long!