SELF - C. 🍝 A. 📱 R. ✏️ E. 🪺

Hey 💖

The most important thing we can do right now is make buying decisions that get us out of the toxic system that our society has normalized.

Normalizing toxic products makes us blind to the fact that they are the very root of poor physical and mental health.

I know that when someone finally chooses to experience the complete 180 that takes place when they return to products that are in alignment with nature, they’re sold.

Probably the greatest hurdle in getting started is the cost of switching $$$

High-efficacy, fresh ingredients often come at a higher price point.

This makes sense when you think about a small family farm, creating completely natural products by hand with their own limited resources. 

With the internet creating awareness and a demand beyond a farm’s immediate community, the price goes up. And that higher price pushes people over to the big corporations that use motor oil to make products that look like what you want, cheaper and more readily available.

With years of trial and error in this space, I’ve created a guide to help you avoid confusing product labels. 

Buying from a biodynamic, family farm is best. If the cost of getting those luxurious products straight to your door is a stretch, opt to save with these bigger businesses who still share the same nontoxic, in-harmony-with-nature values.

I buy almost all of the "SAVE” brands in one place by using Thrive Market 🛍️🛒

Whether you want to splurge or save, I trust every one of these brands and feel a heck of a lot more comfortable using their products on and around babies, old people, pets, and all living beings to support thriving health.

Here’s this week’s reflection:

SELF - C. 🍝 A. 📱 R. ✏️ E. 🪺

🍝 Cooking: Chicken Fettuccine Alfredo w/ Handmade Pasta

If you would’ve told 22-year-old me that I’d be eating a big bowl of fettuccine alfredo without guilt, shame, body-hate, or physical discomfort… I’d never believe it.

The secret will always come back to the quality of your ingredients. 

It makes so much of a difference that I don’t even view this homemade fettuccine alfredo and a fettuccine alfredo ordered from a restaurant as the same food…

Restaurants, frozen meals, packaged foods, and any prepared-for-you meal are 99% of the time cooked with inflammatory seed oils. They contain shelf-life-extending chemicals that put your natural body out of balance.

Those mostly unnoticeable things… change everything. 

Once you understand this, you can enjoy all the foods you’ve ever loved and feel better than ever 🤸‍♀️

📱Art:

If you follow me on Instagram, you might have already seen this…

But I’ve been loving making mini collages to capture the essence of my week. 

Usually every Sunday, I’ll go through my camera roll and pull out pictures of my dogs, my garden, flowers I see on my walk, and food I’ve made to make a virtual collage.

I don’t always post them, but I love to save them all in a folder and scroll through them as a way of romanticizing my life more and noticing just how aesthetic my real life is.

I find it a lot more joyful to make and then scroll through my own highlight reels, rather than getting lost scrolling through other people’s social media posts.

The more you can focus on yourself and enjoy the beauty in your day-to-day, the happier you’ll be 🥰🦋🌻

✏️ Reading: Educated by Tara Westover

After working in public schools and deciding that I will definitely homeschool my future children… This memoir takes that idea to a whole new level.

I found myself cringing in pain as the author described her brutal upbringing — never stepping foot in a classroom and instead learning through life experience, helping her mother with her work as a midwife and herbalist and her father with his dangerous work in a scrap yard, storing resources for the “impending doomsday”.

The author’s childhood was so wild, it’s hard to believe it’s a true story. But in the end, it does prove my point… most of the time spent in public school is a waste.

Although what she went through absolutely is not the safest and healthiest childhood, her success shows how life experience holds true value over sitting in a classroom. 

I was glued to this book. I think it shows a unique perspective on education and encourages a re-evaluation of the belief systems we grew up with ✨

🪺 Enthusiasm:

Our chickens started producing eggs every single day which is amazing because my goal is to avoid a grocery store as much as possible so that’s one less thing to buy 💁‍♀️

Also, this is the first year I’ve seen real success in my garden. To the point where I am continuously harvesting enough of everything I planted to cook with for my family.

I realized my success last weekend when I was watching a TV show called Ranch to Table. It’s a cooking show where the woman makes recipes using fresh ingredients from her family farm and shows the work that goes into managing and caring for their 14,000 acres of land.

So an extremely high-level version of what I’m trying to do, but as I was watching, I realized I could make a few of the recipes from the show with just the food I have in my tiny backyard garden 🥹

I made this insane Caprese sandwich with sourdough ciabatta rolls I had stored in my freezer from a previous baking day, tomatoes from my garden, the homemade pesto I shared with you last month using fresh basil from the garden, and I had a biodynamically grown balsamic vinegar made from pinot noir grapes in the Willamette Valley. 

Oh, and luckily I had some mozzarella cheese in my fridge, but that is one of the next items I plan to make from scratch. *I’ll keep you updated! :)

The next night I made Arroz con Pollo using a bunch of different peppers and tomatoes from my garden 🫑🍅🍚🍗

After most of my plants barely produced anything last year, I’m grateful to see this progress. Every year will be bigger and better!

Sending you so much joy for your week ahead! 🌞

🤍 Jaclyn