We made it to Friday. Weekends can be the hardest time to eat well. The routine goes out the window, we're social, we're tired, we just want to relax. I get it. Same here. One thing that helps me is having something easy and plant-forward already in the fridge. Not a full meal plan. Just something. A pot of grains. Hummus and veggies. Soup. What's your plan this weekend? Or what do you wish you had ready? I'll share some ideas if you need them! ❤️

Let's talk sleep. How are you doing? I know a lot of us are waking up at 2am or 3am and staring at the ceiling. It's so common for those of us in perimenopause and menopause and it's also so exhausting. If that's you this week, you're not alone. If you slept well, share that too because we love hearing it. How'd last night go? 😔 or ❤️ or somewhere in the middle?

Saw a great video on the stages of the pepper & the nutrients...

I usually don't share when I'm traveling beforehand (safety thing) but I just got back from London and I am still on a high. I went with one of my best friends. After I got married, most of my traveling became trips with my husband, which I love, but it had been several years since she and I had gone somewhere together. So this one felt really special. A fun girls trip, just us, and it was so so good. 𝗔 𝗳𝗲𝘄 𝗵𝗶𝗴𝗵𝗹𝗶𝗴𝗵𝘁𝘀 𝗜 𝘄𝗮𝗻𝘁𝗲𝗱 𝘁𝗼 𝘀𝗵𝗮𝗿𝗲: 𝗠𝗲𝗲𝘁𝗶𝗻𝗴 @Eloise Ansell 𝗶𝗻 𝗽𝗲𝗿𝘀𝗼𝗻. Some of you know her, she's in this community. We've known each other since last year and if you've ever been in a friendship where you send each other 10-minute voice notes back and forth, you know how it feels to finally be in the same room as that person. She made the journey, over an hour and a half (and then several hours to get home - I'm so sorry!), just to meet me for brunch at Mildreds (a really popular vegan restaurant in London). I love meeting my "online friends" in real life. There is just nothing like it. 𝗧𝗵𝗲 𝗳𝗼𝗼𝗱. This was honestly such a breath of fresh air. Living in the US, even being relatively close to New York, I am so used to scanning every single menu hoping there's one option for me. In London it was completely different. Vegan restaurants everywhere, and even regular restaurants had real plant-based options. I had vegan fish and chips while my (non-vegan) friend had hers, and the best part was she was genuinely excited to try everything. We did bottomless plant-based sushi, vegan afternoon tea, dim sum, desserts, so much matcha. Not one stressful food moment the entire trip. I didn't realize how much mental energy I spend on that at home until I didn't have to. 𝗪𝗶𝗰𝗸𝗲𝗱. We saw it live in the West End. I love the Wicked movies, I love Wizard of Oz, and seeing it performed live in London was just something else. Really wonderful. I'll definitely be sharing more from the trip but wanted to pop in and say hi. I was around in the community this past week, but now I'm fully back and excited to our cooking class on Tues, new resources being dropped, and more. I missed you all!

STEM