Things I learned last week

Here are some things I learned when I was last-week-years old:

🩸 You’re supposed to soak your menstrual cup in boiling water before you put it away after your Auntie Flow’s visit.

👁️ You’re supposed to apply eye cream to your occipital bone, not DIRECTLY UNDER YOUR EYES where all the wrinkles are.

🧾 Some very basic tax concepts that apparently every 43-year-old who does taxes should already know.

🪡 To my delight, I still remember how to mend a button 33 years after learning. Thanks, Mom!

🛜 When the power goes and there’s no internet, it turns out I DO NOT read my stack of books and work on my Sashiko pattern like I always imagined I would. Instead, I have a meltdown, forget how to function as an adult person, pack up my laptop, and sprint to the nearest Wi-Fi connection available.

🚿 You can buy a super simple, inexpensive gadget to snake the clog from your shower drain yourself instead of calling a handyman or plumber.

🛒 Some people don’t sign up for Clean Food Dirty Girl because they want to use more store-bought ingredients, like pre-made hummus, ketchup, and mayo.

🥘 Some people don’t sign up for Clean Food Dirty Girl because they don’t batch cook.

I want to touch on the Clean Food Dirty Girl bit because, although I am new to basic DIY fixes and understanding my feelings when the internet goes out, I understand PFL more than I understand most things.

First, if you don’t know what Clean Food Dirty Girl is, that’s okay. I never knew where to properly apply eye cream on my face until LAST WEEK, so I understand that we all DON’T KNOW A LOT OF THINGS. I am not here to judge, except myself, which much like mending a button, I can’t seem to unlearn.

Clean Food Dirty Girl is a magical portal with over 400 whole-food plant-based meal plans and over 4,700 original recipes (and counting). The functionality, deliciousness of the recipes, and the fact that it’s ad-free makes it the pinnacle of plant based recipe platforms.

I can’t imagine my life without it—I use it almost every day. If you want to eat more plants, it will help you do that in a way that lasts. PFL is truly an incredible resource and there’s nothing else out there like it.

Because it’s for people who want to eat a whole-food plant-based diet, it’s geared around making your own meals and all the components you’ll need for those meals. Salad dressing, ketchup, BBQ sauce, mayo, pasta sauce, cheesy sauce, hummus, grains, beans, and all the other staples and yums you can imagine—we teach you how to make all this stuff at home so you’re in control of what you eat. For some people, this is exactly what they want, for others, they have a to-do list THREE-THOUSAND MILES LONG and can’t be bothered to make their own precious mayonnaise out of cashews and tofu. And I get that!  

Clean Food Dirty Girl is as important to me as my Instant Pot, my fine-mesh strainer, my blender, and my Berkey water filter.

And do you know what I have in my fridge as I type this?

• Vegan mayo from Safeway
• Organic ketchup I paid way too much for at my tiny local health food store
• Sun-dried tomato hummus from Safeway
• Miyoko’s Sharp English Farmhouse Plant Milk Cheese
• Half a jar of pasta sauce I bought on sale at a more reasonably priced health food store
• A stash of store-bought veggie burgers in my freezer, right next to a stash of beet burgers I made a couple weeks ago from PFL

I have this stuff in my fridge because sometimes I’m too busy figuring out BASIC ASS TAX FORMULAS to partake in making my own precious cashew-based mayo. I’m happy the option is there, but I don’t always have the time or desire to make every single thing from scratch every single time.

If you want to make amazing whole-food plant-based meals and use store-bought components, that is 100% doable and acceptable. I do it often. I made a Classic 13-Layer Lasagna last week for some friends who came over for dinner, and instead of making homemade tomato sauce, I used that jar of pasta sauce from the store. It turned out amazing, and it saved me time. Side note, one of my friends is a meat-eater from Italy, and he raved about this lasagna. Hot tip–Jovial makes the best gluten-free pasta I’ve tried.

Bottom line, Clean Food Dirty Girl is just as helpful whether you’re making everything from scratch or not.

Next, the realization that people are not signing up for PFL because they don’t want, like, or have time to batch cook was almost as panic-inducing as realizing I should have been boiling my menstrual cup this whole time. HOW AM I NOT DEAD????? 

PFL has over 4,700 recipes that me and my small team have created over the past 10 years. They are the best whole-food plant-based recipes out there. It’s like a huge, personalized digital cookbook. It is SO MUCH FUN and totally addictive. We offer access to our Recipe Vault for just $12 a month! Batching is not a requirement to utilize this amazing resource.

Life is busy and complicated, and there are many things to discover. It is my wish for you to discover the magic that is Clean Food Dirty Girl.

You don’t have to batch.
You don’t have to make everything from scratch.
You don’t have to be perfect.
You can dive in, and try a recipe or two.
And see what you discover.

There are AH-HA moments and mouthgasms waiting for you.

Just like snaking my own shower drain, you're going to wish you’d done this sooner. 

Join today and then reply to this email and tell me what you’re going to make first. A bunch of us in our badass Facebook group are making this irresistible Queso Blanco this weekend.

Sign up here and choose Recipe Vault Access for just $12 a month.

Have a wonderful weekend, my friend. May we keep learning new things.

Oh, and if you want to see ridiculously cute pictures of my cat, random updates about all the shit I don’t know, pictures of my food, and snippets from my life, I started a personal Instagram. Come over and say hi and check out me twinning with my 76-year-old dad!

Molly