Episode 169 - From Kitchen to Consciousness: The Power of Food and Energy with Chef Whitney Aronoff (Full Transcript)
This is a full transcript of the Nirvana Sisters podcast Episode 169.
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SPEAKER_02:
Welcome to Nirvana Sisters podcast, where we take the intimidation out of well-being and beauty to help you achieve your highest state, your nirvana. We are sisters-in-law and your hosts.
SPEAKER_01:
I'm Amy Sherman. And I'm Katie Chandler. So let's get into some real conversation. Welcome back to the show, Nirvana Sisters family. It is Amy and Katie, and today we are sitting down with Chef Whitney Aronoff. She's the host of High Vibration Living Podcast and founder of Starseed Kitchen Organic Spices. Chef Whitney works as a holistic chef in Laguna Beach, California. She shares her healthy recipes and wellness insights on her website, starseedkitchen.com. Passionate about empowering people to cook healthy, supportive, nourishing meals. Because the healthiest meal you can eat is the one you can make at home. Chef Whitney shares insights on all the ways to nourish your physical, emotional, spiritual, and mental bodies. Star Seed Kitchen Organic Spice Wins combines Chef Whitney's culinary and spiritual knowledge. These products bring more flavor, color, and nourishment into your daily cooking routine. Each jar is charged with Kundalini mantras and quartz Giza crystals to raise the vibration of every meal, which sounds so intriguing and we are really excited to have you here. So thank you, Whitney, for sitting down with us today. Welcome. Thank you. Absolutely. So we like to always kick off with a little nirvana of the week, something that just brought you some joy. I know, we haven't done this in a while. I know, that's been a while. And we're never together, so it's great. So Amy, you want to kick off so we can get the flow started? Yes. What was your nirvana this week?
SPEAKER_02:
I would say this vacation. So we're on vacation together, our whole families. So Katie's my sister-in-law, so it's my brother, sister-in-law, her family, my family, my parents and our cousins just got here. So just a nice big family week off of work, just kind of disconnecting. So it's been really, really great.
SPEAKER_01:
Yeah, mine is obviously definitely the same to narrow the scope a little bit. I would say these mornings where we've been getting up, if you don't get up at 7 a.m. and put your chairs out, you don't get front row seat on the beach because it's crazy here, people. It's so crowded. So those quiet mornings that we've had, we've been going down really early with our coffee. No one's on the beach yet. Those have been some serious nirvanas. This morning, we did it together.
SPEAKER_02:
Yeah, very nice. What about you, Whitney?
SPEAKER_00:
Um, I would, I'd have to say was going down to the beach after work one time this week. So just going down at four o'clock and it's just so nice after a long day to just do a quick beach walk, to get grounded and dive into the water. And it just fully resets you. And, you know, you feel like you're doing something a little naughty by going to the beach at the end of the day. Um, but it just, it feels so good and it really uplifts your spirit.
SPEAKER_02:
And you're lucky. Where are you in California? You're in Laguna Beach, you said? Yeah. Yeah. Oh, so beautiful. Amazing.
SPEAKER_01:
Jealous. I think it's one of the most beautiful places in our country by far. Oh, thank you. Yeah, it's gorgeous. All right. Well, let's get started. So this is all very intriguing. I'm curious about the kundalini mantras and the crystals and everything that you put into your spices. But there's a deeper backstory. You tell us a little bit. How did you get into this? It was in efforts to heal an autoimmune condition. Is that is that right?
SPEAKER_00:
Yes, but I also just think, you know, we all have those things that we're immediately drawn to when we're kids. And, you know, so A lot of people, they ask that type of question, like, when did you get into this? Like, I don't know. I was born this way. Like, I was always the only kid that was into crystals. I'm telling you, nobody was interested. I was just always into, like, I remember as a seven-year-old kid being into that one friend's mom who did tarot cards. Like, I've just always been into the spiritual side of life. And it just naturally came about more and more as I personally struggled with gut issues and health issues growing up. I was always really healthy. I thought I ate healthy, always exercised, was always on sports teams. But then, you know, just as I got older and I would hold in my emotions because I wanted to act appropriate or show up the way that I thought I was supposed to show up, you know, I started to have gut issues that were probably emotional based. And I started to have gut issues, which were probably based on the food I was eating, because a lot of the food that we thought was healthy in the 90s It's heavily processed food. It's, you know, sugar-free frozen yogurt and margarine. It was just massive amounts of fake food that we thought was health food. So for me, it was probably a combination of the food and emotions that I was just holding everything in. And so I started to have, you know, gut issues and chronic fatigue and all different things that would come up. And I'd go to different doctors. No one could tell me. you know, how to make this go away. And I just started to realize after spending thousands of dollars going to doctors in LA, in New York, you know, going through phases where I wouldn't have my period and, you know, no doctors would help me. They would just want to write me prescriptions for, you know, Estrogen when I was like 23 years old, just like things that were going to throw off my body even more. Um, it was just like constant cascade of like bad advice from doctors and then it making my body worse that I just hit a tipping point that I just thought like, I'm in this body. I know what I'm feeling. I know what I'm experiencing. I know what it feels like to look great and feel great. And I know. when I'm the opposite and I have to trust my gut and I have to figure out how to heal myself because nobody out there is going to be able to do it for me. And so I just tried to figure out how can I teach myself and ultimately I decided what I felt for me was I needed to start with food. I needed to go to a health supportive culinary school where I could have just as many classes with health supportive chefs, like learning to make food from scratch, but the traditional way, you know, like, do I really need to soak my rice? What really needs to be washed? What really needs to be sprouted? Like just real traditional. slow cooking, as well as classes with registered dietitians that knew what the government was telling us is healthy versus what traditional wisdom tells us is healthy, right? Because not every registered dietitian is telling us the right information that's really going to heal us. It's a part of a controlled curriculum. So I just wanted to get the whole picture so I could figure out what was right for me. And then apply it. And what I what I found was when I upgraded my food, when I upgraded my diet, yes, I felt amazing and looked amazing. But all that did was lay the foundation for me to then be able to address all the emotional stuff that I had been holding in all these years. And when the food was right, then all the other stuff could just kind of fall off. It was so much easier to use a variety of practices that exist out there whether you want to go to talk therapy or you want to do hands-on healing or you want to go to you know someone that's going to help you learn tapping or just pull the emotions out of your body like there's there's thousands of modalities that exist in this world that are beautiful that are helpful that were But I really think you have to get the food and your diet and lifestyle right so the stuff can start to fall off more easily. It shouldn't be hard for you to let go of the stuff that you've buried to keep you safe. Like, there comes a point where you gotta let it go so you can live and be healthy.
SPEAKER_01:
Yeah, it's interesting. It sounds like you're a combination of self-awareness, self-advocating, and then really eager to know, to want to get back to feeling great. Because I think to your point, a lot of people, they don't always feel great and know how to get back to that. They start feeling lousy and they forget. And you remembered and it's you made it your life's mission to not only get back to that, but to help others get to it as well. Yeah. I'm also really interested just as a sidebar, how much of like a polar difference is there between that traditional wisdom, how food should be prepared, what we should be eating, versus all of this like government-recommended things. I think that's really interesting.
SPEAKER_00:
Huge. It was really sad. I have to be honest. When I was in culinary school, you know, we'd sit in the classroom with the registered dietitian, and she would tell us, this is what I'm told to tell you. This is the truth. This is what I'm told to tell you. I suggest you consider this. Wow. That's crazy. So a lot of, yeah, there were quite a few kids in my culinary kids. There were quite a few people in my culinary school program who had either already gone through some sort of nutrition training or after we were done with school, we're going to go back to school and become a traditional registered dietitian through university. And I was thinking about doing that when I was in school, but those classes made me realize I can't, I can't do it. Like everything inside me, um, I had just reached a point where I couldn't spend time and money sitting in a classroom being lied to and knowing it's lies and having to take those exams and choosing answers that I know are fake and false and are actually hurting people. So I decided, you know, I'm, you know, I'm gonna have to be an outlier. And ultimately, the truth will catch up. And all this this false narrative will fall away as it already is. Right. So like when I was in culinary school 10 years ago, all the studies were coming out proving that eggs don't cause high cholesterol because they don't. Right. You know, eating fat, eating like real healthy fat, avocados, ghee, butter, lard. they don't cause high cholesterol. It's actually brain food. So the Weston A. Price Foundation is something that my culinary school really focused on teaching us. And they have done studies after study after study that show that when kids eat healthy fats, it's so nourishing for their brain and that their attention spans in the classroom um increase and their test scores increase and they're just happier kids when they have a little bit more fat in their diet for their brains. So it's we we have so much to unlearn and so much to learn but I really try to approach it just from a positive aspect that we we're just getting to experience kind of this this this game change, and we're leading up to, you know, a tipping point. Ultimately, everyone's health is going to improve. We're just hopefully getting to a point where people are fed up with not feeling well, but they start to not just be more open minded, but take action like everyone has to take their own personal action. We all have those family members or friends that sit there and complain all the time about how they feel or how they look. or how their life isn't, you know, showing up the way that they want it to, but we can't make the changes for them. They have to take the steps. And I think we're getting to a point where, you know, everyone's reaching their little tipping point.
SPEAKER_02:
Yeah. So I have a question. So if someone's listening and they're like, I buy into this, I don't know where to start. Like, how do I start? I don't know if it's like testing foods or making foods that are better for me. Like, what did they do other than, you know, buy organic, you know, all of that. But like, what kinds of things would be good for them to start with, I guess, or test or make?
SPEAKER_00:
So a lot of different directions there. First, just start eating real food. And if you don't know what that is, just eat fresh, seasonal, local food. Start with a plate with a protein, a vegetable, and a healthy starch. Start reading the labels of everything you purchase, even salt, even butter. Everything you purchase, you have to look at the ingredients list. We're just in that weird time right now. I like to look at things as good, better, best. Because as a personal chef, that's where my clients are, right? Not all my clients want kale and quinoa, and that's fine. Not all my clients want real bone broth in the freezer section. They're fine with the boxed version. So it's a good, better, best. I know for my body and how sensitive I am, I have to use real bone broth that I make, or it's only bone broth from the freezer section. I can't use anything that's boxed. and has been pasteurized. That's not going to work for me, but that's where some people are. So it's a good, better, best with everything that you're approaching, like milk, right? So most people are going to just go buy organic milk. The next level up would be to buy A2 organic milk. So A2 means that that's from a farm where they genetically tested all of the cows to make sure that they carry the A2 protein, which means They were like the original milk cows that haven't been modified. So they still have the protein in the milk that allows your body to digest it and break it down. So you're not going to have the side effects that some people have from drinking milk, which is like phlegm in their throat or inflammation. And then the next level is that is buying the A2 milk that's labeled 100% grass fed, grass finished cows. And then the next level after that would be raw milk. And then the next level after that is not even the raw milk from the grocery store, because that is still slightly pasteurized, but going directly to a dairy or a local farm stand and getting your raw milk from them. So there are so many levels, right? Just like, you figure out where you are, what you have access to, what works with your budget, and you start there. And you'll find your body just starts kind of craving it. a next level up or you mentally start craving a next level up. It's like a vibration that you're kind of craving. You just want to move up. So you just kind of start with good, better, best. And I find when you change your food, Everything changes. So I find your intuition opens up, like you naturally can sense things and feel things. And you're just knowing and trusting yourself evolves. And with that, you'll know the next move to make. I think it's really important, though, that when people start to change their diet, that they don't get angry. They don't get angry as they learned about our food system and they watch documentaries. You got to take the anger out of it. And you can't allow yourself to fall for all the information out there. So if you're watching a bunch of documentaries, you have to understand who paid for that documentary and what the angle is behind telling that story. So because I've dealt with a lot of personal clients as a personal chef, where when I show up at their house, there's just so much anger and so much still control over the food. And that's not going to get you to a better, healthier place either.
SPEAKER_01:
I like the good, better, best in respect to the way that you just laid it out, but also for someone that is on a completely new journey, I feel like it makes it very accessible because they can also apply it to everything that they're doing. And that like today I'm going to eat kale and that's good. And then I'm going to also add in quinoa and that's better, but I still kind of want like those potato chips that I'm not ready to let go of, you know? So I feel like you can apply it to different areas of your life until you eventually work around to the whole picture being the best or what have you. It just feels like an easy approach for someone to not be overwhelmed by saying, all of a sudden, I'm going to be the cleanest eater in the world. Yeah.
SPEAKER_02:
It's also hard to find. I mean, I've heard of raw milk, But I actually hadn't heard of the A. Yeah, the A2 milk. Yeah. So that's interesting. I also think it's, to your point, a little bit hard to find the information of like what it is and where you get it and where, you know, the right places that you can trust. And then in terms of the ingredients, I think we always talk about that, like just basically the less ingredients, the better. That's what I try to tell my kids. Like the ingredient list is this long, like don't eat that. But if it just has a couple of things that you can identify, probably that. I mean, I was, you know, that's kind of like what I think about, but really interesting. And then like in terms of cooking, you know, farm to table, because I know that's your style, right? How do we, how would someone, again, that's like maybe just a decent cook, like they want to eat clean, but maybe they're doing the wrong things or whatever. How would someone approach that?
SPEAKER_00:
Yeah, I like starting simple for people that are overwhelmed by it. So that's when you want to just go with the protein. And that's why I'm into spices is because I think spice blends are a great way to add flavor without adding a bunch of other ingredients. So, you know, if you go to the aisle and you're looking for marinades because you want to marinate your chicken, that's when you're going to get a lot of junk. That's when you're going to get a lot of sugar, canola oil, and MSG, and a bunch of those ingredients you can't pronounce. But if you go and buy an organic spice blend, you can turn it over. Make sure you're not buying one with sugar or citric acid or anti-caking agents or MSG. That's still in there. But you can find clean spice rubs. I mean, that's what I do for, you know, that's what I do. That's what I'm passionate about. And you can season your chicken breast really well with that so you have flavor. You know, you can take your potatoes and you can chop it up and toss it with a little olive oil and the spice blend, and now you have flavor when you roast it. You can do that with carrots, with parsnips, with fennel, with onion, with Brussels sprouts, with whatever veggies you want. can still add flavor without the sugar and the canola oil and the junk. So you can start simply, but it's really easy with just salt and pepper and just buy really good quality, real sea salt. Play with pepper, so fine pepper, horse pepper, you'll start to notice like the different texture of pepper will give you different flavors. I'm in a different experience when you eat it. And then when you get really comfortable doing, you know, your chicken breasts or your chicken thighs and your steamed veggies or your roasted veggies and your sweet potato, you can start to play more.
SPEAKER_02:
Okay. And your, your, um, spices are star seed kitchen. That's the brand, right? It's sold. I know you said it's sold in Arowana's. It's sold in other stores in whole foods as well.
SPEAKER_00:
No, it's at Arowana. It's in, um, a butcher store called the butchery in, um, Southern California. So they have locations in San Diego and. throughout Orange County, and then I sell it on my website on StarSeaKitchen.com. And they're really the spice blends that my family and I have been making since I was in high school. So it's what I've been cooking with my whole life. And then when I became a personal chef and, you know, I'd want to go and do the Southwest blend for my clients or like to do tacos. or my chicken thighs, or some adobo chicken thighs, or a whole roast chicken, and I was needing spices for all these different dishes, and everything at the store at the time had sugar in it, and none of my clients wanted sugar in their spices. So I started having to make big batches of my spice blends for my clients' homes for when I was there cooking. And then they were just like, well, can you just make the extra so we can give some to our friends when they're in town? And I was like, well, Maybe I should just make a lot more. That's really how I got into sharing it with others. And what keeps me going is like, I'm going to eat these spice blends on my potatoes and carrots and chicken and in my meatballs my whole life. So I might as well share it with other people and just constantly make a big batch.
SPEAKER_02:
I think that's great too because I love a blend because I'm always, Katie's really good with spices, but I'm not because I'm always like, how much of this and how much of this, but this is like already done for you so you could just throw it on there instead of just like trying to figure out all the proportions. So I love that.
SPEAKER_00:
Yeah. Yeah. One of my favorite things to make for myself and for my clients are paleo meatballs. And this is really great for anyone that wants to eat healthy. They're really tired of basic pieces of meat. So you can buy any meat you want, ground turkey, ground bison, ground venison, ground beef, ground pork, whatever you're into. And you can just start with the pound, a pound will usually make four or five really small meatballs, but I just add a tablespoon of my 11 magic herbs and spices and then whatever junk you have in the fridge. So a little onion, a little cilantro, parsley, a little bell pepper, a little celery, whatever scraps you have that I just chop up really well and add it in. So it just makes it like a little bit bigger. Um, and then you just bake them at 400 degrees for anywhere from 15 to 20 minutes. and you have easy protein bites. Or you can put it on a plate. So I find that if you can just get, I always suggest to people three recipes. Just master three recipes, three recipes that you love. Now you have that recipe that you can share with your partner or your boyfriend or your husband or your girlfriend or whatever that you're proud of. And then now you also have a dish that you could take to a potluck. And now you can feed yourself no matter what. Um, so I always suggest to people just like master three dishes. It could be three breakfast items, three lunch items. It could be a breakfast, lunch, and dinner item, or it could be desserts, like whatever lights you up and makes you happy. But like find three recipes that you really love and get really good at it. I always say it takes about three times of doing a recipe to get it right for you.
SPEAKER_02:
Still working on that. I'm not a good cook, so like I don't have any recipes that I'm good at except for like tacos, but I'm definitely using the wrong spices. So I need to get yours. My tacos are probably healthier.
SPEAKER_01:
That's great advice, though, because I was going to ask you after you have been cooking for others all day long, what do you want to come home and make? I mean, what you know, someone that's exhausted from work all day and then come You know, it's like you don't always want to cook a meal after you've been out working all day. But what do you do?
SPEAKER_00:
Yeah, so I meal prep for myself as well. So on Sundays, when I come home, I try to make a lot of extra food. And then on Wednesdays, I usually make a lot of extra food. Recently, like I've been really into I've been, there's a potato salad recipe that I've been making that I really love. And I add, I go heavy on herbs. So it has tons of dill and it has tons of celery. Like it's a potato salad, but it's really like a celery dill salad with like. With potatoes. With potato. Yeah. Yeah. It sounds good. So I love it because I can add it on top of any sort of mixed greens. I can add more hard-boiled egg. I can add chicken. I can add steamed green beans. I can take it in different directions. So I often make bases that can then evolve into different types of meals throughout the week. Um, I love, like we talked about, like paleo meatballs. So I've been doing some tzatziki recently. So I'm getting some really good A2, a hundred percent grass finished yogurt from Alexander Farms. You can get it at Whole Foods and I grate in the cucumber. So it's really cucumber with a little bit of yogurt. And then I add in fresh mint or dill, and then that works as a really nice sauce on like whatever type of turkey meatballs I made for the week. Um, and I can, yeah, I can super easily pull that out of the fridge and, you know, put that with some easy steam zucchini or spinach or whatever, super fast veggies. I'm really into steaming and blanching veggies because it's fast and it's great in the summer. And then I always have a healthy starch in the fridge already done. So short grain brown rice, roasted sweet potatoes. I love, I do root vegetable mashes. Those recipes are on my website, meaning it'll be parsnip, a parsnip mashed potato instead of a regular mashed potato. So it's parsnip, a little ghee, garlic, white pepper, and then you use the water that the parsnips were cooked in. Instead of adding milk, it's just water. It, they make amazing mashed potatoes. So I use parsnips, white sweet potatoes, purple sweet potatoes, do it with cauliflower. I do it with celery root. You can do it with anything. And I have the recipes all on my website, but I make that a lot and it's in the fridge for a few days. And that's like so great to just do some steamed broccoli and then you just dip it into like a healthy mash and then whatever protein you want. Um, so that's what I've been having in. That's what's stocked up in kind of my fridge right now.
SPEAKER_02:
It sounds so good. Yeah. Yeah. Like I. I think meal prepping is the key to all that stuff, right? Because then you just have it at hand and you don't have to just start scrounging, because I even find I'll try to buy. Three done stuff at like Whole Foods even, and it's just it's never it's never good. It's like, you know, salmon or chicken and you try to like have that. So but it's just like doesn't never taste fresh. Yeah. Like I feel like if you just make it yourself, it's better.
SPEAKER_00:
Yeah. There was a time where Whole Foods made all the stuff, all the food, all the prepared food on site at each location. When Amazon purchased it, they moved to cafeteria style. So it's all made in one location. It's shipped to them in bags, and they just pour it out from the plastic bags into the salad bins. You know, I'm at Whole Foods five days a week. So I know everybody at the Laguna Niguel Whole Foods and multiple other Whole Foods here in Orange County. And as soon as that changed in the prepared food section, the employees told me not to eat the food. The employees told me not to eat the food. So because I'm a chef and I'm really fascinated about food prep, I think that was also a big part of me going to culinary schools. I just wanted to be a better orderer when I went out to restaurants. And like, I just wanted to figure out how can I order healthy when I go out to eat, whether I'm just going out to brunch with friends or I'm on vacation, like what am I really getting? And that's when I learned how a lot of the eggs that we get at restaurants aren't eggs. It's a prepackaged egg mixture with a ton of additives. And the only way to get real eggs when you eat out at a restaurant is to order them poached or sunny side up. Otherwise, if you are ordering an omelet or scrambled eggs, you are not getting eggs. You are getting eggs that were cracked weeks ago, mixed with citric acid and a bunch of other chemicals, and they just pour it out of a bag and then ladle it into the nonstick, cheap nonstick pan that they're cooking your food in. And so it's the same thing when you go to Whole Foods. When you look at those scrambled eggs and you can see the weird consistency of them, it's because it's not real eggs.
SPEAKER_01:
Wow. I can very distinctly remember a time where I enjoyed Whole Foods Prepared Foods and then- Yeah, now that you're saying it makes sense. And then stopped. I know. It is like factory sprouts.
SPEAKER_02:
I mean, it's- Yeah.
SPEAKER_00:
Yeah, me too. I spent a lot of money there eating, like getting breakfast and lunch and dinner. Um, it was great. Like I could tell you which whole foods across the country had really good prepared food because every location was totally different. We need to go.
SPEAKER_02:
Wouldn't that be amazing to do a shopping trip with you at Whole Foods and find what are all the good things and what are the things to avoid? Because, yeah, I mean, most people, if they want to eat healthy and organic, just default to Whole Foods or like there's a place by Me Moms, which is also organic market, which is pretty good. But, you know, unless you're going to a farmer's market or like a few other specialty stores, it's obviously like I every time I go to like a chain grocery store, which I don't a lot, my kids will just pick up whatever junk they like. Unfortunately, I'll go in with them and I'm. Horrified, like I can't even everything in the aisles looks so gross to me, there's one section of organic and I noticed some of the brands and I get those, but other than that, It's disgusting. It's so gross. And unfortunately, like most of America is eating that way. So it's just obviously a bigger issue, but it's good to get inspiration from you and kind of get refreshed as we're, it's a summer now, we're going into the fall and we're thinking about back to school and like starting to cook again and getting into that. So it's like, yeah, it's good inspiration to think about some of these things and get those three recipes going. You probably have three.
SPEAKER_01:
I definitely have a few in my back pocket that I, that I defer to a lot, but I need to dive into your recipes. You should have a cookbook. I mean, is there a cookbook coming our way?
SPEAKER_00:
That is the goal. I mean, that is my dream for 2024 and 2025, just because I really want to teach people how to do for themselves what I do and what I've done for the past 10 years for clients. Um, cause everyone should be able to like really make food that is so delicious to them, like you should want to eat at home. So with my family, you know, I'm not married. I don't have kids, but I have parents that love to cook. I have a brother that loves to cook. And so when we all get together, we all, we, we cook at home and we eat at home because our food is so good. We save eating out when we travel together, because we just found that when we were doing family dinners out, we were always so disappointed. I know. And so we could see, we know how to do it better. And so that's where I want a lot of people to get, like, wouldn't it be neat if we got back to a place where people really loved eating their family meals at home and, you know, eating out was a treat. Eating out, we go for the ambiance, we go for the experience, we go for connecting with friends, we go for a lot of different reasons, but it shouldn't be how we nourish ourselves on a day-to-day basis. So that's, that's what I would love to see for, for more people. And you know, the great thing is fall is the best time of year for food. And I think for families, because you can make food that you make it once. you can make double the amount and it gets better when the days pass. You know, chilies, soups, stews, anything that you cook in your slow cooker or in your Dutch oven, you know, lamb shanks, short ribs, all the type of braised meats, which are so good for you when you slow cook them, because now you're getting like more collagen and more nutrients coming off the bone and the bone marrow, and you're getting bone broth and you're getting root vegetables. Like there's so many benefits to that slow cooking after we're just coming off the light cooking of summer. This is, it's a good time to year to to find three new recipes and practice.
SPEAKER_02:
Yeah. Do you have slow cooker recipes on your website?
SPEAKER_00:
I am not a slow cooker fan. I prefer the Dutch oven. So I did a side by side comparison. And I borrowed someone's instapot. And I use the tradition, traditional, you know, Dutch oven, which Le Creuset, Staub, like choose whatever brand.
SPEAKER_02:
I don't have one, but I've been thinking about buying one.
SPEAKER_00:
Yeah, yeah, yeah. Once you buy one and done, like you buy one and you have it for your entire life. And it'll go to a family member when you die. Like that's the great thing. It's like worth every penny. Um, so I cooked the same dish in both containers and the flavor was so much better cooked in the dutch oven and You know, that's when we're talking about energy, right? So i'm cooking in the enamel pot in the oven at a slow heat It's gas that's around it. It's a different energy than the food that's being cooked in the stainless steel container using an electrical outlet. And, you know, the food just wasn't the same. Like the, the deep, the deepness, the depth, um, it tasted more sterile.
SPEAKER_02:
in the stainless steel. The actual oven, not on the stove. Yeah. Oh, I was thinking when you were saying slow cooking, it's like literally on the stovetop all day, still cooking. You're putting it in the oven.
SPEAKER_01:
And the other great thing about the Dutch oven is you can like sear on the stovetop and then transfer it to the oven.
SPEAKER_00:
And that's exactly, that's exactly it. And then you just put it in the oven at a low temperature and you know, you can walk out of the kitchen. You can walk out of the house if you want to for three or four hours, as long as you come home. And And then you come home and you pull it out of the oven, you leave it on top of the stove. And when you're ready, it's still hot and dinner's there. And it usually makes enough food for a following day or two days from now. And it's really grounding food. It really pulls you back into your body. It really makes you feel hugged. And there's definitely a flavor and an energetic difference to food that's cooked in the Dutch oven versus the stainless steel electrical outlet. When we talk about energy transfer, the highest transfer of energy comes from when we cook over fire, which not all of us can do these days because, I mean, who even has a yard where they can just light a fire? Most people don't. So that's why it's really so much fun in the summer to be able to be in parks and to be at the beach and to cook over fire. You know, there is a health benefit to that. And then after that, it's gas. Gas has the next highest energy frequency to fire because it most resembles fire. And then after that is electrical. Electrical is kind of the lowest. And if you talk to anybody who's forced to have an electric oven and an electric stovetop, the food never tastes that good. People hate cooking on it. So there's something there. Even if people can't understand and grasp or believe in frequency and that frequency matters and there's an energy transfer, but I can tell you, you can survey everyone who's forced to cook on an electric oven, an electric stove top, and they hate it. And the people that help us love it and would never switch to electric.
SPEAKER_02:
What's so funny, I never thought about that, like the slow cooker. I mean, I go through phases where I use and I don't use them. I never thought about the fact that you're plugging into the wall. You're getting like fake energy versus like a fire or whatever. And I do notice that every time I do cook in there, it's never good. It's like not flavorful. It's just kind of black.
SPEAKER_00:
Feels like mush. Yeah, there's a depthness that's not there. Yeah, there's another thing I always try to recommend to people, like as we move into this fall season, but they're still fresh tomatoes, is try to avoid buying canned tomatoes for your chilies or canned tomatoes for your stoops and stews. While the fresh ones are still available, just dice up the fresh ones and put them in your soups and stews. Like anytime you can lean to fresh, do that over anything canned, even if your recipe calls for it. Because remember, canned food doesn't have life force energy. It is sterilized food that's meant for emergency situation. It was created so we could feed troops in the middle of nowhere in Europe during World War I and World War II. It's not meant to provide a large energy transfer to you. And you're eating for food and energy. So Like if you are trying to get healthier, if you're trying to lose weight, then you want to find food that's going to give you the biggest bang for your buck, meaning you're going to eat the least amount of food, but get the most energy transfer. You want fresh food, not canned food.
SPEAKER_02:
Absolutely. I would think fresh food that's non-organic is probably better than canned.
SPEAKER_01:
Yes, I completely agree. What you were saying earlier about the fire, every summer I always crave the ability to cook over fire and wood chips and it just like such a natural way of creating food. And I don't have that set up like I don't have the right grill for it or something, but it is a completely different meal than what you just put on a propane grill or what you make on the stove top with like a really. And I see all of these. I've seen these shows with these really famous chefs that travel the world and they're in Spain and they're cooking over these giant fire. It's like the most amazing meal of their life. And I never thought about it. It's like an energy transfer. It's the raw, natural, most human way of creating food and nourishing your body. It's how it was done for, you know, thousands and thousands of years before we had ovens, before we had stoves. So it's very interesting.
SPEAKER_00:
Yeah. I mean, it tastes so good and it feels so good. yeah and you ultimately like what what what calls you in is man it tastes so good but then you never forget the feeling right you never forget the feeling after the meal and you never forget the feeling you had the next day when you woke up and you're like That was such a nice night. I feel so good this morning. And yeah, I hope we can find more ways. I hope that's a trend that we see is just more accessibility to creating a fire using wood in our backyards or in our neighborhood. And I think we'll see more tools coming out like that.
SPEAKER_01:
I hope so. So before we get into our wrap session, just tell us a little bit about the Kundalini mantras that you put into your spaces and the crystals and everything, because I find that very cool. Tell us about that.
SPEAKER_00:
Yeah, well, I love using frequency to charge food. And my thought is, you know, I can't be in everyone's kitchen, like using my energy to charge up their food or charge up their kitchen space. So how can I help most people possible through food? And so that's by using a frequency to charge up. the spice blends. So playing Kundalini Mantras 24 hours a day, seven days a week. I go with a few different types of music, whether it's Kundalini Mantras from White Sun or music from Debra Halperin. But when the music's playing 24-7, it charges it up. And then on top of that, I was gifted something called a Quartz Giza Crystal. So it's a type of crystal that never stops growing. It has a center point and they're long sticks and they were found at the bottom of a lake in Arkansas. It's pure quartz, and they were then flown to the Giza Pyramid in Egypt in the early 80s for a special ceremony under a galactic lineup called Pleiadian lineup. There were quite a few famous people that were there for that ceremony, so the crystals got charged in that way. And the person that ran that ceremony gave them to me, and It is believed that the crystals have a frequency that can charge an area as large as like Orange County. And so she's giving them to different people to use in different ways throughout the world. So I use them to charge up the food as well. So using the music with the frequency of the crystal just to add a larger charge of light. So it's just like a little added boost to whoever eats the spice. My goal is to reach people through food. And if that can raise their consciousness, improve their health, just bring more love and joy into their body, into the life, I will have done my job.
SPEAKER_01:
Amazing. Well, I love that you're an Erewhon, and congratulations on that. That's huge. Thank you. Sadly, we don't have any Erewhons near us. But when you visit, when you visit.
SPEAKER_02:
Yes, yes. And we can buy it on your website.
SPEAKER_01:
So that's yes. And your website. Tell us one more time. It's at Starseedkitchen.com.
SPEAKER_00:
Great. Great. Perfect.
SPEAKER_01:
All right, well, let's get into our wrap session.
SPEAKER_02:
You want to kick it off? I can. So we know you're an amazing chef and have all these incredible ingredients. And so I'm assuming you're probably just as intentional with your beauty and wellness routine. So what is your favorite wellness and beauty hack?
SPEAKER_00:
So I'm super into the life, um, life wave patches. Do you guys, are you familiar with them? So every night I wear the X 39 and the all of the patches and I have been wearing them for about definitely over a year now. So the X 39, um, increases the stem cells in my body and the Alavita is for. just like my skin and not needing Botox and just clearing fine lines and wrinkles and improving hair growth. And then I used to do Aeon as well, which helps remove inflammation from the body. But they're just these little patches that you put on different meridian or acupuncture points on your body. And I wear them when I sleep and they do the work when I sleep. And I'm in like Life changing. Um, I know.
SPEAKER_01:
What is the, what, where do we find them? What's the brand? I mean, we'll link it.
SPEAKER_00:
L I F E W A V E life wave life wave patches. It's a company based out of San Diego. They were created for, um, For Navy SEALs because their shifts are over 30 hours long. And so they were starting to like a lot of Navy SEALs were starting to have really bad drug problems because they were trying to stay awake for their full shift and then the crash afterwards. So these patches were created just to improve their health in a variety of ways. Um, and then they've been released to the public and they do wonders. Um, you, you can take before and after photos of yourself and you know, see a physical change. Wow. how you look in the best way, more youthful, younger, softer, and physically you feel a lot better. They help you heal from injuries faster. Huge fan. Yeah. Sell them online lifeway.com, but you have to use them consistently. So like it takes like a solid three months, but that's like one of my favorite hacks. That's very cool.
SPEAKER_01:
Yeah. That's a great one. I love when we learn something like that.
SPEAKER_00:
That's why we're in this game. Yeah. Yeah. I love this too. Like I want to hear what you're really into right now. All right.
SPEAKER_01:
And the next one we call it our five minute flow. You just got out of the shower and Uber's pinged you. What are you doing to get yourself together and quickly get into that Uber? Like what are your go-tos, your holy grails to get out there?
SPEAKER_00:
I would put on a serum. So right now I'm using one of Tata Harper's serums. So I would just get out of the shower, put on a serum. If I wanted to look, I'm like a very all natural girl. But if I wanted to do something a little bit more, I love the glow sunscreen that has a little bit of a tint. a glow brand sunscreen, there's a tinted one. I'll throw that on. I always, I love mascara. So I'll do mascara, that, a little blush. I have 50 million lip glosses because I'm obsessed. And like, that's all I would do. And then I would put on earrings and a necklace. I always wear the same ones, just like super simple studs. And then I, yeah, And then figure out like what makes me comfortable and walk out the door. Yeah. Nice. Love it. Yeah. I'd probably put my hair up in a bun or a pony.
SPEAKER_02:
Any favorite lip gloss brands while we have you at Lipstick?
SPEAKER_00:
No, nothing right now. Yeah. Nothing right now. I'm ready for an overhaul. Yeah. There's nothing I'm really super loving. Like when it comes to the skincare game, to the makeup game, I want a whole new experience. So That's kind of just moving through the summer just to get to fall so I can just throw everything out and start new.
SPEAKER_02:
Okay, and then how do you maintain your daily nirvana?
SPEAKER_00:
Being outside. I have to find a way to walk. Like for me, I'm a big walker. I'll go tonight after dinner. I think I'm going to do like a sunset hike. That'll be bliss today. But I, I mean, I, I prefer walking first thing in the morning when it's quiet out, you know, I love it when it's quiet. It's cool. Anywhere you go outside first thing in the morning is it's kind of bliss nirvana to me.
SPEAKER_02:
Yeah, totally. Amazing. Where can we find you? So we know we have your website now. I know you have a podcast. Can you tell our listeners your podcast, your Instagram, all the things?
SPEAKER_00:
Yeah. So my podcast is the High Vibration Living Podcast because I'm like you guys. I just love talking about this stuff and love learning about the other tools that I can put in my tool belt that I can lean on when I need to be uplifted or I need to make edits. You can find me on Instagram at Whitney Aronoff and my brand, Starseed Kitchen, and then my website, starseedkitchen.com. And then I also have a YouTube channel with tons of videos there, cooking videos and videos from the podcast. Again, just Whitney Aronoff. Those are the best places to find me.
SPEAKER_02:
Amazing. Well, this has been so enlightening. I feel like, yeah, I'm so excited to research and you've inspired me to like get back into, you know, the cooking cooking game. So I'm ready.
SPEAKER_01:
Yeah. I'm going to be doing your quite a few of your recipes. I can tell. Yeah.
SPEAKER_00:
Well, message me any time. And the next time you guys are out here, we'll go to Erewhon for lunch.
SPEAKER_02:
Thanks for listening to Nirvana Sisters. For more information on this episode, check out the show notes, please subscribe and leave us a review. Also, find us on Instagram at Nirvana Sisters. If you loved what you just listened to or know someone that would, please share it and tag us. Tune in next week for a fresh new episode of Nirvana Sisters. We'll continue to watch out for all things wellness so you don't have to. Bye.