May Favorites

top 10 favorite things from May

Helloooo hellooo helloooo my dear friends. We’re at the end of May. What the hell. Spring just started??? I am not complaining though I am so excited for summer and beaching and sandwiching and iced bev elixiring. I CAN TASTE IT.

strawberry szn giving me life

I have been loving spring so much so far minus the allergies and the weather extremities that leave me feeling more confused than ever. 97 degrees and sweltering hot to raining and cold for three days straight. Don’t think I will ever not be fooled by that. BUT I have been having so much fun seeing the farmers markets fill up with gorgeous colorful produce and it’s only going to keep getting better!!!

Before we go into the new month, it’s time to recap my top 10 favorites from May. Rituals I have incorporated, products I have vetted, bought, used and loved & more.

Let’s get into it…

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1. Pelvic Floor Therapy

Something I have really been trying to prioritize lately is pelvic floor therapy, I need to get my pelvic floor in check, it’s not great. I have minor scoliosis and my hips and pelvis are tilted and because of that I’ve struggled with bad back pain for a while and hold a lot of tension in my traps, neck, feet, and lower back. All of this is connected!!!

I’ve been weight training more lately and alongside weight training I am prioritizing stretching and mobility. I’ve noticed that the more I balance these things the more optimal my workout is, for example—when I am prioritizing pelvic floor therapy I naturally feel as if I get much more activation in my core work.

As women our pelvis is wider and angled differently than men, which means the pelvic floor muscles carry more structural responsibility—supporting not only the uterus but also the bladder and bowels. That’s three organs resting on a hammock of muscle! This hammock can become weak, tight, or uncoordinated without regular attention, & for me, the biggest symptoms have been pain and needing to pee every 30 minutes to an hour. It’s not fun especially when its keeping me from sleep throughout the night. So every 10-15 minutes in the morning I have been practicing hip opener stretches and pelvic floor training. I am not an expert in any way shape or form, this is just the stretching that works for me. Our hip tension and pelvic floor is directly linked, and also as women we store a lot of our stress in our hips so it’s important to prioritize their mobility and strength (something I am working on separately).

This is my simplified morning stretch/practice:

• 90/90 Hip Openers

• Supine Figure 4 Stretch

• Cat-Cows

• Hip Circles in Tabletop

• Diaphragmatic breath + pelvic floor release

• Pelvic Tilts on the Back

• Glute Bridge with Intentional Breath

• Happy Baby

• Child’s Pose

Trying to do this every morning! If there are any pelvic floor experts here or mamas who have any other advice, let me know in the comments!!

2. Birch Non-Toxic Mattress

Say it with me….WHAT WE SLEEP ON IS SO IMPORTANT!!! Our beds are where our bodies rest & regenerate. It makes me so sad because I see videos like THIS of people who invested in a mattress that they thought was quality and clean and it ended up causing all these issues. For me, investing in a good mattress was a big priority for me when I moved to NY and it was time for me to get a new one (before that I had the same one since high-school).

I did a lot of research and asked my friends who are into functional and holistic medicine and decided on the Birch Luxe Natural Mattress.

The Birch mattress is made with organic cotton, natural wool, and organic latex (no synthetic foam), is Greenguard Gold certified, and completely fiberglass-free. Since its made with quality ingredients, it allows for more breathability, circulation and temperature regulation to ensure we get the best nights sleep and wake up feeling fresh. This year prioritizing my sleep hygiene and routine has been extra important to me and I am grateful to do it on a Birch mattress.

Cooper and I bought the mattress when we first moved in about a year and a half ago and we love it. & then Birch reached out and wanted to partner and I was like hell yes! So now you can use this LINK to get 27% off your order!!

3. Strawberry Szn Maxxing

The strawberries right now are irresistible. They are bright red all throughout the center, juicy, jammy & gorgeous, so I have been eating them constantly. I remember when I first went to France and the strawberries on the side of the road were just immaculate, I am feeling transported back there currently but in New York, idk why I feel like the actual seasons here make the produce taste better vs in California, but maybe I’m crazy. Either way, these recipes have been on repeat:

Maple Vanilla Bean Poached Rhubarb Strawberries & Cream

This recipe is so nostalgic to me, video here.

Ingredients

• 2 stalks of rhubarb

• 1 cup filtered water

• 1/2 cup maple sugar

• 1 tsp vanilla bean powder

• 1 cup strawberries

• 1 cup heavy whipping cream

• 1 tbsp maple sugar

• 1 tsp vanilla bean powder

• pinch of salt

Recipe

1. Clean rhubarb and cut into batons

2. Add filtered water and sugar to a pan, and stir over medium heat until sugar is dissolved, stir in vanilla

3. Bring sugar water to a light boil, and place batons evenly on the pan, use spoon to douse some of the sugar water on the top of the batons

4. Cover and turn off the heat entirely, let sit for at least 15 minutes or until pink and softened

5. Remove rhubarb from the syrup and set aside

6. Clean and slice strawberries in half

7. For the whipped cream, add heavy whipping cream, maple sugar, vanilla bean and salt to a large bowl and use a hand mixer with a whisk attachment to whip until smooth and soft peaks, 2 to 5 minutes

8. Add a large dollup of whipped cream to a bowl and serve with fresh strawberries and poached rhubarb, top with some leftover maple sugar syrup from the poached rhubarb

9. ENJOY!!!

Cookie-Dough Esque Strawberry Yogurt Bowl

A measure with your heart recipe, video here.

Ingredients

• Strawberries

• Skyr Yogurt

• “Cookie Dough”*

• To Top: Black sesame seeds & cacao nibs

* “Cookie Dough”

• 2 tbsp ground flax seed

• 1 scoop of collagen, I am using Pique Carrara

• 1/2 tsp vanilla powder or vanilla bean paste/extract

• 1-2 tbsp cacao nibs

• 1 tsp mct oil or coconut oil

• 2 tbsp almond butter or black sesame butter (or both)

• pinch of salt

• 1 tsp to 1 tbsp skyr to help mix

Recipe

1. For the cookie dough, mix everything together until smooth, add skyr yogurt 1 tsp at a time till you reach desired consistensy

2. Serve with skyr and strawberries, top with more cacao nibs & black sesame seeds, ENJOY!

Other Recipes

• Strawberry Rhubarb & Cream Froyo

• Strawberry Rhubarb Ginger Lemonade

• Strawberry Rhubarb Crumble*

*Tip from Audrey Leonard is add raspberries as well! She mentioned that the tart goes realllyyy well with the rhubarb, genius! I am going to be adding raspberries along in my crumble next time & also the next time I make strawberry rhubarb jam. Patiently waiting for raspberries to show up at the farmers market.

4. Chef’s Daughter Food Delivery Service

I cook my own meals from home 90% of the time. I love cooking and nourishing my body, it’s my favorite thing to do, obviously as I do it for a living lol. BUT there are times when I am cooking all day and am exhausted and need something simple and yummy to order that makes me feel good, and I have just fallen in love with Chef’s Daughter! Jillian, the founder, is a New York based private chef who created this company!

sweetheart waffles made with locally-milled flour, organic grass-fed buttermilk & pasture-raised eggs

She prioritizes all of the best quality ingredients—sourcing her produce from local and organic farms, using pasture raised organic and grass-fed meats, traceable herbs, organic sourdough, infusing her recipes with gelatinous rich bone broth, the ingredients speak for themselves, she does not skimp on quality. And everything tastes amazing. It’s all so nourishing and so delicious. My favorites are the Coconut Laksa Broth, I use it to poach my salmon and then serve it with coconut rice so so good. I also love the chicken tendies with her honey dijon mustard. The desserts are also to dieee forrr. Everything is fresh frozen and super easy to reheat.

She delivers to Manhattan & Brooklyn, so if you are interested you can use code ELLA10 to make an order!

5. No Waste Potluck

Last week I attended a potluck themed “spoiler alert” where each person had to bring a recipe or drink under the theme of no-waste foods, foods about to be spoiled, or foods that are actually better spoiled—think wilted veggies, cheese, cured meats, fermented foods, foods that are perfectly good past their sell by dates like beans, foods that never spoil like raw honey and salt, and things like overripe bananas!

This was SO much fun and such a special way to get together with friends, eat good food, and also celebrate the resources we have without things going to waste.

I also think this would be a wonderful opportunity to bring clothes that you have grown tired of, and do a clothing swap with friends! Sometimes I feel I have so many clothes in my closet but nothing to wear, and this is a great way to do a refresh without having to buy all new stuff.

ALSO if you live in NY please read my substack from last week!!!! It’s only a couple clicks to help out to reduce food waste in NYC!!!!

How to Prevent Food Waste

6. Skincare Tips

I have been doing a few things for my skin recently that I have felt have made a beautiful difference.

• Hypochlorous Acid Cleaning: Every evening I spray my pillows, sheets & face mask with hypochlours acid to clean it and kill any bacteria and dust mites. I change my sheets once a week and my pillowcases every few days but this is in between maintenance and has made a massive difference on my skin. I am a side sleeper so my entire face is usually squished into the pillow which was a big cause of acne for me in the past. I have this lil spray gun & I fill it with this hypochlous acid (note: dilute or use 200ppm that is safe for skin, do your own research!). I use this spray all of my house and especially on high touch areas, if you aren’t familiar, hypochlorous acid is a non-toxic, and eco-friendly disinfectant and cleaner (it’s actually naturally produced by white blood cells to fight infections) it kills 99.9% of germs, bacteria, viruses and even fungi like mold without the harsh fumes or toxic residues of traditional cleaners. It works so well!!

• Aura Biom Serum: I have been experimenting with peptide serum and I chose this one because of it’s made for sensitive skin, made with clean ingredients, non-comedogenic, fragrance free and is a science backed formla proven to actually cross the skin barrier for visible results. I feel as if my skin has been glowwinggg and extra hydrated ever since being consistent with it. I reached out for a discount code to share and they gave me one too, “GLOWWITHELLA”.

• Honey Mask: It is no surprise here that I love manuka honey, I eat it and I also use it topically, my favorite mask being manuka honey & matcha. Manuka honey is antimicrobrial, naturally exfoliating and hydrating, and I try to use this mask once a week on my skin. I love it! I’ve also been loving their manuka essense.

BTW the most important thing for skin is sunshine, good food, hydration—the basics. These are just some fun lil optimizing additions I have been enjoying, but they aren’t necessary. The most healing things are free :)

7. The Glass Castle

After reading the Red Rising Trilogy in just a couple of weeks and completely burning out, I needed a book to get me out of my rut so I read a dumb thriller and then I read The Glass Castle, by Jeannette Walls and oh my goshhh. This is a must read. It is a memoir, but it doesn’t feel like a memoir at all, it’s a collection of stories and memories of the woman’s childhood and it’s just….insanity. So much of it is quite abhorrent yet she describes it as a norm, because for her it was. Without giving too much away, I left the book with an huge sense of empathy, a reminder that you never know what someone’s background looks like or how someone who appears as totally okay is actually going through behind closed doors. If you are looking for a good book to get you out of your reading rut, I highly recommend it. Next up I think I am going to get back into fantasy after my long break…I ordered Forth Wing…am I in for one???

8. Castor Oil

Okay I have the Elham’s Liquid Gold Travel Roller on my bedside and every so often will do a little roller in my bellybutton, and wherever else needs some extra grounding and love in my body, sometimes my shoulders, traps or even the bottom of my feet. I love it soooooo much. It makes it so easy to use, it’s completely made of glass and even the roller itself is rose quartz so there is absolutely no plastic used. This is by far my favorite castor oil too my beautiful friend Claudia founded this company and she upholds the HIGHEST standards. My discount code is “ELLA”.

9. Apartment Whimsy

I wrote a substack about how I am making 2026 whimsy at the beginning of the year and there have been a few things lately that have felt extra whimsy this spring.

First, I have been buying seasonal flowers every week and they have brought me SO MUCH JOY. It is peony season right now and they are my favorite flowers ever, before it was tulips and crysanthemums. Just brings in some seasonality and joy into my every day inside my home.

Second, I have been using my record player daily. This was Cooper’s gift to me over the holidays and I have been loving it so much. The best part about it is that records are one of the must fun things to thrift for, going through and seeing if an album I know catches my eye, or picking out something random and trying it out. I have thrifted 90% of the records I have and they make me soooo happy. Just turning it on and playing music throughout the day and while cooking dinner is my favorite.

& lastly, I have been a facebook marketplace lover lately. I have been finding so many vintage finds on there to bring more warmth into my home. Just recently we got a super old vintage singer table that has a cast iron sewing machine inside it, and we are going to use it as our entrance table. So excited!!!

10. Snacks I am Loving

It only felt right to put this all as one category, but I have some snacks I have been loving lately and can’t get enough of.

1. Masa Chips, specifically the coberero flavor oh my goshhhh THE FLAVOR. THE CRUNCH. THE SPICE. My favorite tortilla chips ever for obvious reasons the quality speaks for itself but they are truly so good I can go through an entire bag in one sitting lol. If you order them online my discount is “GLOWWITHELLA”

2. Sardines & Anchovies are we really surprised? I have not gotten sick of them I have only gotten more creative with the way I am eating them now that the spring&summer produce is beginning to thrive. My next goal is to get Cooper onboard because right now he is scared of them. Recipes to come.

3. Biltong Jerkey, I am an avid Thrive Market lover & member (it’s only $5 a month and you can get an extra $20 off your first three orders plus a free gift with my link btw) but I am always scouring on there & I find the BEST snacks on there and most recently it has been this regenerative, grass-fed Biltong jerkey. It is so tender and flavorful and full of protein.

4. Lineage Protein Bars, my favorite is the berry and they also just came out with a chocolate chip one that is delishhh. This is one of the only protein bars I have found that is actually made with real whole food ingredients instead of weird synthetics and fillers. Makes me feel so satisfied I love it. Lineage also has great jerky as well, my discount code is “ELLA15”.

5. Buckwheat Shells, if me and Cooper have an obsession it is these buckwheat shells. I genuinely can’t remember how I happened upon this company but I saw they have pastas made of all these amazing things like millet, purple sweet potato, and I become so intrigued. I tried them all but the buckwheat shells remain the winner for me. I will say Cooper and I go through an entire box in one sitting like it’s small serving sizes but it’s sooooo good as buttered noooods. & the only ingredient is buckwheat. I love it.

6. Gelatin Gummies. I almost included this in the skin category above bc it really do be doing wonders for my skin, but gelatin gummies are soooo easy to make and they are the best snack!! I use seasonal fruits, juices, and have been experimenting with creamier flavors like vanilla bean coconut. I have been using this Grass-Fed Gelatin (discount is “glowwithella”) and I have a bunch of gummy recipes, more to come.

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I will share even more of my favorite snacks in the next few weeks as we have June’s Seasonal Menu & Meal Shortcuts coming upppp!!!!! HOW IS IT JUNE. TF.

& let me know if you have any questions! I linked everything I talked about here in my ShopMy page, some are affiliate links some are not. I also reorganized my entire ShopMy + Amazon Storefront so if you are looking for something I posted about hoefully you can find it easier.

Talk to you soooon have the best Sunday ever!!! XO - Ella