#bestrunninggroupever

Last week, the East Aurora Runners celebrated the end of our first ‘Winter Warrior Challenge,’ a 16-week contest to see who could attend the most runs, no matter the weather. Pictured below are our winners, two couples who are die-hard runners.

(All photos courtesy of Stacy Grinsfelder)

Sarah, far left, is pregnant and got this cute onesie in her gift bag!

I came in second, with another runner, as I missed ONE RUN due to my varicose vein removal in December. I think I should have gotten a pass for that one, but whatev 🙂 There’s always next year!

I’ve been running with the group since sometime in 2013 and even wrote an article on us that was published in the East Aurora Advertiser in February of 2014. Debbie, pictured below left, started the group in December of 2012. I missed about half of last year due to a bulging disc, but have been going strong since July.

The photo below is of some of the earliest runners in our original shirts. Since then, we’ve gotten t-shirts from 42 North (gifted to each runner after 10 runs) and neon jackets to promote visibility on our evening runs.

This group has grown from just a few women meeting in a parking lot to 20+ runners each Thursday night. (I credit much of that to ‘upgrading’ our meet-up location at 42 North…) I’ve gotten to know some of the runners fairly well and we meet up for additional weekend runs and even movies (!!). What was once for me (albeit for a short time) an ‘optional’ workout is now a singed-in-ink weekly date on my calendar. We’ve run in rain (in fact, the night of our party was the wettest run in a long time), snow and heat, but it’s not even about the weather. It’s about the company of others who are like-minded and genuinely interested in building relationships.

If you’re local and a runner, come out and meet us each Thursday night at 6 p.m. at 42 North–I promise you’ll have a group of friends almost instantly!

Penn State Reunion

This past weekend, Andrew and I were able to sneak in a quick visit to some of our college friends on our way into Philly to see Abigail and Marvin. We got up super early and drove through snow (?!?!?) so we could spend a couple hours with Leslie, Kim and Wendy (and their families) before starting the weekend with Andrew’s sister. (Leslie and Wendy were both in our wedding, and Kim was a friend who was also in Campus Crusade for Christ, where we met.) Leslie offered to host, as she and her husband, Christian, just bought a house in Pottstown and we were all dying to see it.

After a quick lunch of sandwiches, salad and some of my no-added-sugar goodies, the kids got right down to playing! Between the three couples, there are a total of TEN children, two of whom weren’t with us because of school.

The

The girls caught up around the table (below left, L – R: Wendy, Leslie, Kim), while the boys chatted in the living room (below right). Leslie’s twins (on table) are just over a year old and cute as buttons. They INHALED my banana oat cookies.

Andrew and Christian are both engineers, and Gary (Wendy’s husband, not pictured) is an orthopedic surgeon. Kim’s husband, Ross, wasn’t able to make the trip due to a speaking engagement that evening; they’ve been working with Campus Crusade for Christ since we graduated in 2005.

The kids ran all over the house like wild banshees, although the highlight was definitely the GIANT beanbag in one of the twins’ rooms. The boys tossed the kiddos onto the bag one by one and only heard shrieks of delight. Sadly, we were only able to stay a few hours before we had to hit the road again to continue our trip and make it to Marvin and Abigail’s house for dinner!

it’s my jam

Not really. It’s Joy Bauer’s Cherry-Chia Jam!

For our 30-day ‘No-Added-Sugar’ Challenge, jams and jellies are all OUT because they’re loaded with sugar. Bummer. Neither Andrew nor I are big PB&J eaters (not because they aren’t delicious, they’re just not the healthiest choices and we tend to gravitate to leftovers for lunches), but I do like jam on bread or atop oatmeal, etc.

However, when I saw this recipe come across Facebook, I knew I had to try it. I actually have a friend who joined in the challenge who was really going to miss his daily PB&J sandwich, so I was hoping this would be a winner.

Verdict: Success!

The result was a fresh, fruity gel that was perfect on a slice of toasted Ezekiel bread this morning, and I think it would be even better with some nut butter! My chia seeds didn’t change their texture very much (I expected them to swell and become translucent, like chia puddings), but they achieved the gel-like consistency the jam needed.

For this batch, I used mostly frozen cherries with a few frozen strawberry and blueberry stragglers and fresh pineapple. I was able to mash it all pretty well, so I didn’t remove any chunks of pineapple like Joy instructs in the recipe. I can imagine this jam with other fruits, like strawberries or apricots. It was so easy to make, I may start adding this into the rotation as we finish off the jams and jellies we already have at home.

Also, while searching for Joy’s link, I came across this site with a VERY similar recipe. Jessica and Stacie are Registered Dietitians and expound on the health benefits of chia seeds in their post. Be sure to check out their site!

*Note: This is one of those items that flirts with the line between no sugar and ‘added sugar’ since it’s high in NATURAL sugar–basically the very sweet pineapple is contributing natural sugar to the flavor. My no-added-sugar banana bread is also guilty of this, although it’s not very sweet. On the one hand, sugar is sugar is sugar; on the other, it’s natural sugar and doesn’t tend to be as sweet, so it helps to decrease a person’s dependence on sugar.