Good Things Come To Those That Move

I've been a little slow with the recipe sharing lately but I've been busy studying for my Health Coach Certification exam.  I'm happy to report that I passed with flying colors and I'm glad to take a break from studying for a while.  Although I do have a bunch of recipes on deck to pass along, today I want to share the most recent gathering of the brunch girls.  A couple of weeks ago on a sunny Sunday afternoon we gathered at my sister's house for a lovely pot luck brunch.

We were shy a couple of brunchers but we had a lovely time and a lovely meal which was not totally exaggerated for a change.  I think we're finally getting the hang of figuring out an appropriate amount of food. 

We started with a beverage and this White Bean and Prosciutto bruschetta that I found on the Food &Wine website.  I did doctor the recipe to my liking and decided after the fact that it is perfectly delicious without the meat.  I'll share my version sometime soon but if you can't wait, check out Food & Wine's website.

I should show you how nice and inviting the table was.  We're not always this fancy at brunch but that sister of mine, well, she can be pretty fancy.

Jenny made us a really nice spinach salad....

Ouije made this Egg Strata that trust me, we could all use the recipe for but she has to dig through her magazines or just put it on paper for us because it is delish!  I love the asparagus in it, yum.

Melanie made a really tasty Carrot Ginger Coconut soup.  She played with this recipe a bit too but if you click on the link, it's pretty close to what she made in her Vitamix blender.

Heather is always good for some sweets, she brought these Irish Cream cupcakes which were just perfect for March. 

So we ate and chatted and discussed our up coming events (wish I could remember what was just said, look at their faces!).  The next big one being The Paige's Butterfly Run which is a 5k in early June.  Missy will be running her first race and we are all bringing our families to either run or walk.  While on the topic of running and exercise we learned that one of our girls had a significant reduction in her cholesterol since she started running a few months ago!  Her total cholesterol went down and her HDL (the good one) went up quite a bit!  I love to hear things like this because it really proves that you can take control of your health.  And talk about your benefits of exercise, listen to this!  One of our girls was diagnosed a few years ago (at age 38) with osteoporosis.  Since that time she has been running and taking a R.I.P.P.E.D. class (interval training boot camp type class) and has since REVERSED her diagnosis.  How awesome is that?  I think sometimes people get too focused on exercise being about "getting skinny" (I'm not a fan of skinny by the way, I prefer healthy over skinny any day) rather than living a nice, long, healthy, comfortable life.  So here's to being able to keep up with our kids and even our grand kids, staying away from preventable diseases and spending our free time doing enjoyable activities and not being laid up,  and not spending our hard earned money on medical bills!  Cheers!