THE WINTER ARTISAN AND FARMERS MARKET

Stop by Saturday morning and kick off your weekend the right way at The Winter Artisan and Farmers Market. The Winter Market is open every Saturday from 10:00 am until 2:00 pm located at 346 Connecticut Street, downtown Buffalo in the Horsefeathers building. Come pick up some treats or your weekly necessities. They also have a full line up of local vendors. You never know what you might find!

SHAMROCK RUN

Kick off your St. Patrick’s celebration this Saturday at 12:00 p.m. Gather your friends and family and have fun while running for a great cause! The 39^th Annual Shamrock Run is hosted by The Old First Ward Community Association. The OFWCA relies heavily on fundraising dollars to help us in their mission to deliver quality services to its community. They bring programming to seniors and youth, including daily senior lunches, kids’ cafe after-school lunch program, youth woodworking class, ongoing and special youth ceramics classes, youth athletics, after-school tutoring, Green Team (a youth gardening program) and a very robust art curriculum. Register now, but hurry! There is a 6,000 participant limit, and only the first 4,500 receive a jacket! 

TRY THIS DISH: ROOST BURGER 

Roost just opened at 1502 Niagara Street in Buffalo and already has a strong following and countless rave reviews, so needless to say we were excited to try it. Whether you’re stopping in for brunch with friends or deciding to fill the table with apps, everything they put on your table deserves a shout-out. One of the many items on the menu that will keep you coming back for more is their Roost Burger. The buns had a nice toast to them, and in between were two patties topped with gooey American cheese, lettuce, onion, hot peppers and a phenomenal secret sauce that knocks your average mayo right out of the park. It’s served with a side of anise fingerling potatoes. They call the secret sauce their “mac sauce” for obvious reasons when you try it. The burger tastes just like a high quality big mac with a kick from the peppers. The burger is $15 and is served for lunch from 11 a.mm-3 p.m. Wednesday-Friday and Sunday for brunch (also 11 a.m.-3 p.m.). Roost’s menu is constantly changing, but they expect this staple to keep its home on the menu for quite some time.

HOW TO ACTUALLY SHOP FOR HEALTHY FOOD

We’ve teamed up with our BFF’s at Quarter Deck Athletics to help make you a healthier and happier person in 2017. Being the healthiest, best version of yourself should always be a top priority, because after all, we only live once. According to QDA, the most important things to do in order to be healthy are to make sure the foundation in your “house of gains” is stable. This means getting enough sleep, exercising and having enough lean mass to “weather the storms” that unhealthy eating and drinking can bring. Once your foundation is solid, making sure to eat lots and lots of veggies is essential, followed by proteins, fruits, nuts and healthy fats. Plot twist: FAT. IS. NOT. BAD. FOR. YOU! If you’ve seen our mini-series, which we do weekly with Dennis from QDA on our Snapchat and Insta Story (@stepoutbuffalo), you know how important it is to eat healthy. Like, actually eat healthy. Sorry folks, ‘low fat’ and ‘0 calorie’ stuff does NOT count. According to statistics and also our new favorite movie, Fed Up, about 80% of food sold in stores is unhealthy thanks to things like added sugar and chemical substitutes. Not only do these things make us gain weight, they affect our overall health and cause lots of problems in the long run. Trying to decide which foods are best for you can sometimes feel like navigating a minefield, which is why we felt #blessed when Dennis came through to help us figure it out. Watch and learn as we make our way through Wegmans and decipher the actually healthy stuff from the pretending-to-be-healthy stuff. Wanna learn more about how to be a healthier/better person? Follow our mini-series on Snapchat and Instagram (@stepoutbuffalo) and make sure to check out Quarter Deck Athletics and tell Dennis we sent ya!

For more on all of these ideas and more head to stepoutbuffalo.com/buffstate