Ali Wren

whole-hearted living, healthy-minded eating

Happy Anniversary to A Couple Cooks!

I am so excited to be a guest on the one-year anniversary episode of A Couple Cooks Podcast! Alex and Sonja Overhiser are the creative brains behind A Couple Cooks, and I’ve been a huge fan of their blog for years. They believe that “real, whole food not only tastes good, but can do good for our […]

A Favorite Salad

Adam and I both love to support local restaurants and businesses, and one of our favorite restaurants makes this Apple-Brie salad. We decided to recreate it at home, and it’s delicious! Ingredients: Arugula Granny Smith apples, chopped Red grapes, halved Sugared pecans (we like the Trader Joe’s bag, which is dairy-free) Dried cherries Brie–optional (or any […]

A Manifesto

Over the last 31 days, I’ve shared about authentic friendship–including my own stories, and insights from friends in all stages of life. After hearing from countless women about their desires for authentic friendship, and what it means to them, I’ve come up with a working definition of authentic friendship: a deep-rooted friendship in which we can […]

A Benediction for Authentic Friendship

A Benediction for Authentic Friendship May we have Wisdom to know when to be quiet and listen. Courage to be vulnerable and share our story. Understanding when we feel hurt. Eyes to see ways we can be a better friend. Bravery to share honestly and openly. The capacity to love selflessly and forgive unconditionally. Words to […]

The Heavy Lift

Our marriage mentors and friends Joe and Kerri once told us how important it is to recruit a home team in our marriage–a group of friends to lean on, turn to, and learn from. Although Adam and I have some amazing friendships (individually and as a couple), we are still seeking more couple friendships to […]

Open Hands

Last weekend, Adam and I went to a state park in Indiana to see the beautiful fall colors. Autumn is our favorite time of year, and we were so excited to see shades of red, orange and yellow! Instead, we saw barren trees that had no leaves at all. We’ve had a rather summer-like autumn, […]

Comparison In Authentic Friendship

I guest posted on The Tiny Twig‘s blog (aimed at helping young women “adult” with more passion and less fuss) a few months ago about how Comparison Suffocates Authentic Friendship. Here is a recap: When comparison gets in the way of authentic friendship: It feels hard to celebrate our friends’ successes. Comparison invites destructive thoughts like, […]

Disagreeing Without Fighting

Manda is a writer and speaker, and straight up Truth-teller. She believes that “there isn’t a single person you would not love if you knew their story.” For this series, a lot of women have shared about the power of vulnerability in authentic friendship, and Manda lives, breathes, and writes from a place of sincerity and vulnerability. […]

The Main Thing

The older I get, the closer my friendship with my mom grows. We are more like friends now, even though we will always have our mother-daughter relationship. We “get” each other, and the more I’m with her, the more I see just how much I truly am my mother’s daughter. Sensitive, Starbucks fanatics, willing to tell […]

Forever Friends

A few years ago, my friend Marissa followed her boyfriend (now husband) to Indiana from New Jersey to support his NFL career. (Go Colts!) This summer they moved again to Ohio. (Go Bengals!?) Marissa has been through a lot of change over the last couple years–moving away from her family, new teaching jobs, engagement, moving again, and […]