Hey friends! Yay, it’s Friday! I had a very stressful morning already (I had an important project due at 11:00) but I sent it in and now the rest of my day should (hopefully) be stress free. I can relax and take my time finishing up some work that is not so time-sensitive. Hooray!

Anyway, yesterday I told you guys that I had a ton of updates to share, so let’s get started! First, I wanted to tell you about my vegetable share. Remember way back when I bought two half-shares of produce from a local farm off of Living Social? And they said to expect the delivery in a week? Well, they lied. It took more than a month (almost two, actually) to get them to send me my produce, and this is only after I emailed them like 5 times. Grumble grumble. But, my produce finally arrived and I’ll be getting my second share next week. Finally! Here’s what I got:

• 1 cantaloupe
• 2 yellow squash
• 1 green patty pan squash (Stephanie, you were right!)
• 1 lb. (ish) fingerling potatoes
• 3 small red onions
• 3 heirloom bell peppers (which I didn’t even know existed, but that’s what they look like)

Not bad, huh? And, I have already put most of the veggies to good use:

Roasted fingerling potatoes with rosemary

Sauteed yellow squash with red onions and peppers

Delish!

And there is another share like this one coming next week. Yippee! Although this deal was pretty expensive ($50 for the whole she-bang), it was really fun opening up my bag and seeing what local produce I received. Plus, it’s nice to be able to help out local farmers and eat produce that I know is in season and not shipped from somewhere halfway around the world and sprayed with a bunch of preservatives. No thanks.

I’m not sure if I’ll invest in a farm share regularly (though I know some people who do and they love it) but for me it doesn’t make sense because I would still need to buy some of my regular produce (spinach, lettuce, tomatoes, brussels sprouts, broccoli, etc.) and that’s too expensive to justify. It’s definitely fun for a little while though!

Bootcamp Update

Tina’s Best Body Bootcamp has still been going great! I have been loving the moves and really enjoying the soreness I feel after pushing my muscles hard.

To be honest though, I am struggling with finding the time to do the whole entire workout in one sitting. Some of the workouts don’t take as long, and I can fit them in during my normal workout schedule, but some of them take a bit longer and I’ve been having trouble scheduling them in. See, I usually work out from 6:00 – 7:00 a.m. and then head home to shower, eat breakfast, and get ready for work. However, some of the workouts take me longer than an hour so I’ve been waking my butt up even earlier to go the gym.

This is fine, and it may just be something I have to get used to, but climbing out from under the covers earlier than my normal time has been hard. I think it’s also because the weather has been crappy all week so when I go to get out of bed it’s dark and cloudy. In fact, on Monday, I didn’t even get out of bed at all and opted to do my workout in the afternoon instead. This was ok too, but I definitely like the energy I get from working out in the morning better. Plus, all the machines at my gym are full in the evenings and I found myself waiting around for a treadmill to open up. Not cool.

So I will pose this question to you now: should I just start waking up earlier? Should I switch to afternoon workouts? Or should I shorten Tina’s workouts a little so they fit into my schedule? What do you guys think?

Recipe

Ok, so now time for the recipe! Yay! I have to be honest, it’s not exactly a recipe, per se. It’s not like I have some crazy unique idea to show you that you should follow to a tee, it just happens to be something that I whipped up for dinner one night this week that was so amazing that I had to share it. Literally, after we were done licking our plates fingers, Fabio goes, “Can we have that again tomorrow?”

Even last night, when I was so excited to make dinner with my new veggies and was set on having chicken with a balsamic glaze (also delicious- just add balsamic vinegar, garlic, lemon juice and honey to a sauce pan and let it reduce) Fabio wouldn’t stop asking if we could have quesadillas instead. No! haha. But anyway, here’s how they came together.

First, I cooked some chicken on the George Foreman grill and seasoned it with McCormick’s Mesquite seasoning. These would have been great on a regular grill too, but alas, my small apartment has no outdoor space for a grill. Wah.

While the chicken was cooking, I got the rest of the quesadilla ingredients ready to go. I laid out two whole wheat tortillas (I try to buy the 100 calorie kind without too many crazy ingredients, I think these are Nature’s Own) and topped them with some shredded low-fat mozzarella cheese.

What’s that you say? Your mozzarella cheese doesn’t look like mine? All chunky and awkward? Well, that’s because I was out of regular cheese so I decided to take a vegetable peeler to Fabio’s string cheese. See ya’ lata’ string cheese.

Oh well, it worked fine and got all melty and gooey just like regular shredded mozzarella, so it was fine

Once the chicken was done cooking, I cut it up into bite-size pieces and placed it on top of the mozzarella.

Then it was time for some flava’! I am lucky, and my mom gave me a jar of her homemade peach salsa a little while ago. It is sweet and spicy and delicious. If you don’t have peach salsa, you can use regular salsa or you can buy some from your grocery store. I bet Trader Joe’s has some pretty awesome salsa flavors…maybe pineapple?

I spooned about 1 tbsp. of salsa onto each quesadilla. It was lookin’ delicious

Then I added even more flavor by chopping up half an avocado and topping each ‘dilla with the creamy, delicious avocado bites. Yes, I just said ‘dilla. It’s a word. K?

Yum, yum, yum.

Then I added a bit more cheese (reduced fat cheddar this time) and topped the quesadillas with the top tortilla.

Then, using a LARGE spatula, I very carefully transferred the ‘dillas onto a large nonstick pan that was set to medium-high heat.

I let the ‘dillas cook for about 2 minutes on each side, and then gave them a careful flip.

Once the ‘dillas were browned on each side and the cheese was melty (also a word), I removed them carefully from the pan and transferred them to a plate. From there I used a pizza cutter (large knife would also work) to cut them into quarters.

Oh. Em. Gee.

These babies were creamy, cheesy, sweet, and a little spicy. They were delicious!

I planned to only eat two slices and take the rest for lunch the next day, but that did NOT happen. I gobbled them all up. I also had a bowl of roasted broccoli on the side, but I hardly noticed it. These ‘dillas stole the show! And as I mentioned, Fabio couldn’t get enough either. I’m not sure why they were such a hit, since they were pretty simple and I just kind of threw them together, but something about the avocado, salsa, and cheese just blew me away. You gotta try these!

So, what spontaneous dinners have you guys come up with lately that turned out amazing? I have made a few pasta salads before that came out amazing, but whenever I try to recreate them it’s never quite the same. Fail. Hopefully these babies will come out just as delicious next time! Let me know if you make them!