**If anyone knows Christen McNamara, please let her know that she won my Earth Fare Gift Card contest.  If I have not heard from her by Thursday at 8am, I will pick another winner.**

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Yesterday morning at the gym was the start of Phase 4 of Tina’s Best Body Boot Camp.  This is the final phase of the boot camp, and so far I think I like this phase the best.

The workout consisted of six tabata intervals that focused on strength training the upper body.  The tabatas made the time go by super fast, and kept me interested the entire time.  I never once found myself looking at the clock wondering how long I had been completing my workout.

Tabata intervals are defined by a workout consisting of eight intervals of twenty seconds of hard, intense work a followed by 10 seconds of rest.  I downloaded a tabata timer app on my iPhone, and I love it!  The only thing I wish the app had was a ding or a bell when it was time to move onto the next phase of the interval.

After the strength tabatas, I headed to the treadmill to complete some tabata intervals while running.  Needless to say, by the end of the workout I was extremely sweaty and had that endorphin high coursing through my veins.

The workout was a great way to start the week.  For me, a sweat session is always needed to kick things off in the right direction.

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Now, let’s talk about a tasty dish that I made over the weekend that I have to share with you!

On Saturday night, Brian and I had plans to go to the Nutcracker.  I wanted us to have a fancy dinner to make this a true date night, but I knew that both Brian and I had a busy day before heading out to see the show and that we didn’t want to break the bank on a delicious meal.

I told Brian I would cook something special, and the first dish that came to my mind was Rachael Ray’s Frutti di Mare.

I have made this pasta and seafood dish two or three times before, and it always impresses me when I make it and the audience that I make it for.  The meal is relatively simple, takes only 30 minutes and really is a show stopper.

I made a substitution for the pasta and used brown rice pasta instead of regular pasta.  Brian actually prefers the taste of brown rice pasta to whole wheat pasta because it really tastes and feels just like the regular stuff.

The Tuttorosso Tomatoes that I received to sample a few weeks ago made the perfect base for the sauce of this dish.  The sauce has a slight kick, but is absolutely full of an addicting flavor that makes cleaning my plate a simple task.

If you are looking for a date night meal that is impressive, but not too hard to make…Rachael Ray’s frutti di mare is a winner.  Trust me!

Of Possible Interest:

• 9 Vegan Cook Books:  fitsugar
• Cocoa Dusted Almond Recipe:  Greatist