Happy Monday!!

We had a great weekend and officially welcomed back the college football season at the Coliseum to cheer on our Trojans. And now its Monday and back to work.

I think I might be the only person in the world that rather likes Monday. It seems to have the opposite effect on me than most people. I'm a very productive Monday person because I'm motivated to just get s*@t done! I tend to take on a lot early on in the week and end up dead tired by Friday. And now that Monday Night Football is back, Mondays have gotten even better!

This Motivated Monday I decided to tackle another recipe from Shape magazine that got me into my latest health kick. It came out really well, so here's the recipe.

Pineapple Salsa and Chicken Skewers

2 cups coarsely chopped pineapple

2 garlic cloves, minced

1 tsp dried rosemary

1/2 tsp salt

2 tsp pepper

1 cup water

1 pound chicken breast, cut into 2 inch cubes

12 2-inch pineapple chunks

For the salsa:

2 cups diced pineapple

2 large tomatoes, cored and diced

1/2 cup chopped baby spinach

1 tbsp olive oil

2 cloves garlic, minced

2 tbsp fresh or dried cilantro

1/4 tsp salt

Place chopped pineapple, garlic, rosemary, salt and pepper in a blender. Blend adding water as needed to thin to the consistency of barbeque sauce.

Place chicken and three-quarters of the pineapple mixture in a large zip-loc bag to marinate for 30 minutes. Reserve remaining pineapple mixture for basting.

Combine all salsa ingredients in a medium bowl. Let stand for at least 10 minutes.

Place chicken on grill for 4 minutes, turning after 2 minutes. Remove from grill.

Once chicken is cool enough to handle, thread skewers with 4 pieces of chicken and 3 chunks of pineapple. Place kebabs on grill and cook for 3 minutes. Baste with remaining pineapple mixture, turn and baste again. Cook for another 3 minutes.

Spoon 1 cup pineapple salsa on each plate and serve with skewers.

Nutrition Facts:

1 kebab and 1 cup salsa - 300 calories, 5g fat, 29g protein

Tips: Buy the pre-packaged chicken and vegetable skewers from your grocery store's meat department and just rub the marinade around it. This definitely saved me a lot of time and effort. I also served the pineapple salsa over a bed of baby spinach and ate it like a salad. I added a little hot sauce for some extra spice. Delish!

Yesterday I attended mass in honor of my grandpa at San Antonio Church with my dad and my step-grandma Wendy. We went to dinner afterwards at Macaroni Grill. We sat and talked about my grandpa for over 2 hours and I really enjoyed their company. I've been going through some old pictures lately looking for ones of my grandpa and I, so I'd thought I'd share some funny ones I found when I was little. Its so fun to go through old pictures.

Have a good week everyone!