Returning to My Favorite Farmers’ Market: Little Italy Mercato

Hi there!

Hope that you had a great weekend. I was more than ready for the weekend on Friday, and I kicked off my 2 days off with a hike at my favorite trail area with my hubby and this maniac…

We hiked for a bit under 2 hours, and it felt so nice to be out in nature after a long week!

I threw together a post-hike dinner of whole grain pasta shells with marinara sauce, shredded mozzarella, and lightly breaded and fried zucchini. I love zucchini and the meal totally hit the spot!

Saturday I had a date with the very first friend I made when I moved to California,  Jackie. When I moved back to the San Diego area last May, a week later she moved to Texas to join her Marine at his new duty station, so it was great to hang out with her and catch up while she was in back in town for work.

One of our traditions has always been exploring San Diego’s Little Italy Mercato together, so on Saturday morning, off we went to the farmers’ market…

Since I live in the northernmost town in San Diego County and downtown is a bit of a hike for me now, I hadn’t been back to the market since moving back to SoCal. I had forgotten how much I love this market! It’s huge with so much variety, tons of awesome produce, and some stands that I hadn’t seen before, including a great juice maker and granola company.

I obviously went crazy like a little kid in a candy store and nabbed a bunch of yummy food. I mean look at how beautiful those tomatoes are… 

One of the many things I love about SoCal is how dog friendly it is. There were tons of cute canines around the market and surrounding restaurants downtown.

After our market ventures, Jackie and I went to this fun restaurant on the same street as the market (I can’t remember the name of it at the moment) for lunch. We both got salads – hers was a quinoa, feta & mint dish; my greens were topped with creamy burrata cheese, heirloom tomatoes and pine nuts.

Thumbs up for our healthy lunch! After we ate, we headed to my old favorite park for a hike.

I used to hike Kwaay Paay Mountain with my pup all the time when I lived in the area. It’s a 90-minute hike that definitely gets your heart pounding. I was surprised to see that a lot of the trail was blackened, and later read that a fire this summer burned 90 acres of the park! A shot of us at the summit:

Afterwards, Jackie asked if I was interested in getting some fro yo…. and as I rarely turn fro yo down, a few moments later I was quenching my thirst with some mango, peach and raspberry yumminess:

The day included some of my favorite things and I had such a blast!

I enjoyed some of my farmers’ market finds for dinner later on. I made a Mexican dip with some of the beautiful tomatoes I picked up…

…and we also ate some Bitchin’ chipotle sauce with some naan that I nabbed at an Indian market stand. Bitchin’ sauce is an awesome gluten free, vegan, almond-based dip. Every time I visit their stand at the market, I laugh because all of the employees incorporate the word “bitchin'” into conversation as much as possible.

I also used a peach I got at the market as part of my breakfast of a big bowl of fruit the next day.

The weekend flew by too quickly, but I hope that you all have a bitchin’ start to your week! 😉

Tell me… What’s your favorite food to buy from the farmers’ market?