Like Garfield, many people hate Mondays. On the other hand, Monday is an opportunity to start the week off right and try something new during the quarantine.
What to Cook
The staff at CityScene is whipping up some delicious meals during the quarantine. Here is an original recipe for a super quick yet restaurant-quality meal.
Garlic Tomato Cheese Tortellini | 12 minutes to prep and make
Ingredients
- Pre-made cheese tortellini
- 10-12 grape tomatoes, sliced in half
- 2 cloves of crushed garlic, for more flavor slice the garlic
- 1 Tbps. unsalted butter
- 3 Tbps. cream or high-fat milk
- Salt, pepper and extra virgin olive oil for flavor
- 1 Tbps. pasta water (water you cooked the tortellini in)
Instructions
- Start boiling water for tortellini and add soon after.
- While water is boiling, add sliced tomatoes into a medium heat pan with a drizzle of extra virgin olive oil, salt and crushed garlic. If you slice the garlic, add when the tomatoes are more cooked down.
- After 3-4 minutes, once the tomato are soft, crush with a utensil. (This is when you would add the sliced garlic).
- Add pepper for taste and butter, let melt.
- Add cream or high-fat milk. Incorporate well and reduce heat to a low simmer.
- Mix in pasta water, stir and let simmer. Stir occasionally to prevent burning.
- Pour tortellini into the saucepan and mix well.
- Plate and serve!
What to Listen to
Michelle Obama's documentary Becoming hit Netflix May 6. Before you watch the film, we recommend reading her novel of the same name that inspired the film. Becoming is a 2018 memoir of the former U.S. first lady and a #1 New York Times Bestseller. The book is available on Amazon and is also an audiobook, which Obama reads herself.
What Exercise to Do
Like many now know, being quarantined can affect our mental health even if it's protecting our physical health. Keep center with the bound angle yoga pose, which Yoga Journal claims can help ease anxiety. Here is a step-by-step guide by Yoga Journal.
- Sit with your legs straight out in front of you, raising your pelvis on a blanket if your hips or groins are tight. Exhale, bend your knees, pull your heels toward your pelvis, then drop your knees out to the sides and press the soles of your feet together.
- Bring your heels as close to your pelvis as you comfortably can. With the first and second finger and thumb, grasp the big toe of each foot. Always keep the outer edges of the feet firmly on the floor. If it isn't possible to hold the toes, clasp each hand around the same-side ankle or shin.
- Sit so that the pubis in front and the tailbone in back are equidistant from the floor. The perineum then will be approximately parallel to the floor and the pelvis in a neutral position. Firm the sacrum and shoulder blades against the back and lengthen the front torso through the top of the sternum.
- Never force your knees down. Instead, release the heads of the thigh bones toward the floor. When this action leads, the knees follow.
- Stay in this pose anywhere from 1 to 5 minutes. Then inhale, lift your knees away from the floor, and extend the legs back to their original position.

Yoga Journal