Core and lovin' it! And recipes..

Today was day 3 of core and so far, I'm really liking it a lot. I'm finding that it's really not restrictive at all and there are tons of core recipes, close to core recipes and recipes that can easily be made core out there if you look a little. I have cooked good stuff every day so far (which is amazing for me LOL) so I know I'm getting a much healthier range of foods by not reaching for the easy, prepacked crap that can sometimes be appealing at the end of a long day. Bottom line is that I'll be much healthier in the end, not just skinnier.

On to some recipes.. I am awful about actually following recipes. I never do! I always tweak and change things around somewhat so sometimes it is truly a miracle that things end up tasting good! I thought I'd post the ones that work out so I can keep better track of them.

Corn and Potato Chowder

2 tbsp oil
1 onion chopped
3 stalks celery chopped
1/2 red pepper chopped
about 5 med. potatoes
3 bay leaves
dill (I added lots cuz I love it!)
pepper (same!)
5 cups water
5 packages Chicken bovril (the original recipe called for chicken broth but I had none but if that's what you used, 1L would do + 1 cup water instead of the 5 cups water)
3 cups skim milk
1 1/2 cup corn (I used frozen)

Heat oil in dutch oven. Add onions and saute 5-10 min. Add celery, bay leaves, potatoes, red pepper and stock. Cover and bring to a boil. Reduce heat to medium and let simmer until potatoes are tender. Add milk and corn. Continue to simmer 5 minutes until corn is tender. Discard bay leaves and puree in blender.

** I only pureed some of the soup and left some with little chunks.
** This recipe makes a lot as I have a lot of people in my house. You could easily half it.

Core Cornbread

2 cups cornmeal
1 1/2 tsp baking powder
1 tsp salt
1/2 cup splenda (add more or less depending on how sweet you like your cornbread - this amount only gave a mild hint of sweetness in my opinion)
2/3 cup applesauce
1 egg
1 1/2 cups skim milk
2 tbsp canola oil

Combine dry ingredients and wet ingredients separately. Add wet ingredients into dry mixture. Pour into greased muffin tin or dish. Bake 12-15 min at 350.

** In all honesty, this recipe needs a little more tweaking.. it was a little dry so I think next time I make it, I'll add some plain FF yogurt.

That's all for now.. more recipes to come soon!

Healthy You Check In & Weigh In

Bah. I'm pretty sure my 5lb loss last week was a fluke as I didn't see that number again after that. In fact, today I was back up those 5lbs. Although I do admit that I did get discouraged after seeing the number up last week after the weigh in and I gave myself full permission to eat stuff I shouldn't. That said, it also made me think... I absolutely suck at tracking my intake and counting points. I used to do awesome with the whole points system, hence my consistent losses last winter/spring. But I'm just not feeling it anymore... Don't worry, that doesn't mean I'm saying adios to WW though. I've gone core! As of today. I honestly never thought I'd do core, thinking it was way too restrictive of what you can eat but don't really feel that way anymore. So that's a plus, right? That means that my eating habits have become healthier, right? I'm really looking forward to seeing how core works for me. I have no classes today and my car is in the shop so I got groceries yesterday and will spend part of day today cooking cauliflower soup, Core Cornbread and Carrot Cake Cookies. I'll come back with recipes and reviews later..

So menu for today:
B: skim milk, pineapple, FF yogurt
L: two hard boiled eggs, tiny bit of light miracle whip (for points as I can't stomach the ff stuff), half WW pita (1pt), orange
S: Cauliflower soup and cornbread