CORE Breakfast Mousse

This is similar to Oats and Yoghurt Slice but has been blended for a smooth consistency.

Serves: 2

Difficulty: Easy

Ingredients:

• 1 packet diet apricot and peach jelly
• 1 200 g tub vanilla Nestle Diet yoghurt
• 1 snack pack size tub/can peaches in juice
• 100g quick oats
• 3 tsp Splenda
• Optional - chopped fruit to top

Method:
Dissolve jelly in 1 cup boiling water, mix with stab mixer.
Add peaches and oats and blend. Add yoghurt and Splenda and blend again.
Pour into 2 glasses and set in fridge overnight.

Not on Core? The total of this recipe is approx 7 points or 3.5 points per serve

Alternatives: Mix up your flavours.
I used peach and apricot because that's what I had.
Try raspberry jelly and strawberry yoghurt, melon jelly and vanilla yoghurt, port wine and vanilla yoghurt, orange-mango jelly with mango yoghurt, lemon jelly and vanilla yoghurt (it's "almost" a lemon cheesecake)
I don't recommend lime - bright green food is so wrong if you are out of junior primary school!

CORE Chicken Stirfry w Orange & Cori

The nest of lettuce and carrot is very filling and crunchy and a nice textural change to the noodles with the orange and coriander flavour

Serves: 6 in nest, 4 without

Difficulty: Easy

Ingredients:

• 400g chicken breast, sliced thin
• 1 large onion, sliced
• 3 cloves garlic
• 3 small oranges, peeled and segmented
• 1/2 cup coriander, chopped
• 150g rice vermicelli noodles
• 1/3 cup soy sauce
• 1 TB olive oil
• 4 cups stir fry vegetables (I used broccoli, cauliflower, capsicum, brussell sprouts and 1/2 cup frozen corn)
• 3 spring onions, chopped
• Optional - 1 tsp chilli flakes
• lettuce shredded, about 2 cups (for nest)
• carrot, grated, about 1 1/2 cups (for nest)

Method:
Add oil to wok and heat.
Stirfry chicken, onion, garlic and oranges until chicken is cooked.
Add vegies, soy sauce and herbs and stir fry for 5 minutes.
Meanwhile put the noodles into a bowl and cover with boiling water for 5 mins, then drain.
Line a bowl with shredded lettuce like a nest, then line with the carrot (this half fills the bowl so you have a much smaller serve of stirfry)
Add the noodles to the strifry and warm through (add chilli if using - is very mild).
Serve stir fry in lettuce and carrot nest.

Not on Core? The total points for this recipe is 23
(with 1/2 cup corn and free point vegies)

CORE Risotto with Chargrilled Capsicums

Serves: 4

Difficulty: Easy

Ingredients:

• 250 g premium beef mince
• 1 onion, chopped
• 1 clove garlic, crushed
• 1 1/2 cups basmati rice
• 1 tin diced tomatoes
• 1/2 cup frozen corn
• 1/2 cup frozen peas (try mint)
• 1-2 cups frozen or grated vegies
• Italian herbs mix
• 4 beef stock cubes
• 4 tsp olive oil
• 2 TB tomato paste
• chargrilled capsicums, sliced into strips (about 1 1/2 capsicums)

Method:
Fry beef, onion and garlic in large nonstick pot with 1tsp oil and put aside.
Using same pan, turn down to medium, add the remaining oil and the dry rice.
Stir to coat with oil, and fry for about 3 or 4 minutes.
Add 2 cups of water and beef stock and simmer for 10 minues until most water has absorbed.
Add tomatoes and tomato paste and cook for another 5-10 minutes, adding a splash more water if it looks a little dry.
Add frozen or grated vegies, beef mix, capsicums and a good sprinkle of italian herbs mix and cook for 5 minutes, stirring.
Again, add a little water if it starts to stick.

Not on Core? The total for this recipe is approx 26 points

CORE Chargrilled Capsicums

I do big batches in the Foreman grill or the oven.
This is ideal when capsicums are out cheap.

These capsicums are great in salads, anti-pasto platters, sandwiches (my fave is roast beef, capsicum, cottage cheese and salad) and add lovely flavour to Italian style meals like risotto, pastas and pizza.

Hint - I do a big batch, and freeze in small portions.

Serves: n/a

Difficulty: Easy

Ingredients:

• 1 kg red capsicums
• spray oil
• 1 pack french onion soup mix

Method:
Core and seed capsicums.
Cut into long strips, trying to cut down the ribs so you have about 4 semi flat strips per capsicum

Foreman Grill:
Heat the Foreman, and spray with oil.
Spray capsicum strips with oil on skin side, place skin down on the Foreman, spray inside and sprinkle inside/top with some French Onion soup mix.
Grill each batch for 9-12 minutes until there are some black stripes on the skin.

Oven:
Line an baking tray with alfoil.
Spray capsicum strips with oil on skin side, place skin down on the tray, spray inside and sprinkle inside/top with some French Onion soup mix. Bake for 45 - 50 mins at 200*C.

Both:
Put 2 layers of paper towel onto a dinner plate and put batch 1 on this.
Cover with another 2 layers and gently press down.
Repeat until all capsicums are done, and layered on plate between paper towel.
Cool, cover with plastic wrap and fridge.

Keeps well in fridge for about a week. Freezes very well (I use those tiny 100mltubs that aren't good for much else)

Not on Core? These are virtually point free.
A pack of F O Soup is 2.0 pts, plus a little oil spray

CORE Shepherds Pie

Instructions are for individual bowls, but you can make one to share

Pictured with optional cheese

Serves: 4

Difficulty: Easy

Ingredients:

• 500g premium mince (or savoury mince mix with garlic and onion from the freezer)
• 1 onion, chopped
• 1 clove garlic
• 5 cups frozen or chopped fresh vegies
• 1/2 cup frozen corn kernels
• 4 TB tomato paste
• 2 TB gravy powder
• 500g potato, peeled, chopped into 1cm cubes
• nonfat milk
• mixed herbs/Italian herbs 1 tsp
• cracked pepper
• Optional - sprinkle top of each bowl with 15g Coon Light and Tasty Cheese (1.5 pts)

Method:
Put potato onto boil. When done, drain and mash with a drizzle of nonfat milk.
Meanwhile, cook mince with garlic and onion until brown.
Steam vegies in a large microwave bowl.
Add mince mix to warm vegies, add tomato paste, gravy and herbs and microwave for a few minutes. note - if vegies were fairly dry, add a few TB of water to allow the gravy to form.
Spoon vegies and mince into 4 bowls. Top with mashed potato and smooth down.
Using a fork, draw lines or squiggles on top of potato.
Top with cheese if using.
Place under hot grill for a few minutes to brown the potato/cheese.
Remove with oven mitts and serve.

Not on Core? The total of this recipe is approx 23 points (5.5 pts each)
You can reduce points value by using a bit less less mince or potato

Tip 7 - Thin sliced meat for stirfry

It is much easier to cut meats really thin by cutting when still half frozen.

Tip 6 - Onions

I hate cutting onions. My hands absorb the smell and stink for days.

So I buy chopped onion from the freezer. I also keep a pack of French Onion soup around too.

Tip 5 - Olive oil sprayer

Invest in an oil sprayer. I have an aluminium one that you pump up for pressure. It was about $15 from a kitchen shop. The cheap plastic ones don't work so well.

I prefer using pure olive oil than using spray cans.

Tip 4 - Sliced ham

While I prefer freshly shaved ham, I also keep a packet of the packaged sliced ham (dairy cabinet) in the fridge. It usually keeps a month or so. It's good for sandwiches, core pizza, cooking etc.

Tip 3 - Frozen bacon pieces

I buy a "handful" of premium bacon strips from the deli and freeze them. If you don't squish it, you can easily break of a section for your eggs, risotto etc

Tip 2 - Frozen Savoury Mince

Cook up a few kilos of premium beef mince with garlic and onions.
Portion into snaplock bags and freeze in meal sized serves (eg 100-150g per family member). For a household of 2, I usually package in 250-300g bags

You can make dozens of meals in a real hurry when you have savoury mince.

Some ideas:

• Spaghetti Bolognaise
• "Hamburgers" - defrost beef on low, stir through a egg or 2 and fry in egg rings
• Hokkien noodles (use frozen vegies and soy sauce - yum)
• Wraps - warm mince, cottage cheese (low fat cheddar if you're happy to use some points), salad.
• Beef Yiros (souvlaki, donner, gyro etc) lettuce, tomato and Hommus or fat free ranch dressing (0.5pt for 2 TB Kraft 99% FF)
• Minestrone soup
• Chilli con carne
• Cottage / Shepherds pie
• Pastie slices - 2 rye mountain breads on top of each other for strength - diced canned tomatoes, defrosted frozen vegies and roll it up like a swiss roll (a little water to seal). Bake or nuke.
• Out of sandwich meat for the family? This makes awesome sandwiches, but needs "something" to stick to the bread (cottage cheese, marg, BBQ/tomato sauce, relishes, mayo etc)
• Tacos / burritos / tortillas. Mix in a can of 3 bean mix, cumin, chilli, some tomato, lettuce, salsa and cheese. (I use rye mountain bread and cottage to stay pure Core)

From HIGHSCHOOLTEACHER

• With a little tomato paste, savoury mince is greta in jaffles (mg bread of course)
• Add some curry poweder or curry paste and serve with rice - good for the nights you're in a hurry but want something a little spicy.
• Meatballs (to add to pasta and tomato sauce) - by adding some cooked rice and an egg to the mix, shaping into balls and broning in a frypan.
• Cooking up portions of minced lamb or even chicken (ask the butcher to run a couple of trimmed chicken breasts through the mincer) makes a nice change. The lamb is lovely with tomatoes, sliced eggplant and LF ricotta ( a sort of moussaka) while the chicken makes tasty patties etc.

Tip 1 - Core Bricks

A Core brick is a frozen tub of leftovers. Freeze in rectangular tubs and they look like bricks (hurt like them if they fall out the freezer too).

Cook a little extra and freeze a brick or 2 for the night you can't be stuffed cooking, or the family is having pizza. Or you just want a hot lunch on a cold day. Really, any of the "wet" dishes brick up nicely like casseroles, soups, curry, pasta etc