CORE - The Perfect Omelette

Serves: 1
Instructions are for 1 x 2 egg omelette in a bread and butter plate skillet. Double for a 4 egg omelette in a dinner plate sized pan.

Difficulty: Easy

Ingredients:

• 2 eggs
• olive oil or spray

Method:
There are 2 keys to the perfect omelette:
(1) use a non stick pan
(2) for every egg you use a half egg shell of water - thank you year 9 Home Ec teacher! This works for any type or size of egg (I've done with duck eggs)

Spray pan with oil (or use paper towel).
Heat pan on high (eg 8/10 setting) until pan is very hot.
Add 2 eggs and 2 half eggshells of water to a bowl and whisk (or blender or shake) until very fluffy.
Pour into pan, gently rolling the pan to give good coverage (it should look like a weird cappacino).
Turn down to medium-low (eg 2/10) and cook without a lid until only the top 1mm or so isn't set (the fluff will still be there).
Sprinkle with salt/pepper/herbs and spread "filling" on half of the omellet (warm it a little if you are putting heaps in)
Cook a further couple of minutes until egg is set and doesn't look "wet"
With a big spatula (try 2 spatulas for large omelettes), fold in half and slide onto plate.
Serve immediately! Omelettes lose their fluffiness if they sit.

Filling suggestions:

• grated low fat cheese (family friendly). You could also add bacon or ham
• ricotta/cottage cheese, tomatoes (deseed), Italian herbs, bacon
• asparagus, corn, capsicum and salsa
• cooked mushrooms
• mince, salsa, baked beans
• ham, mushrooms, olives, tomato, pineapple, touch of grated cheese, Italian herbs (think like calzone - your favourite pizza flavour is great!)
• left over roast chicken, and chopped vegies with cottage cheese
• have a half serve of "left overs"? Many leftovers can be used in omelettes (ask, "would I put it in a toasted sandwich?")
• MY FAVE - cottage cheese, smoked chicken breast, asparagus, corn, capsicum, spring onion, basil

If you put a decent filling in, you probably won't want toast with it.

Not on Core? The basic omelette is approx 3 points for 2 eggs, plus whatever you use as filling

CORE Perfect Rice, Every Time

Serves: adaptable

Difficulty: Easy

Ingredients Ratio:

For every cup of rice, you need 2 cups of boiling water
ie 1/2 cup rice and 2 cup water, 2 cups rice and 4 cups water

Absorption Method:

Add rice and water to a pan, simmer with lid on, stirring occasionally until all water is absorbed.

If you have a pot which "sticks", use an extra 1/4 cup of water and stop when there is a thin layer of 1 or 2 mm of water at bottom and strain off.

• White rice: 12 - 15 minutes
• Brown rice: 25 - 30 minutes

You do not need to drain or rinse the rice if you are using straight away.

Microwave : use a large container with a steam venting lid to prevent making a mess of your microwave. If you don't have one, then a microwave jug with plate on top works well. Timing depends on microwave and quantity, but when the water is all absorbed, the rice is done.
Brown rice can be done in the microwave, but I think is better on the stove.

Left overs:

If you cook too much rice, tip into a strainer and wash with cold water.
(Why? It stops from continuing to cook in it's own heat and also stops it sticking together).
Drain and fridge/freeze in sealed container or tub.
To reheat, simply put in strainer and tip over a kettle of boiling water.
You can microwave cold rice, but I only recommend this when there is a sauce on top as it can stick together.

Flavoured rice:

Add stock cubes and/or strong herbs like garlic, parsley, coriander, rosemary to water.

I often add frozen vegies in the last 5 minutes to flavored rice for a quick side dish.

Hints

• If you are cooking a stew or curry and it won't thicken, considering adding some rice and simmering for about 12 minutes. Add about a cup of rice (recipe for 4 or 6) and if it starts looking a little dry before the 12 minutes, add a dribble of water.
• To make a hearty casserole, add up the liquids you've added and add slightly less than half the quantity of rice.
  eg a can of tinned diced tomatoes and 2 cups of stock would be approx 3 or 3.5 cups, so add 1.25 to 1.5 cups white rice.
  Rice takes close to an hour to cook in a lidded casserole. If your casserole is cooking for a lot longer to tenderise the meat, add rice about an hour before end.
• Rice and slow cookers can equal mush. Add about 2 hours from end and don't stir it.

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

Dietary Guidelines and Serving Sizes

These are the minimum suggested daily requirements. Each dot point equals 1 serve in that category.

Fruit
2 serves

• 1 medium piece of fruit
• 2-3 small pieces of fruit eg 2-3 apricots
• small bunch of grapes
• 1 cup chopped fruit or tinned in juice

Vegetables
5 serves

• ½ cup cooked vegetables
• 1 medium potato
• 1 cup salad vegetables
• ½ cup cooked legumes (chickpeas, lentils, kidney beans)

Cereals
5 serves

• 1 slice of brown or grainy bread
• 1 medium bowl (45g) high fibre cereal
• 30g raw rolled oats
• 1/2 cup cooked pasta, noodles or rice

Meat, Poultry and Eggs
1 serve

• 95 – 150g raw meat or poultry
• 120 - 180g raw fish
• 2 small eggs
• 100g raw tofu
• 1/3 cup nuts
• 1/4 cup raw seeds

Dairy
2 serves

• 1 cup skim, non-fat or low-fat milk
• 1/2 cup low-fat evaporated milk
• 200g diet, non-fat or low-fat yoghurt
• 30g reduced fat cheese
• 100g low-fat cottage or ricotta cheese

Why Drink 8 glasses of water a day?

• Water naturally suppresses the appetite
• Water helps the body to metabolise or burn stored fat
  The kidneys need sufficient water to function properly. When kidneys aren't working at full capacity, some of the kidney's load is shifted to the liver. The liver's primary function is to covert (metabolise) the fat stored in the body into usable energy (this is how you lose excess fat). If the liver is doing some of the kidney's work, it can't work efficiently to convert as much stored fat, so more fat remains stored in the body, and weight loss slows or stops. For this reason, apparently an overweight person actually needs more water than a slimmer person (approx 200ml extra per 10 kg overweight).
• Water helps the body to eliminate waste
  While losing weight, there is more waste to get rid of (where do you think that metabolised fat goes?)
• Adequate water can prevent or relive constipation
  When the body doesn't get enough water, it gets what it needs from internal sources, including the colon, which leads to constipation. Normal movements return when the body has enough water.
• Water also helps prevent saggy skin that often follows weight loss.
  Shrinking cells are filled with water, making the skin clear, healthy and “plump”.

CORE Evaporated / Condensed milk

Mix 2/3c powder skim milk powder and 1 c water.

CORE Coconut Milk

Use in curries for Core alternative to points-heavy Coconut milk

Mix 2/3c powder skim milk powder and 1 c water. Add coconut essence