It's funny, Tracie. I've noticed that the people who are most successful on Core on the ones that will cook for themselves. I really need to start cooking more again.

Hi Ladies


Didn't have time to post this morning as I had to get ready for church.After that some of the woman friends from my choir go out on Sunday for brunch.

This afternoon going to watch some golf,and relax reading the Sunday newspaper.

Ontarget-ThanksThats very nice title you gave me,hope I can hold up to it.

Paula-Sorry you didn't get down to the beach,I avoid all possibilities now & especially on the weekend that the tourist are all in town. I'll go back during the week when its less crowded.I hope this humidity will breaks soon,can stand staying int e A/C house all day,I getting cabin fever. No my DH doesn't have asthma,he had lung cancer 2 years ago and went into remission.Now since Jan and 3 scans later,we still don't know where the coughing & hacking are coming from. He had an addition pet scan last Wed. where we'll find out the result this Wed at the pulmonary doctor.Hope & pray that the cancer didn't return. Do you like cooking??? I used to but not I like the 30 min easy cookbooks out there. I found lots of core recipes in my old WW books.



Tracy-You were a busy little beaver this weekend.I just didn't have the energy to get anything down except the kitchen and downstairs bathroom,I will leave the dusting a vacuum cleaning for tomorrow when it not going to be that hot.

I made a crispy Cajun potatoes[O'Brien] & ham steak from my WW short cut cookbook,it was good.Tonight its chicken again but with WW spaghetti this time.


BARBOh I can't believe what I read in your post. Please take care and teach your boys not to go into strange places without a parent or a bunch of other kids, they're so many perverts on the streets these days and the poor innocent children are subjected to them.

Vickie-Glad you took some time off to relax,DON'T FEEL GUILTY, especially in this weather. You take it easy, the house will always be there along with it chores.


Have to go, will look in on you gals later


Hugs BB

Vickie, I need to start cooking more again, too. Right now I'm "spread" between 2 kitchens. (A poor excuse is better than none at all.)

How kewl is this? We were outside shooting long distances at our FITA (big bullseye) target this AM and a small cottontail rabbit was hopping around behind it. He knew he was safe. No way would we let him get hurt. Curtis told me once of a black bear roaming around behind targets at a rifle range in Montana. He said it was kewl to just stop and watch the bear plodding along.

My tempie thingee here says 97*. My puter weather program says 100*. Don't know if there's really much difference. It's h-o-t.

Sandra, it is really breezy here today. I got to turn off my ac because it's beautiful but not so hot you have to have ac on. I love it!

BB, unfortunatey I have to work, so the weekends are the only time for me to get things done. After working all day, the last think I want to do is housework and major cooking. It's enought that I have to cook dinner and clean up the mess.

I got all my cooking done, except the vegetable beef barley soup is simmering. We haven't had dinner yet, but the turkey is done and the gravy is cooling so I can skim all the fat of the top. Luckily, I didn't make the sweet potatos and the mashed potatos because I'd have to count one of them. I almost forgot!
I also made up some ff/sf jello and ff/sf chocolate pudding and put them in individual containers so they are ready when I want them.
So, just have to finish up my dinner and let the soup finish simmering and I'm done for the night.

Hi y'all
It's been kinda busy today. I've started some cooking for next week when I'm at busy at my conference. I made the berry cobbler yesterday, but I'm not sure I made it right. It seemed like the dish was too large. The cobbler was not very deep. Also, was I supposed to cover it?

Rhonda-I walked again on the treadmill today. This time I walked for 30 minutes. I tried to increase the incline, but my hip started hurting (arthritis), so I leveled the surface. Oh well, I still walked fast.

Tracie-In Tennessee we aren't able to stand it with the windows open in July. I would love to be able to do that. I'm gonna finish my cooking tomorrow. I plan on making the pancakes, too.

Sandra-I don't know what the temp is here, but it sure is hot! I have a sweet animal story to share, too. A couple of years ago, my DH, DS, and I were picking blackberries on our property. My DS looked down and saw a little turtle, so he picked it up to look at it. When he turned it around, the turtle's mouth was all covered with blackberry juice! It was so cute!

Vickie-I hope your day was as relaxing as you had hoped.

BB-so sorry to hear about your DH. Let us know his name so we can pray for him.

Barb-Isn't it impossible to have kids in this world and not be insanely over protective? Your story is horrifying!! Putting that nut UNDER the jail would not be good enough! I know your vacation won't come soon enough for you and your family.

I'm relaxing with "my guys" right now (DD is out of town), so I'll check in later. TTFN

Tracie, I'd love your recipe for the vegetable barley soup.

Thanks, Sloan. It was relaxing. I'm cooking dinner now.

Sloan, that's an adorable account of the turtle. I'm picturing him licking his lips.

Tracie, you've done a lot of cooking. You're ready for the week for sure.

Vickie, what are you cooking? Have you made your core "fried" chicken lately? It always sounds so good

Hi everyone. Hope you all had a great weekend. I also did some cooking. I made a new recipe (posted it under the side dishes) - Going for the Grains Casserole. Its yummy, it made a ton. I hope it freezes well. I also made salsa chicken and rice in the crockpot. So, I'm set for lunches this week and probably next week as well.

My fridge is packed, once I have room I'm going to make another cheesecake. I made dh and dd a blueberry cake today. After freezing a quart, packing berries for all of us for lunch tomorrow and making the cake the bowl does not look like we made a dent in it. I think I need to put another bag in the freezer, also send some to moms as well.

Barb, that story is horrifying! DD is getting to the age when she is with non family - school and camp. My biggest fear is the wacko's out there. I just keep praying that God keep her safe. If she were any where near that nut I'd be beside myself. HUGS to you!

Sloan, loved the blackberry story. Very cute. This is our first year having a good amount of berries. I planted the patch probably 5 years ago. Each year there would be a few. But this year we have probably picked a good quart or more and there are still a few more days to go.

Well, got to get dd to bed. BBL

Sloan on the treadmill. I did my DVD yesterday too. Today I took a long walk with my friend and her daughter, my goddaughter.

This afternoon I had to go to a "visitation." The wife of one of my colleagues died of leukemia. They are younger than I am and have three children, from age 12 to 3. It's sad. At least I was able to tell him that my husband had died 22 years ago of testicular cancer and you do survive it (even if you don't want to!). At least he has her in the three children. But, it is awfully sad.

We're postponing our Niagara Falls trip until DH's DD arrives, thinking that she might like to go.....if not, we'll go when she leaves. Things are a little too busy right now.

I haven't seen the chat week have 9 pages on it in a looonnnggg time. It's nice to read about everyone.

Rhonda

I made Core burgers and oven fries. We had fresh tomatoes, pickles, FF cheese, and raw onions with them. Yum. Yum.

Rhonda, how horrible about your collegue - and the 3 young children.

Vickie, sounds like you are getting back to core. GREAT JOB!

OK, its Sunday night. For our challenge next week -- should we go back to an exercise challenge? Does everyone like to switch food based and exercise based? Or I was thinking a challenge for 3 new things this week. Could be a new recipe, a new food, a new exercise..... What do you all think? I'm open to any of them. Thoughts?

Hey Paula-Any challenge is good for me! Our berries are wild, so they are difficult to pick because they are so full of thorns, and we have to fight other "wild things" to get to them.

Rhonda-thoughts and prayers to your colleague and his kids. My friend has leukemia and is awaiting results of a biopsy after a stem cell transplant from her own body.

Sandra-did you see my question about the cobbler? I know you have made it, and I was wondering how yours looks.

I'm getting bored with the same old protein, especially for lunch. It seems like I eat a lot of chicken. I'm planning on grilling some burgers and chicken to freeze for lunch, but I was wondering if you all had any suggestions. When I don't have something already cooked, like leftovers, I end up eating what ever I can find. Usually on core, but not satisfying. Also, I try to save my potato, rice, or pasta that has to be counted for dinner, because it is easier to work those into recipes that my fam is more likely to eat. Got any ideas?

TTFN

Sloanie, even in Michigan it is usually really hot in July. This year has been unusually cool for us. Last year my pool was open in May because it was already getting hot. This year, because it hasn't been very warm we just opened it three weeks ago, the end of June. That's very unusual.

Vickie, I don't really have a recipe for the soup. I just take a round steak(about 1 1/2-2 lbs) and cut it up in bite size pieces, removing all visible fat and brown it with some chopped onion. Once browned I add about 6 cans ff beef broth, some water(about 4 cups) and some beef base (about 4 tsp-not core but only 80 calories for the whole pot of soup), a can of petite diced tomatoes, the bigger bag of frozen mixed vegetables(corn, green beans, carrots and peas) and some barley(about 1 - 1 1/2 cups). Bring it to a boil and then simmer it for about 3 hours (until meat is tender). Add salt & pepper to taste. It makes a big pot of soup and it is awesome. It probably makes about 20 servings so the 2 points for the beef base doesn't even matter. It's so good too.

Rhonda that's got to be devastating for your collegue. It's going to be tough raising 3 children on his own and loose your wife at the same time.

I know how tough it is raising 3 children alone as my ex and I divorced and he basically never seen the boys. He pretty much deserted them. It was tough on my boys. And they were 5,7 & 9 when we divorced. He might have seen them for the first six months after the divorce and then stopped coming.

Paula, I'm game for any challenge you can think of.

Wow you all are amazing.....I hope all your preparations rub off on me. That is What I need to do is prepare for the week. This week I may not do core. I am going camping this weekend and I think it will be to hard for me. I need to decide tomorrow. We are going with other people so I just feel like it will be to challenging to do well. Plus I need to have a few ice cold beers camping...It just would not be camping without having a few. I am not a big drinker at all but I do when I camp.

I am feeling better about the weirdo. However at church my ds had to go to the bathroom. I let him go , not even thinking.....Than my DH lest soon after and than it clicked.....Dah why couldn't that guy be in a church....I mean my son is almost 9 I feel safe as well as many other moms do...But right now I just can not take any chances....We also went to the store today he was at following my friends kids. I told them to stick by us and they can no longer go look at something unless we are there. So much for freedom for awhile.

Anyway, did not feel to great today. Woke up early with stomach issues and felt terrible for most of the day. The funny thing is this has been occurring more than normal, so more reason to keep a food journal to figure out if something is causing this....No fun growing older.

I am making the pancakes tom, never got around to it, and I need to sit and really look at the menus here.

Loved the story about the turtl... How cute is that.

Rhonda so sorry to hear about your friends wife dying so sad. Sorry to hear about your DH as well.

Paula I am in for a challenge as well.
sloanie...I could use some ideas as well...

Must go again to check on the boys. Take care Barb