I had already bought food for flex for the week too, I'm just adjusting my recipes now, and it's been ok.. only using a few weekly points each day.

Gosh, just went to the ww meeting introducing it yesterday and I still have to read the booklet. Wish I had time to read through the thread, but it looks like everyone has a lot to say!! Since I find logging everything pretty burdensome, I hope this new thing helps reduce that aspect of it.

Hi guys!
I checked at a local butcher shop and London Broil is round steak, so it's core - thank goodness!
At any rate, had a fantastic idea for a recipe that I am going to try for dinner, it will be one point due to one ingredient, but not bad at all and probably not enough to count a point, but one should if one goes by the book.

CORE Beef stroganoff
Slice up a round steak in strips, put aside, or you can use one pound of extra lean ground beef and make hamburger stroganoff!
Chop one onion and sautee' in non stick spray, add 1/2 pound sliced mushrooms and continue sauteeing until the mushrooms release their juices. Then add the beef and quickly brown it while the mushrooms and onions continue cooking, about 5 -6 min on med heat.
Add one can of 98% ff campbell's cream of mushroom soup, undiluted (this is the ONE point ingredient, not core)
Add 1/2 packet of Lipton Onion Soup mix
If you need to, add a bit of water to keep it a bit soupy looking (making this up as I go along here) and simmer, covered, stirring occasionally for about 15 minutes until beef is tender.
Then add 1/4 tsp nutmeg, 1/2 tsp worcestier (sp?) sauce, S+P to taste or do at the table. Keep warm until just before serving and then add 2 Tablespoons catsup and 1/2 cup ff sour cream.
Serve over top of whole weat pasta or brown rice.
ONE point due to the soup, the rest is all core!
I have adapted this from a real recipe I have made up myself and have accomodated it to the core program. I will be trying this tonight for dinner, so will let you all know how it works, but needed to type it out for my own benefit anyway.
Generally, this recipe is sauteed in butter and uses regular sour cream. I also make pot roast with the cream of mushroom soup and onion soup mixes and make a stroganoff out of the leftover pot roast, but this will work as I have done it this way making stroganoff from scratch.
Also, for the person who asked, freeze the banana in a zip lock without the skin, broken into approximately 2" pieces that can be dropped into the food processor or blender, don't defrost them before doing this, they will be icy and very good! Also, I said 1/2 cup of skim milk, but that is an approximate as I just usually pour in milk while the blender/processor is running and don't measure. I get it the right consistency and just know when it's the right thickness! Hope that makes sense.
I can get fairly creative with cooking and sometimes make things without measuring!
But, that is the fun of it!???
Love the strained "yogurt cheese" idea as well, will be trying that for sure!
Go Core people!!!!!
Linda

2 boiled eggs for breakfast. 3 tomatoes and a cucumber for snack. Lunch was a big salad with canadian bacon, pineapple, green peppers and green olives, topped with FF Catalina dressing. For dessert I had yogurt - 2 points of my "allowance", but I had thought any ff yogurt was ok until I checked. I need it as I don't eat cereal or drink milk, so it is 1 calcium for the day so far. I'm also keeping track of points to see how I do on Core. Not sure what dinner tonight will bring. I'm use to having a frozen meal or a pita with meat in it since I'm usually on the run. I think I have one more grilled chicken breast in the fridge - may make some chicken chili with it - can of kidney beans, can of tomatoes and seasonings. Will definitely make more than one serviing - will be good for lunch on Friday. I think I'm going to make some sf/ff pudding too for my other milk for today - I know with flex I wasn't getting my milk either.

Am pushing water - I do good for a while then get away from drinking it, I know it will help!

Linda,That stroganoff recipe sounds great!! I printed it off and will make it next week, I just finished my menu for this week and have no room for one more, but boy does that sound good! Can't wait for you to let us know how you like it! And thanks for the banana tips! I have that on my list to get tomorrow, sounds like a perfect core treat and the kids will like it too!

My menu so far today is
B- oatmeal sweetened with splenda
L- boiled egg with two corn tortillas (1 pt for the tortillas)
D- will be ranch chicken with baked potatoes and another veggie.
My WI is tomorrow so I didn't want to use anymore pts today. I have cantelope in the fridge for a snack if I need it later.

Hello everyone! :wave:

I had a few details on the Core program but missed my meeting on Monday as I was away :( I did go to another WW location to weigh in today and got the new materials as well as the new food guide and new mag. I will be reading up on the new plan tonight - sounds pretty interesting and since I have been stuck on a plateau for a while I am thinking of giving it a try though I still like the flex points program.

Hi guys, just a very quick post to let you know the stroganoff was great.... a bit different with whole wheat pasta (couldn't even finish it, I was too full!!! Full, what is that anyway - not something I've been lately!!!). My 16 year old son, who hates all "diet food" like it, a true "test"!!!! So, do try it!
I have made stroganoff for ages and have combined five or six different recipes over the years and make it a tiny bit different each time, but this works great. Just remember this is one point to count due to the soup. But, I think it's worth the point - it's been four hours since dinner and I am still not hungry!
Loving this program so far!
Linda

Linda, keep those recipe ideas coming. I'm not too good at thinking up things like that.
I made it food wise tonight. I fixed a banana/strawberry smoothie with ff yogurt and skim milk and drank it on the way to the cruise in. I had a glass of tea while DH ate his chicken. I stayed full until on the way and I got that empty feeling so I ate the 1 oz of trail mix I carried (3 flex points) and will have a glass of milk and go to bed.
Glad to see we have our own board now!

Just checking in here as I'm reading everything to do with Core ... I love it! The recipes look great. The only two totally Core ones I've come up with so far are warm tuna/corn salad with ff dressing and the good ol' fashioned banana/skim milk weight watcher's milkshake! :) I haven't been keeping track of what I eat, except for logging noncore and activity points ... I've been journaling my weight loss and eating for so long, I guess the real appeal of this for me is to stop doing that ... it's time and this is the way to go for me. The freedom of drinking some milk whenever I need it is the biggest plus for me ... I love milk but for so long have tried to deny that ... not wanting to waste the calories/points on simply milk ... felt I needed to use low carb protein shakes to up nutrition, just couldn't drink milk on its own.

I'll be cooking more on this program next week ...

Question about the program......why do you think they allow Tomato soup and not V-8..I looked and compared the ingriedeints and the soup has more sugar and salt than the v-8.......also....are their any nuts on the list? As for the yogurt, the plain has less sugars in it that the fruited kind even with sweetner. Is there not even whole grain bread?????????... I thought whole grains were so healthy for you. I still do not understand how to count the grains. They say only 1 serving a day so can you have that serving and then oatmeal and then a starchy vegie too?

Why does the cereal have to be with milk? I eat mine as a snack without dairy some tiems. Just so confused..do not think some of the core foods make since. Do you have to count Kashi now too? I do not see it on the core.

I do WW at home and still on the winning pts, never could get used to eating the flex way but am considering this new program to use with my wining pts one. I cannot make any food off limits...too restricting for me but the core would make a nice change every now and then. Just not sure I want to spend the money for a new kit untill I have all the facts.

Candice, all fruit drinks are not on core either so that is probably why V-8 isn't a core item... it's probably something people would go overboard on. The same with breads and nuts... ww tried finding items that are healthy but wouldn't lead to a binge, who wants to binge of hardboiled eggs or ff cottage cheese huh? And for yogurt, only the ff plain is on core, not the fruited kind.
And when it comes to servings of grains.. you can have all the oatmeal and hot cereal you want throughout the day, it's not limited to once a day and neither is corn or peas (starchy veggies) only br. rice, ww pasta, and potatoes are limited to once a day and that means you get ONE of those 3, not all 3 once a day. Cold cereal has to be eaten with milk and you also get it once a day IN ADDITION to your br. rice. ww pasta, and potatoes... so you could have cold cereal with ff milk for breakfast and spaghetti for dinner.
But when it comes to bread, or eating cereal as a snack ,etc that is what your 35 weekly pts are for... ww isn't telling you not to eat them, they just aren't on the list so use your pts for ww breads or tortillas and stuff you enjoy eating.
And I say give Core one week! Try it for one week and if you don't like it you can always switch back to winning pts. Hope I was some help to you!

I agree with Sprying, try it for one week as see how it works. I decided to do that and have actually been enjoying this greatly. I ate out yesterday and managed to only use 2 flex points, not too bad!
You guys have just got to try this.... take an ordinary cookbook (in my case Fanny Farmer, my old time favorite) and filp through a few pages (other than baked goods) and you will find many "core" recipes are just there waiting to be made. Some recipes might need a few substitutes such as non-stick spray vs. butter to fry/sautee or plain ff sour cream vs. milk or cream in a creamed soup and whole wheat pasta or rice, etc. You will find yourself looking at one recipe after another and exclaiming, "I can have it now"!!!!!
Here is one example from the Fanny Farmer cookbook:

Sour Cream Baked Noodles:

Makes four servings

"You will find this recipe has infinate variations use the butter (non stick spray for us) to saute' any one or more of the following, then add to the noodles: 1/4 cup chopped onion, 1/4 cup chopped green pepper, 1/2 cup chopped celery, 1 cup sliced mushrooms, 1 cup well drained flaked tuna or 1 1/2-2 cups diced cooked poultry.
1/4 pound noodles, 1/4 inch wide or wider, cooked (we use whole wheet of course)
1 cup cottage cheese (we use fat free)
1 cup sour cream (again, we use fat free)
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/8 teaspoon freshly ground pepper
4 tablespoons butter, melted (we don't touch this or use flex points and margarine if you must, use non stick spray for all the sauteed stuff)
Preheat over to 375 degrees, Butter a 1 1/2 quart casserole (again think non stick for the rest of your life here). Put the cooked noddles into a bowl and toss with the remaining ingredients. Put into the casserole and bake 50 - 60 minutes, or until bubbling and set.

So, this could be a good choice for us,we just have to look at a regular recipe and substitute.
I like the idea of adding mushrooms and cooked poultry to this, it would have a "comfort food" quality for me, I think!
At any rate, on almost every page of the Fanny Farmer cookbook, is a recipe that can be looked at just a bit differently, I especially loved going through some of the seafood and soup recipes and seeing that many recipes can just be made, as is, or with just a few substitutions. I have a Hungarian cream of mushroom soup recipe that came from my mother in law and it indicates that one can use either cream or sour cream. So, why not fat free sour cream and just give things a try?
I have a quiche recipe that is also quite low in fat, used plain non fat yogurt in it, so why not try it "crustless" or figure out a way to use whole grain cerial to make some kind of crunchy edge for it, maybe even frozen hash browns that you are supposed to brown in oil pressed against the edges or something.
I have been trying to use my imagination and wish I had time over the last few days to make up a few more adventurous things. Now that it is SO darn hot in NH, I am wishing for a cooling pasta salad recipe with whole wheat pasta! But, why not experiment with cut up veggies, whole wheat pasta, ff italian dressing, ff cheese, etc. and toss one together? Might come out really good!
I will miss a few baked goods, but that is what my flex points are for and I truly shouldn't be eating that much, and haven't been all along due to the points.
Linda in 90 degree NH

Is anyone else feeling a little bonkers after a few days on the core plan? I've not switched back yet to the flex plan, because i really want to see how this affects my weight loss but right now my mental state is making me think that it's not going to work for me in the long term. I seem to be thinking about food a lot more than before--wondering what i'm going to eat next, wishing i could have things that aren't on the approved list but not wanting to spend my flex points on them, etc. I really like the idea of eating such nutritious food but I have such intense head hunger for other things that I"m sort of beside myself at the moment.

I think I need to just get out and do something--I've spent too much time home alone today with too much time to think about food and I bet that's part of the culprit. Still, the one thing I can say about the flex plan that even though I tend to make less-healthy choices, I don't think about it except when I'm hungry. I hate obsessing about food, and I'm afraid that the Core plan is really bringing that out.

Anyone else feel like kvetching about this plan but not quite ready to switch back to Flex?

It's having the opposite effect on me, although I am having to plan meals a bit more.

I was so full from lunch I had to remind myself to fix dinner--ate at 7:00! I find I don't get as hungry nor do I think about food as much because there is so much I can eat without worrying about the number of points or using all my points up. My energy level is up too. When I was on winning point all I thought about was food cause I had to plan, plan, plan to make it through the day on program.