A Calorie is a Calorie

So last night I totally nerded out and took along with me to work my slow cooker cookbook as well as a "Just 100 Calories" cookbook that was added to the collection care of The Bestest Best. While at work I carefully planned out about 10 meals that we could enjoy over the next week that would be good for us and of course, yummy!
After pouring over my list of things to get at the market and grocery store I finally made up the complete list for todays adventures in foodiness.
Last night I was reading the latest post from my favorite triathlon man, Joe Friel and it was about losing weight prior to race day. It was very interesting and drove home the title of this post. I highly suggest reading it, it was an eye-opener for me and is generally just an interesting story.
Anywho, it got me thinking about calorie intake and how that could effect the way I do or do not lose weight in the coming weeks (did you know that losing 1 lb. takes approximately 10 seconds off of a running time?! HOLY CRAP!).
With calories in mind I decided to try one of the amazingly tasty sounding salads that the "Just 100 Calories" book lent to my liking. It's a combo of fruit (I used cantulope, red grapes and raspberries), veggies (red onions and a spring garden greens mix) and cottage cheese (1% milkfat). The cottage cheese has fresh basil, chives and parsley chopped up and mixed in and the fruits/veggies have an awesome dressing of soy sauce, honey, fresh squeezed lime juice and chiles for a little bite. All that yum for a mere 200 calories yo!

In addition to this salad goodness I'm in the process of making my first puree soup. This is it in it's pre-puree state in my crock pot.

It's a curried broccoli cream soup. It's packed with veggie goodness including leeks, onion, carrots, potatoes and of course, broccoli. I like this curry version, I think it will make for a nice descent from the usual Campbells super creamy milky version. Wish me luck on the whole "then transfer batches of the soup into your blender and blend so that it's just a little chunky." I feel like that could get messy/interesting!