Got eggs? Five days of Weight Watcher frittatas

The kids and I stopped by our favorite ultra-discounted grocery store. I loaded up my cart with condiments, gluten free pretzels for my mother-in-law, green tea, South Beach Diet snack bars (not bad tasting and very low in Weight Watchers POINTS), organic cereal, and Lindt chocolate bars (if you’re going to indulge, make it worth every calorie).

Two big bargains were on discounted Nature Made SAM-E supplements, which I take religiously for my knees, and my husband’s favorite, Horizon Dairy yogurt.

But the big score was on Organic Valley Family of Farms brown, cage free eggs. (I was almost as excited as when I found my favorite Oikos Organic Greek Yogurt from Stonyfield Farm there.) The cartons were $1.69 for a dozen AND buy one, get one free. Or seven cents an egg. Yes!

A refrigerator full of eggs

Unfortunately I already bought four cartons of Organic Valley Family eggs, which had been discounted at my usual grocery store. Before that I purchased a carton of 18 cage free, Omega-3, locally produced eggs at Costco. So now I have over five dozen eggs in my refrigerator – and that’s after eating lots of egg white scrambled eggs for lunch and making green eggs for the kids during the two snow days they were home.

Obviously, it’s going to take us awhile to get through all those eggs. What to do? Make eggs for dinner by making Weight Watchers frittatas! I’ll be sharing several recipes with you this week and letting you know what we thought of the dishes.

Sunday night: Spaghetti frittata

My husband has been out of town, so I let the kids decide what they’d like for dinner. Most nights it’s been pasta and sauce. (Did I mention that my kids are pastaterians?) I’ve been serving them Italian-made, organic whole wheat spaghetti from Garofalo that I bought at Costco (1 cup of cooked pasta = 3 Weight Watchers POINTS). Usually I make my own sauce, but I keep ready-made on hand just in case I’m too tired to cook. New favorites are G.L. Mezzetta's Napa Valley Bistro pasta sauces (read my review at Mom Central Food) and Bertolli’s or Ragu in a pouch, which I also buy at the discount grocery store.

So with all the leftover pasta in the fridge, I’m thinking of making this tonight:

Frittata with Spaghetti and Tomatoes
Servings:  4

Ingredients:

• 4 oz uncooked whole wheat spaghetti (2 oz of uncooked spaghetti = 1 cup, so 2 cups of cooked spaghetti)
• 3 large eggs
• 4 large egg whites
• 1/3 cup nonfat (skim) milk
• 1/4 tsp sea salt
• 1/4 tsp ground black pepper
• 1 1/2 cups plum tomatoes, seeded and chopped (about 1⁄2 pound) (I’ll be using chopped tomatoes from a can)
• 1 large garlic clove, minced
• 1/4 cup basil, chopped (about 1 1/2 tablespoons of dried basil)
• 1 spray cooking spray
• 2 tsp butter
• 1/4 cups shredded Parmesan cheese (I used “sprinkle cheese” out of the can.)

Directions:

1. Cook spaghetti according to package directions, omitting salt and fat. Drain well.
2. Combine eggs and next four ingredients in a large bowl; beat well with a whisk. Add spaghetti, tomato, garlic and basil; stir well.
3. Preheat broiler.
4. Coat a 10” ovenproof nonstick skillet with cooking spray; melt butter in pan over medium heat.
5. Add egg mixture. Cook, uncovered, 13 minutes or until top is almost set.
6. Sprinkle with cheese.
7. Wrap handle of pan with foil; broil 4 to 5 minutes or until set. Cut into four wedges.

Note: use a oven safe sauté pan with a metal handle. And don’t forget to wrap the handle in a towel or oven mitt when removing it and cutting. (You’ll forget the pan is hot when you’re serving – happens all the time at my house.)

Weight Watchers POINTS per serving: 5

Revisions: I recommending reducing the salt and from the original recipe. (Changes have been made above.) My kids and I thought it was too salty as originally prepared. Also, I prefer sea salt over table salt since the taste seems more subtle. Finally, using skim milk, less Parmesan cheese (again we found it too salty), whole wheat spaghetti, and substituting 2 egg whites for one of the whole eggs helped shave off one POINT.

My kids thought the dish was so so, which is odd because they love quiche and adore spaghetti, so this recipe should be something they also like. Besides the saltiness, I overcooked the bottom a bit, which the kids ended up picking off. (I thought it was fine, but then again I like the crusty bits off lasagna.) Adjusting the salt and cheese amounts (my kids don’t care for Parmesan all that much) and maybe adding some sweet, sauté onions will make the dish more to their liking.

Posted on March 29, 2009 in Recipes,Weight Watchers

You might also like