Saturday, March 26, 2011

Cheese-stuffed Turkey Meatballs with Pasta - 10 WW+Points

It used to be that when I wasn't going out to eat and had no idea what to make, I would just throw in some pasta, whip up a sauce and eat.  Lately though, my pasta stash hasn't gotten much love.  I just don't trust myself.  It's not the eating, it's the heavy cream and or meat in the random sauces I'm worried about.  I have a thing for meaty or creamy sauces ... I've totally used cream in red sauces.   Ya, it's a problem.  I love heavy cream ... sue me.

That's not to say I haven't eaten pasta.   I've eaten some of everything since I started, but I have yet to be the one to make pasta and when G mentioned spaghetti and meatballs during a random conversation while walking around Boston all plans for dinner were squashed.  I knew what I was making.

I decided to poke around my new Points Plus Cookbook (ya another one) and sure enough, I found what I was looking for.  It was delicious.  So yummy.

Note, this is G's plate.  He has a bit more pasta than we WW's people get, but not much more

Cheese-Stuffed Turkey Meatballs with Pasta 
Adapted from WW Points Plus Cookbook
10 WW Points+ (mine was 11 ... I think, need to check on the sauce)

Ingredients

8 ounces ground skinless turkey breast
1/2 cup grated Parmesan Cheese
1/4 cup plain dried bread crumbs
1/4 cup chopped fresh parsley
1/4 cup fat free milk
1 large egg white
2 garlic clove, minced
pinch of cayenne pepper
1 ounce part-skim mozzarella cheese cut into 16 cubes (I used shredded and only made 8 balls and was able to stuff it in just fine)
2 cups Fat free marinara sauce (I made my own, kept it simple with tomatos, garlic, basil salt and pepper)
1/2 cup water
8 oz whole wheat spaghetti (I don't "do" whole wheat pasta ... I took the point and when with reg pasta)
2 cups thinly sliced escarole (I skipped this all together, I didn't have it)

Directions

- Mix turkey, 1/4 cup Parmesan, bread crumbs, parsley, milk, egg white, garlic and cayenne in a bowl.  WW says to make 16 balls, but I like big balls so I went with 8 .... either way you choose to go stuff them with mozzarella chunks (1/16th or 1/8th of the mozzarella depending on which direction you go).

- Bring Marinara sauce and water to a simmer ... I just now realized I skipped the water.  Oops.  I'll need to figure out if that adds a point, but really, why would you want to thin down your sauce ... it's prob for the meatballs so too much moisture doesn't cook off or something like that, but whatever.  Simmer your sauce.  Add the cheesy balls, cover and let simmer until they're cooked through (approx 10 mins if you go for 16 balls, prob more like 20-25 mins ... make sure to get your pasta cooking at the appropriate time)

-If you're going with escarole add that during the last minute of pasta cooking

-Divide pasta into 4 bowls, top evenly with meatballs and sauce.  Use the rest of the Parmesan to sprinkle evenly on top.

1 comment:

  1. Holy yum! Talk about comfort food. I lurve spaghetti and meatballs. Definitely adding this to the dinner menu in the near future. PS- I LOLed at using an extra point for the "real" pasta and not whole wheat.

    ReplyDelete

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