Home Cooking with Weight Watchers: Pappardelle with Shrimp

by Maurice Michaane

(picture is a representation, because by the time I decided to write this story, we had eaten the meal)


So Wednesday night of this past week, during the Bllizzard of 2010, my partner Michael, decided to wip up a very tasty meal -- of course I aided in the food prep and provided the moral support!!!. A little bit of background information is needed however.

Since January 18th 2010, Michael and I have been on a 2prong effort to lose weight and bulk up for Summer season. Part I of this effort has been joining Weight Watchers. For the past few weeks we have been living a strict new lifestyle. Anyone who is familiar with Weight Watchers will tell you, your daily food intake is measured by points. Many think that Weight Watchers is just another diet, but it is not, it's a lifestyle. Weight Watchers does not have myriad rules to follow like Atkins. In fact, a person on Weight Watchers can eat anything they want, so long as it fits in your daily point count. Weight Watchers has a simple system, every piece of food or drink has a point equivalent. My daily point intake is 26 points (I started with 27, but as you lose weight, you lose points in order to keep the loss happening). The formula for points to calories is about 50, so my 26 points are about 1300 calories a day (of course the normal caloric intake is around 2000-2500). But not to fear, Weight Watchers does not make a person starve as they provide you with an extra "35 weekly points", which one may use at liberty over the course of the week.

Now with the back story over, we can get to the main point, pappardelle pasta with shrimp. So hear is our recipe:




- 6 ounces pappardelle pasta
- 2 tbs olive oil
- 2 tbs chopped garlic
- 20 medium sized shrimp
- 1 cup dry white wine
- 3/4ths cup lobster stock
- 2 large eggs
- 3 tbs grated Parmesan Cheese
- 1 cup final chopped fresh mint
- 1/2 tsp salt
- 1/2 tsp ground pepper

The above ingredients makes 4 servings = 4 people can have a portion!

Now to the best part, the execution:

1. cook the pappardelle in a separate pot

2. in a large saucepan over medium heat saute the garlic and then add the wine, and then the lobster stock, and bring to a boil

3. in a separate bowl, mix the eggs and the Parmesan Cheese together

4. once the contents of the saucepan has come to a boil, take 1tbs at a time of the mixture and slowly stir into the egg/grated cheese bowl (note only do this 1 tbs at a time, otherwise the eggs will become scrambled) - do this until the entire mixture in the saucepan is in the egg/cheese bowl

5. take the egg/cheese/sauce mixture and put it back into the saucepan and bring to a partial boil

6. put the cooked and drained pappardelle pasta into the saucepan and mix; put the shrimp into the saucepan as well and let cook until fully pink; put the mint leaves into the sauce pan while putting in the pasta and shrimp

7. Serve dish with a glass of wine!

This excellent recipe made for a wonderful dinner two nights in a row, and was about 475 calories in total (9.5 points) and left us very satisfied and not hungry at all. Although a weight watchers recipe originally, we made several changes that made it our unique recipe for a home cooked meal!

BON APPETIT!!!