WEEKLY WEIGHT WATCHERS RECIPE ~ SPINACH PANINI

As part of my New Year's resolutions, I'm going to be cooking at least one new recipe a week. I will find them in either one of my many Weight Watcher's cookbooks or out of the Weight Watchers monthly magazines.

This week I tried making a Spinach Panini out of the Sept/Oct 2005 magazine. Yes you read that right. It is from 2005. I came across this magazine as I was going through a lot of stuff I have in boxes. I'm happy I saved this magazine.


Now while this is called a Panini and in order for it be a true Panini you need one of the Panini grills. I don't have one so I almost didn't make this. But, as I read it I saw where they said you could just grill this on a regular grill.

Spinach Panini

1 cup baby spinach leaves, steamed

1 large tomato, thinly sliced

1/4 cup crumbled feta cheese ~ can use plain or basil tomato flavored. I used plain.

8 slices whole grain bread ~ I used whole wheat sour dough

1/4 medium red onion sliced thinly ~ I did not use this.

Layer spinach,tomato, feta and onions on bread slices. Top with another slice of bread. Press down firmly.

I used a little bit of butter on the outside of the bread to help it grill. If you do this also, be sure to add the extra points.

Place the sandwiches on a hot Panini grill or regular grill pan. Cook, pressing occasionally with spatula to flatten and flip once. Cook until browned on both sides and cheese is melted about 3-4 minutes per side. Serve hot.

For one sandwich without the butter it is 178 cal. 5 g. fat, 5 g. fiber and 8 g. protein. If you are doing the Weight Watchers points it is 3 points without the butter. Don't forget to add the extra points with the butter.

This recipe makes four sandwiches.

When I made these I thought it seemed like a fancy grilled cheese sandwich and wasn't expecting much. Boy was I wrong!

These are so good. They do not seem like a grilled cheese sandwich at all. They are a completely different taste all together.

The feta doesn't really melt like other cheese. It just becomes really smooth and gooey. That coupled with the fresh steamed spinach and the warmed tomatoes were so good. I thought it was a pretty rich sandwich.

Since the bread I used was bigger then normal slices I just had a 1/2 of a sandwich and it was more then enough to fill me up.

These would be great served with some sliced apples, grapes or other fruit. A cup of soup added would make this a lovely cold winter day meal.

I will be making these again for sure. I hope you give them a try.