Everything You Ever Wanted to Know About Omelets
By Chef Meg Galvin, Healthy Cooking Expert atSparkPeople.com
from "The SparkPeople Cookbook: Love Your Food, Lose the Weight"
The egg-white omelet is a staple breakfast for many healthy eaters, but they're often rubbery and bland. After several trials, I've found that it's easy to make a flavorful omelet that's very low on fat: The secret is to add a tablespoon of Parmesan cheese to the eggs after beating them. You'll find it really improves the texture.
Adding cheese to the eggs leaves plenty of room to fill the omelet with vegetables. To make the weekday breakfast easy, sauté vegetables ahead of time, then reheat them slightly in the microwave before adding them to the eggs.
Add two slices of whole-wheat toast, a cup of fat-free milk and a cup of melon for a meal that has less than 400 calories!
(VIDEO: How to Make an Omelet)
Awesome Omelets
You can fill an omelet with anything. Here are a few of my favorite combinations:
· Sautéed onions and bell peppers
· Sweet potato and black beans
· Red peppers and frozen artichoke hearts
· Asparagus and shallots
· Broccoli and yellow peppers
· Spinach and sun-dried tomatoes
Omelets vs. Frittatas
With three boys, we host our fair share of sleepovers. Teenage boys are always hungry, so the next morning I rely on two staples: omelets and frittatas. How do I decide which to make? The number of boys who stayed the night!
The two recipes contain the same ingredients. It's in the preparation where they differ.
Omelet | Both | Frittata |
cooked in a sauté pan over high heat | cooked in a sauté pan over low heat, then baked in the oven until puffy | |
filled with cheese, cooked meats, or vegetables | ||
made from a base of eggs | ||
fillings cooked separately, added at the end | fillings mixed in and cooked with the eggs | |
served hot | served hot or at room temperature | |
folded over before serving | served open-faced |
The next time you have a crowd of hungry people staring at you early in the morning, go the easy route and make a frittata.
Reprinted from "The SparkPeople Cookbook: Love Your Food, Lose the Weight" (c) 2011 by SparkPeople, Inc. Permission granted by Hay House, Inc., New York, NY 10033. Available wherever books are sold.
SparkPeople Healthy Cooking Expert Meg Galvin is a World Master Chef, culinary instructor, and the author of "The SparkPeople Cookbook: Love Your Food, Lose the Weight." A farmer's daughter and marathon runner, she lives in northern Kentucky with her husband and three teenage sons.
