Stuffed Shells

Don’t forget to enter the giveaway for a set of mixing bowls!  Each entry counts!

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To avoid the seven-month pregnancy look I have going (pregnant with pasta, cookies, stuffing, ham, and everything else that isn’t a baby), I’ve been cooking several easily frozen meals on Sunday.  This allows me to stick to a meal plan during the work week without having to cook like a fiend in the two hours I have between getting home from work
and going to bed.

So far, it has been glorious.

We have eaten like kings without much effort.

This week I made cheese stuffed shells! They are more complicated than spaghetti, but they hold up nicely in the freezer and you get a little more bang for your buck.  The original recipe is from Cooking Light, but I tweaked it a bit.

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You will need:
8 oz fat free cottage cheese
14 oz fat free ricotta
4 oz goat cheese (I like the hereby garlic kind)
4 oz fresh Parmesan (shredded)
8 oz fresh mozzarella (shredded)
1 box jumbo pasta shells
10 oz frozen greens
About 4 cloves of chopped garlic
6 cups pasta sauce (To keep this dish healthy, go easy on the sauce and check calorie counts.  There tends to be a lot of sugar in the store-bought stuff, so homemade is a good option too.)

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Boil the pasta and set aside.

Mix all of the cheeses (except for the mozzarella) together.

Thaw and drain the mixed greens.  Feel free to use a paper towel to
soak up all of the juices.

Mix garlic and greens into the cheese mixture, adding salt and pepper to taste.

Stuff each shell with a spoonful of cheese mixture and set in a greased casserole dish.

Pour pasta sauce over noodles and then top with shredded mozzarella.

At this point you can either freeze the shells or bake them.  If you freeze them, you don’t need to thaw before you decide to bake it.  Isn’t that wonderful??

Bake at 375 degrees for 30 minutes.

Delicious.

If you are feeling inspired, add meat.  Add more vegetables.  The world is your oyster people!!

What do you do to make sure dinner isn’t insane during the work week?  Any tricks you can share?

-Mads

Easiest dinner ever

This dinner is beyond easy and is still passable as an impressive meal.  Those are my favorite when I’m cooking for myself on busy weeknights, because I really love tasty food, but I definitely don’t always have time or energy to cook.
I call it Krab Linguini!

First, boil your pasta.  So eaaaaaaaaaasy haha

Then bust out your krab with a K.  I find this to be delicious enough for me.  Plus, the pink-orange dye on the outside of the white meat kinda fools my taste buds.

I prefer the “leg-style” because that somehow feels more natural?

Mmmm…craaaaaaaaab. I mean, Kraaaaaaaaab.  See?  Confusing!

If you are feeling especially ambitious, go ahead and roast some broccoli in the oven.  (broccoli drizzled in olive oil, with a sprinkle of salt and pepper).

Still boiling…

 After the pasta is al dente, I add garlic powder, olive oil, roasted garlic, Krab, and parm.  Done!

What are your super easy super fast dinner recipes?

-M

Spaghetti Squash ‘Stravaganza

Back in my younger years, my parents would frequently introduce me to new and crazy foods.  Some of my favorites by the age of 10 included: spinach, pickled herring, smoked salmon, and spaghetti squash.  Spaghetti squash was buried in my memories for about 8 years, until I saw it laying unassumingly right next to the onions in the grocery store.  I nearly shrieked out loud!  I completely forgot how to prepare spaghetti squash, but luckily it’s a very simple process.

Cut the squash in half length-wise.  This is a pretty treacherous task, so be careful!

Gut the squash just like you would a pumpkin.  Oh how exciting!  Toss them in your roommate’s face if you like!

Turn the squash over (meat side down) on a greased cooking sheet.

(your squash should look like this after gutting it)
Put this in the oven at 350 degrees for about 30 mins.

While this was takin it’s sweet time in the oven, I was sauteing some garlic and pine nuts in olive oil.

Once that was slightly brown, I tossed in a diced tomato and some vodka sauce I had lying around.

By the time I was done with this, the squash was cooked to perfection!
Look (excusing the icky pan)!

The squash should be kinda squishy at this point.  I got a little golden brown on the edges…seemed fine to me.

This next part is the fun part…take a fork and rake it along your squash…it will look like spaghetti.  Nomnomnom

Finally, toss it in a bowl with your sauce.  I added a touch of olive oil, s&p, and a sprinkle of fresh parm.

This was oh-so-tasty.  I can’t wait to try it again when I have a restocked fridge.

-M