Week Night Gourmet: Stuffed Shells

As a full time working Mama & Wife, I'm always looking for new recipes that make week night cook quick, easy, and nutritious. Here is one of my all time favorites.

** Warning: I do not use recipes when cooking, I wing it... so bear with me, while I try to break this down. **

What you will need:

Uncooked pasta shells (large ones)
16 oz. container cottage cheese
1 pack frozen spinach
2 eggs
1 1/2 cups shredded italian cheese
1 pound ground italian sausage
1 large jar spaghetti sauce

In skillet, brown italian sausage. Once browned, add jar of spaghetti sauce. I used Classico Tomato Basil. Keep on low heat.

While cooking the sausage / sauce, get the water boiling for your shells. Once boiling, cook your shells, drain, and rinse. Set aside for "stuffing."

While the shells are cooking, mix the cottage cheese, eggs, spinach, and 1 cup of the shredded cheese in a mixing bowl. This time I added 2 tablespoons of pesto to the mix. I don't always do this though.

Once the shells are cooked, preheat the oven to 375*, and stuff the shells with the cheese mixture, then top with the sausage / sauce mixture and top with last 1/2 cup italian shredded cheese.

Bake approx. 30-35 minutes, then let sit 5-10 minutes to cool before serving.

Less than an hour, start to finish. And even my picky 2 year old approves!