Stuft Shells

When Mr. C and I started dating one of our favorite foods was buying the Marie Calender's stuffed shells from the grocery (usually Walmart, we were so broke and naive back then about the evils of walmart). It was easy and tasty. I think it's one of his all time favorite foods. He has an unnatural obsession with pasta. Well, now I still know how much he loves them and how terrible they are for us. Here is my attempt at a more nutritious version (this recipe totally throws my vegan attempts out the window.) These were SO good. They were more of an experiment than I've been doing lately but they were totally worth it. Cooking the greens before hand totally mask the pungent taste you usually get with greens. These are an excellent way to hide that bitter taste.

What you need:

Jumbo shells

spaghetti sauce

1 1/2 cup ricotta cheese

a bunch of greens (I used beet greens but you could use spinach, kale, swiss chard, really any greens)

1/2 cup mozzarella + enough left to cover when done

2 TBSP oregano

1/2 cup bread crumbs

1 TBSP garlic

salt and season to taste

1. Cook shells according to package directions minus a couple of minutes. Set aside when done.

2. Preheat oven to 375 degrees.

3. Chop greens. If you use anything other than spinach take the stems off. They are where the strong flavor is coming from.

4. Put greens in glass bowl in the microwave covered with water (so you don't die of scary plastic toxins) and cook for about 4 min.

5. While both of those are cooking mix all other ingredients minus spaghetti sauce together.

6. Put thin layer of sauce at the bottom of the pan.

7. Drain water out of greens. Chop finely. I actually just added to the mixture and used the immersion blender to mix everything up. It worked amazingly but if you don't have one I'm sure you could do it by hand it'll just take longer.

8. If doing by hand, add finely chopped greens to cheese mixture.

9. Put shells open side up in the pan.

10. Dollop cheese and greens filling inside shells.

11. Cover with another layer of spaghetti sauce.

12. Sprinkle dish with left over mozzarella cheese.

13. Cook at 375 for 20 minutes.

14. Serve with french bread and broccoli to your loving husband who has been doing manly work the garage this whole time while you are in the air conditioned house. =)