What's on the menu? Elusive stuffed shells!

Many of you may be wondering why I am referring to these as "elusive" stuffed shells, well, here's the low-down. I was all set to make this lovely dish on Sunday night. I poured water in the pan to boil for the pasta and began to gather ingredients when I became aware that I was terribly short on parmesan cheese, kind of a major component of the stuffing! So, shells went on the back burner and we had some sort of impromptu dinner instead. Monday I went to the store to get the parmesan, came home with every intention of making luscious stuffed shells for dinner. Again, I set the water to boiling and much to my dismay and COMPLETE frustration, I could NOT find the shells ANYWHERE!!! I know I bought the damn things, in fact I specifically remember looking on the box to make sure of the amount of ricotta I needed. So I don't know what happened, the bagger neglected to put them in my bag, they fell out in the parking lot, leprechauns stole them from the pantry, who knows, but they were nowhere to be found. (Cue ranting, raving, cussing, kicking and a smidge of crying.) We ended up eating out that night, go figure. So I checked my ingredient list twice before going back to the store yet again to get SHELLS this time. Lucky for everyone in this house, I finally managed to get all my crap together to make this meal. And as a happy ending, it was GREAT! I have enough leftovers to feed us for at least one more dinner and lunch! Sweet. So, I am here to pass along this great dish, just remember, check your pantry EARLY to make sure you have all the goods!

Stuffed Shells with Cheese and Veggies

The goods:
12 oz. package of Jumbo shells, uncooked. You could use manicotti if you prefer.
4 cups or 32 oz of ricotta cheese
8 oz shredded mozzarella
1/2 cup parmesan
2 eggs
chopped fresh parsley
chopped fresh spinach
1/2 tsp. salt
1/4 tsp. pepper
dash of nutmeg
shredded veggies
1 jar (approx. 28 oz) spaghetti sauce

Now most of you that know me, know I'm not a fan of processed foods. I usually make my own spaghetti sauce, but with this particular recipe, the rest of the process is enough of a time suck that I do settle for a nice organic store-bought sauce, just to save some time.

The shells:
Boil water and cook shells as directed. It's OK if they're done before you finish with the stuffing as they should cool off a few before handling them!

The veggies:
Shred one good sized carrot, one zucchini, some onion, a little bit of red bell pepper and mushrooms if you have them. Saute them lightly in olive oil, it doesn't take long when most of it is shredded or diced very small.

The "cheese goop" (as named by the Monkey Man):
Add all the cheeses, the eggs, and the spices. Add chopped spinach about 1/2- 1 cup and about a tablespoon or so of chopped parsley. Mix well. Then add the sauteed veggies, mix well.

Once the cheese mixture is ready, start stuffing the shells. I put a heaping teaspoon of cheese goop into each shell. And don't worry if some of the shells split apart, cheese goop works as glue and besides this will all get covered with sauce, so no one will know!

The Assembly Line: You need to cover the bottom of the pan with a thin layer of the spaghetti sauce. Then it's shell, goop, pan... shell, goop, pan...

Before the sauce...

Then cover the shells with the rest of the spaghetti sauce, you can thin it out a bit, and then bake for 30 minutes in a 350* oven. After it's out of the oven, sprinkle a little mozzarella on top (cause you really NEED more cheese in this recipe) and there you have it... yummy shells, packed with veggies and loved by children. Well, at least loved by MY children!