What's Cookin'?

So this was one of those weeks where it is really hard to plan a menu. Alex is still busy with projects at work this week and has no idea which nights he will be working late and when he will be eating dinner at home. I also only needed to plan for three dinners since it is Easter weekend and we are at my parent's house all weekend and Alex and I are both busy around dinnertime on Thursday. Then to make it even easier on myself, I planned to make something big on Monday and have leftovers on Wednesday (more on this later- I ended up making something too big and we will be freezing most of it!).

I actually made up a recipe for stuffed shells this week! I mean, you can't really go wrong when making stuffed shells-- you take shells, cheese, sauce and whatever else you want. But I actually had to figure out amounts of ingredients and cooking times! It was so cool to not read a recipe and to actually have to write down what I was doing so that I could publish my own recipe later! I call them Hearty Stuffed Shells and they were delicious! They are a great dish to make ahead of time, to freeze or to send to a friends house.

And here it is friends! Seen for the first time! haha

Hearty Stuffed Shells by Christina Garee!

Makes about 40 shells (12 servings or 2 9x13 in pans)

Ingredients:
1 egg, beaten
15 oz ricotta
1/2 parmesan cheese (I prefer freshly grated)
4 cups shredded mozzerella, divided
1/2 tsp pepper
1/2 tsp salt
1 small onion, chopped
3 cloves garlic, chopped
1 10 oz pkg. frozen spinach, thawed, well drained
1 lb ground beef (93/7)
1 lb italian sausage- mild, sweet or spicy
1 6 oz can tomato paste
1 15 oz can tomato sauce
1 28 oz can crushed tomatoes
1 box jumbo shells

Directions:
Combine egg, ricotta, parm, 2 cups mozzerella, spinach and salt and pepper. Mix well.
Saute onion and garlic over medium high heat in a little extra virgin olive oil until translucent. Add hamburger and sausage, breaking up with a spoon.
Cook over med-high heat until cooked through.
Drain grease from pan.
Remove 1/3 meat mixture to cool slightly.
Add tomato paste, sauce and crushed tomatoes to remaining meat mixture and simmer for 10 minutes on low.
Meanwhile cook shells in large pot of boiling water and 1 tbl evoo. Cook for about 7 minutes. Drain. Allow to cool slightly in colander and then spread onto cookie sheet sprayed with cooking spray.
Add reserved meat mixture to cheese mixture. Mix well.
Using a small ice cream scoop, fill shells with cheese mixture.
Grease two 9x13 inch pans with cooking spray.
Spoon about 2 cups of the tomato sauce onto the bottom of each pan.
Lay filled shells on top of sauce, spreading equally between the two pans. (Or however many you decide is right for your family, I divided among three actual baking dishes- one for monday, one for wednesday and one to freeze)
Cover shells with remaining sauce.
- at this point you can refrigerate until you are ready to use it or freeze it for a later date (you will want to add the cheese right before baking and increase baking time to 1 hour if frozen at 45 minutes if refrigerated)
Sprinkle each pan with 1 cup mozzerella (or more-up to you!) and some more parmesan cheese
Bake at 350 for 30-40 minutes until cheese is melted and browning and sauce is bubbling.

Serve with roasted garlic garlic bread and a salad.

Roasted Garlic Garlic Bread
Cut the top off of one whole head of garlic.
Place in a small ramekin and drizzle with olive oil.
Cover with aluminum foil and roast at 350 for 1 hour.
Allow to cool slightly, then squeeze out soft garlic cloves and mix with one stick of room temperature butter.
Refrigerate if not using right away.
Cut loaf of french bread in half length-wise.
Spread with garlic butter, sprinkle with mozzerella (optional)
Bake at 350 until bread is toasted to your preference.
Cut into 3 inch pieces.


Well that takes care of two+ meals for this week (and probably two more for another week!)

As for tonight, my older sister Melissa and her boyfriend Frank came up for dinner and we enjoyed Giada DeLaurentiis' Tilapia Fish Tacos!

I had seen Giada make this recipe last week and it looked so yummy and fresh! Then this week, I looked in my fridge and had pretty much everything I needed to make them! I LOVE WHEN THIS HAPPENS!! All I needed to buy was a mango and some tilapia (which was on sale at Walmart this week! Double Bonus!)

These are not your typical fish tacos. You actually take wonton wrappers, brush them with a little bit of oil and bake them in muffin tins to form little cups. You then make a fresh salad of chopped mango, chopped avocado, chopped green onion, arugula and a simple lime vinaigrette. I subbed fresh spinach for the arugula and added some very finely chopped fresh jalepeno. You top with pan sauteed tilapia and they are perfect for dinner with a salad (which is what we had tonight) or as an appetizer at a party! They were very delicious and very fresh. Perfect for our entry into Spring and Summer :)



One last thing I tried this week was a special snack for my husband. As a baseball player he loves to be eating seeds or corn nuts or something related to the two. So, since corn nuts aren't cheap and are veeerrrryyy addictive- I thought I'd try to make my own.

Ok so I didn't make them entirely from scratch. I took some very nice help from the store (Fleet Farm) and added my own flavorings. Just call me Sandra Lee ;)

At Fleet Farm, you can purchase plain corn nuts in a 12 oz bag for $1.25 which is the same exact price as a 6 oz bag of already flavored, brand-name corn nuts.

So I bought four bags...

In this recipe I used two of them and one packet of ranch dressing mix. All I did was empty two bags into a glass bowl, sprinkle the mix over the top and toss until all the corn nuts were coated. Then I drizzled a very, very, very tiny amount of oil over the top and tossed to coat again. Bake at 170 (or as low as your oven will get if it doesn't go that low) for 5 minutes. Cool and enjoy! In fact, I am pretty sure I hear him crunching away on some now ;)