{Recipes}: Italian Stuffed Shells

Tonight was the night when the group comes over to our house and eats dinner. I feel like everytime they come over we have the same thing... lasagna, spaghetti, chicken pot pie and veggies, or sloppy joes. So I decided to spice things up a bit. When I talked to Kevin earlier today he was in the mood for spaghetti. Since I didn't want to just cook spaghetti since I fix it ALOT, I decided to look for recipes for something similar.

As I was browsing pinterest, I came across a delicious looking recipe for pasta stuffed shells. As I clicked on the recipe, I was extremely disappointed. The recipe took over an hour to make (most of which was prep time... no way jose!) and included lots of ingredients that we simple people just don't eat. Disappointed, I spent my entire planning period googling recipes for stuffed shells. What a waste of my time! I could not find any recipes I was satisfied with. I ended up searching for other various recipes to serve tonight but I couldn't help but think about those dern stuffed shells. So finally, I came up with a solution. I decided I would attempt to make my it by using my own recipe. Not the brightest idea I know; especially when company is coming over. But I figured it was worth a shot.

After school I ran by Walmart (in the pouring rain!!!) and grabbed all the ingredients I needed. As soon as I got home I got to work. By the time everyone arrived at our house, the whole house was smelling delicious!

Here's my dish when it came out of the oven:

Recipe Ingredients:
1 box large stuffed shells
1 pound hamburger meat
32 oz. of spaghetti sauce
3 eggs
1 15oz. container of Ricotta Cheese
1 7 oz. bag of mozzarella cheese
1/4 cup finely graded parmesan cheese
Salt
Pepper
Italian Seasoning
Oregano
Basil


Directions:
1. Cook stuffed shells according to box
2. Cook hamburger meat
3. As shells and hamburger meat are cooking, mix 3 eggs, 1.5 cups of mozzerella cheese, 1/4 cup of parmesan cheese, salt, pepper, Italian seasoning, Oregano, and Basil (the seasonings should be used to your liking).
4. When hamburger meat and stuffed shells are finished, drain both.
5. Mix hamburger meat with 24 oz. of spaghetti sauce (the other 12 oz. should not have hamburger!)
6. Spread hamburger sauce mixture in the bottom of the pan
7. After shells have dried, stuff cheese mixture inside each shell (Note: The way I did it was to use a large spoon. It was the perfect size!)
8. Place shells in pan after fixing each one
9. When you have filled up your baking dish, use the remaining 12 oz. of sauce and pour over top of shells
10. Sprinkle .5 cup of mozzarella on top of shells
11. Cover dish with aluminum foil and place in oven on 350 degrees for 35 minutes.

It is absolutely delicious! I'm pretty proud that I came up with the recipe on my own. I ended up fixing salads, garlic bread, and homemade banana pudding to go with it. Let me just say, there was no food left!

Oh and here's a picture of my niece watching the bread cook in the oven! I just loved it so I figured I'd share. She is going to be a cook one day. I just know it!