Stuffed shells

Cost: I didn't start keeping track of cost until yesterday, but I think this one was about $20. Keep in mind, though, that I trippled the recipe, so you may be looking closer to $8-10.

Clean-up: Not a fan. It's been 2 days, and I still haven't gotten around to scrubbing the baked-on spaghetti sauce off the pans. It leaves a huge mess on the counter while you're stuffing the shells, but I just put out a sheet of wax paper for my work surface and when I was done, I could just roll up the mess and throw it away.

7 oz frozen chopped spinach, thawed and well drained.
16 oz container of cottage cheese
1 1/2 c shredded mozzerella
1 egg white
1 envelope italian seasoning mix
20 jumbo pasta shells- cooked, drained, and cooled.
1 28-0z jar spaghetti sauce

Preheat the oven to 400 degrees. In a medium bowl, combine spinach, cottage cheese, 1/2 the mozzarella, egg whites, and italian dressing. Add a generous tablespoon of filling to each shell. Pour 1/2 the spaghetti sauce into the bottom of the pan, and place stuffed shells into the sauce with the filling side up. Top with remaining sauce and cheese, and cover with foil. Bake for about 30 minutes, or until heated all the way through.

***Make sure you mix the filling REALLY well. If you're not careful, the spinach will clump together and you'll have shells where that's all you get.

***Be sure to cook an extra 5-10 shells for every 20 you plan on using. You will get some that will rip as you try to unroll them for stuffing.

***Don't waste your time trying to stuff them with a spoon.... it just makes things harder than they have to be. Just get your hands dirty and use your fingers for it.

***The foil is a must. If you don't cover it, then the exposed noodles will dry out. I learned this the hard way.

***The cheese was a bit runny, so next time I'll try to drain some of the whey off of the cottage cheese before I combine everything.

This was a huge hit with the whole family. Sammie wasn't a huge fan of the spinach, though, so she suggested that we try it with broccolli next time instead. Absolutely delicious, but makes a huge mess.