Tasty Tuesday - Stuffed Jumbo Shells

I've been making this recipe for years. We would make it as part of cook-for-a-month growing up, so it's a great freezer meal. Today, I'm making a double batch so I can give some to a friend who just had a baby :)

I realized as I made it today that I don't really follow the recipe, so I'm going to try to write down what I do instead :)

Ingredients (for a double recipe)
2 boxes jumbo shells
3 heads broccoli

2 tablespoons parsley
2 pounds mozzarella cheese, grated
2 large containers small curd cottage cheese
1/4 cup Parmesan
8 eggs
garlic, salt, and pepper, all to taste
large container spaghetti sauce

• Cook noodles according to package. Both boxes didn't fit in my 6 quart pot, so I had to cook them in two separate batches. Drain and rinse with cold water.
  

 

• Chop broccoli with food chopper. I don't especially like vegetables, so this is a great way to hide them in my food :) Steam in microwave until almost done. 

• Put fresh parsley in small bowl and chop with scissors until small.

 

 

• Combine broccoli, parsley, mozzarella, parmesan, cottage cheese, eggs, and seasoning in large bowl. Save about 1/2 cup of mozzarella for top.
  

 
 

• Spray one (or four) 9 x 13 pans with non-stick spray. Coat bottom with spaghetti sauce, about 1/2 cup per pan

 

• This is the easiest way I've found to assemble: place noodles still in strainer next to filling next to sauced pan.
  

• To assemble, put about 1 tablespoon (more or less depending on your taste, Tim likes less and I like more) of filling in each shell. Place in prepared pan

 

• Cover with sauce and sprinkle with mozzarella cheese.

•  Bake at 350 degrees for about 40 minutes or until middle of shells is hot. You can also freeze and bake later. From frozen, bake for about an hour covered, then uncover and bake until hot, about another 20 minutes. 

I was going to take a picture as I took them out of the oven, but Tim and I were hungry so here's after we ate our dinner :) 

You can find the original recipe here
I ended up making three 9 x 13 and one 9 x 9 pan with this recipe, plenty to eat, share, and have some for later!

~S