Stuffed Shells

Remember when I told you about my friend and I making a bunch of freezer meals?  Along with lasagna, meatballs, and a variety of soups, we also made these stuffed shells. 

Prior to our cooking day, I had never eaten stuffed shells, much less made any.  I was impressed with how easily these came together.  I think shredding the chicken took the longest amount of time, but since I did that while the noodles were cooking the whole process went quickly. 

One great thing about freezer meals is that Mike can get them ready while I'm at work, so once I get home, I just need to heat up a side dish or vegetable and dinner is on the table!  We both really enjoyed these stuffed shells and I'll certainly be making them again.

Stuffed Shells

Serves 8-10

8 ounces jumbo shell pasta

15 ounces Ricotta Cheese
2 cups shredded Mozzarella Cheese
1/4 cup grated Parmesan Cheese
1 Tablespoon dried parsley
1 egg
2 chicken breasts, cooked and shredded
2 cups pasta sauce

 1. In a large pot of boiling water, cook shells according to package instructions for al dente. When the pasta is done, drain and rinse the shells under cold water to stop the cooking process.

2.  In a medium bowl, mix together the Ricotta, Mozzarella, Parmesan, parsley, egg, and shredded chicken.

3. Stuff each shell with about 3 tablespoons of filling, until all the shells are full or you run out of filling.
 

4. Spread 1½ cups of pasta sauce on the bottom of a 9×13 baking dish. Place each stuffed shell on top of the sauce.

5.  Cover the shells with the remaining ½ cup pasta sauce.

If you're freezing the shells, cover the baking dish with a layer of plastic wrap followed by foil to prevent freezer burn. 

6.  Bake the shells at 350 degrees for 25-30 minutes.  If baking frozen shells, increase baking time to 45-50 minutes. 

 

Source: Ariane's Homemade Cravings

Turkey Meatballs

A couple of weeks ago my friend and I got together and spent a few hours making freezer meals.  We both work full-time and sometimes struggle to put a healthy homemade meal on the table every night after work.  Making freezer meals turned out to be an excellent solution!  We spent about 4 or 5 hours putting together our meals and each of us ended up with 14 freezer meals.

One of the recipes that we made was meatballs.  We mixed the meat, rolled them into balls and flash froze them before placing the meatballs in freezer bags.  When I was ready to use the meatballs, it took a minimal amount of time to cook the spaghetti (or spaghetti squash in my case), heat up some sauce, and cook the meatballs.  A healthy and delicious meal was on the dinner table in a record amount of time!

We're already planning our next freezer meal cooking day, as we've deemed our recent one a huge success!  Some of the recipes we froze are already on my blog, like pizza dough and beef stew, but I have a few new recipes that I'll be sharing in the future.  Have you ever made freezer meals?

Meatballs

Makes approximately 24 1-inch meatballs

1/4 cup Italian bread crumbs

1 egg, lightly beaten
1 Tablespoon milk
1 Tablespoon ketchup
1/2 cup grated Parmesan cheese
1/4 teaspoon salt
1/2 teaspoon black pepper
1 pound ground turkey

1.  In a medium bowl, mix all the ingredients together until completely combined.

2.  Roll meat into 1 inch balls.

**If you're freezing the meatballs: place the rolled meatballs in a single layer onto a wax paper lined cookie sheet and place in your freezer for approximately 1 hour.  When the meatballs are hard, place them in a Ziploc freezer bag and freeze.  When you're ready to cook the meatballs, continue at step 3.

3.  Preheat a small amount of olive oil in a skillet over medium heat.

4.  Add meatballs to the warm oil and cook for about 5 minutes per side, turning the meatballs as each side browns.  Cut into one meatball to ensure that it is completely cooked.

**You can also freeze the meatballs after cooking them.

Adapted from:  Finding Joy in My Kitchen