Stuffed Shells (High Tech Style)

Confession: After seven years, I finally figured out what some of the buttons on my oven are for! When we got the stove, I really liked all of the features that it had to offer. But somewhere along the way I got overwhelmed with other things and forgot all about them.

With my husband out of town and me left to my own devices, I've had to get creative in the evenings when it comes to fitting in baseball/swimming/guitar and dinner. Last night I left work at 5 pm and had to pick up both kids and be on the baseball field by 6 pm. What is a mom to do?

This mom packed some snacks for the kids to eat so that they weren't starving through baseball practice and then she came home to a meal that was ready to eat as she walked in the door. How did I do it? I prepped the meal the night before, stuck it in the oven as we left for practice, programmed my oven to start at a certain time (the "Start Time" button) and then programmed it to bake for 40 minutes ("Cook Time" button). It was so easy! Why hadn't I thought of this before?!?!?!?

I adapted this recipe from The Full Table. I loved the recipe because you do not have to cook the shells before you stuff them! They soak in the pasta sauce overnight and soften enough to be perfectly cooked after 40 minutes in the oven the next day. The recipe made 20 stuffed shells. I served 10 last night and then froze 10 for a later meal.

Make Ahead Stuffed Shells:

Ingredients:

1 lb large shell pasta
2 8 ounce blocks of cream cheese
1 small package of chopped spinach (I bought the frozen kind, defrosted it in the microwave, and pressed it through a cheesecloth to get rid of the excess liquid)
1 or 2 cloves of chopped garlic (I added 2, but my daughter thought it was too much)
1 egg
3 cups shredded mozzarella cheese
Pepper to taste
2 jars spaghetti sauce

Directions:

1. Mix cream cheese, spinach, garlic, egg, mozzarella cheese and pepper thoroughly.
2. Spoon mixture into uncooked shells. Alternatively, you can place the mixture in a ziploc, cut off a corner of the bag, and pipe the mixture into the shells. I started this way, but it didn't work well with the shells that had only a small opening. I found that in those instances, a fork worked best.

If Cooking The Next Day:
Place stuffed shells in a baking dish (8x8 for half of the batch or 9 x 13 for the whole batch).
Pour spaghetti sauce over the top - be sure to cover all shells as this is how they will soften. (1 jar for half of the batch; 2 jars for the entire batch).
Cover baking dish and place in refrigerator overnight.
When ready to bake, preheat your oven to 350 and bake for 35 to 40 minutes. (I put the shells in the oven before we left for practice and set my start and bake times so that they were just finishing up as we arrived home).

If Freezing:
Place stuffed shells on a cookie sheet in the freezer until they are fully frozen. Then transfer to a freezer bag for storage.
When ready to eat shells, remove from freezer the night before.
Pour spaghetti sauce over the top - be sure to cover all shells as this is how they will soften. (1 jar for half of the batch; 2 jars for the entire batch).
Cover baking dish and place in refrigerator overnight.
When ready to bake, preheat your oven to 350 and bake for 35 to 40 minutes.

At first the proportion of sauce to noodles seemed wrong to me. I thought that there was way too much sauce. But after the shells soaked overnight, they absorbed quite a bit which gave them great flavor and made the sauce to shell ratio perfect. This is a dish that I will put on my go to list!