Stuffed Shells with Ground Beef

Stuffed Shells with Ground Beef makes for a hearty easy dinner! These are the best!

This is definitely a kid friendly meal that they will love. My kids are quite picky as I have mentioned. Sometimes they don’t like cheese, sometimes they do. Sometimes, they love chicken sometimes they don’t. It’s really a crap shoot to be honest. One thing they will always eat is veggies, which seems odd.

We’ve started just making dinner and trying to put one thing on their plate we know they’ll eat. These could have gone either way to be honest, Grey some days just doesn’t want marinara, then the next day he’ll be like, does this have my favorite sauce? Kids are ridiculous but this tasted awesome! Enjoy!

Stuffed Shells with Ground Beef

ingredients

• 20 jumbo pasta shells
• 1 teaspoon olive oil
• 1 onion, chopped
• ¾ teaspoon kosher salt, divided
• 2 garlic cloves, chopped
• 1 pound lean ground beef
• 28 ounces marinara sauce
• 1 (15-oz) container cottage cheese, small curd
• 1 egg
• 2 cups part skim shredded Italian cheese blend (or shredded mozzarella), divided 
• ½ cup parmesan cheese, divided

Stuffed Shells with Ground Beef

Directions

1. 1. 1. Preheat oven to 350F.
      2. Cook shells in a large pot of salted water for 2-3 minutes shy of package directions (just under al dente). Drain, rinse with cold water, and set aside.
      3. While the pasta is cooking, heat a large skillet over medium heat. Add the olive oil, then sauté the onion along with ¼ teaspoon of salt until translucent, about 3-5 minutes. Add the garlic and cook until fragrant, about 1 minute, stirring frequently.
      4. Add the ground beef and ¼ teaspoon salt. Sauté until browned and cooked through, breaking into small pieces, about 5-7 minutes. Drain any excess oil, if desired.
      5. Add the marinara sauce, stir to combine, then remove from heat.
      6. In a large bowl mix together cottage, egg, spinach, 1 cup Italian cheese blend, ¼ cup parmesan, and ¼ teaspoon salt, stirring to combine.
      7. Once the shells are cooked and cooled, fill each shell (about 2 heaping tablespoons) with the ricotta-spinach mixture.
      8. Add half the beef marinara sauce to the bottom of a large baking dish, spreading to cover.
      9. Arrange the shells in the baking dish, then top with remaining beef marinara sauce and remaining 1 cup cheese blend and ¼ cup parmesan.
      10. Cover with foil and bake for 40 minutes, then uncover and bake an additional 5 minutes.
      11. Sprinkle with parsley, if using, and serve.

Stuffed Shells with Ground Beef

PASTA FOR THE WIN!

Chicken Penne Pasta! What’s better than a dinner you can prep in 30 minutes? Chicken Penne Pasta is so freakin’ good. There are actually no words.

Sometimes you just don’t want to cook dinner, but you know you need to or you’ll be ordering it again. Last night we had Broccoli Chicken Pasta Casserole for dinner and it was a fun twist on the original.

We also tried to make it a little more healthy too.