Hi all! It’s been a long time since I’ve posted here, and quite a bit has happened since my last post. I became a Registered Dietitian, began working at a long-term care center, got married, and lots of other things! After all the excitement and change, it’s finally time to get back to posting recipes and sharing food with others. For my first post in a while, I thought it was appropriate to share an old family recipe that I made for a family dinner. The recipe is for stuffed shells, but this is a healthier recipe than traditional ricotta-stuffed shells. It’s made with cottage cheese, which saves quite a few calories (about 300 calories per cup), has  a comparable amount of protein as ricotta, and tastes absolutely delicious! Here’s the recipe:

Ingredients:

• 1 box giant pasta shells
• 1/4 tsp salt
• 1 1/2 lb (24 oz) low-fat cottage cheese
• 1/4 cup Italian bread crumbs
• 1/2 cup Parmesan cheese, shredded or powdered
• 2 Tbsp chopped fresh parsley or 1 Tbsp dry parsley
• 1 egg, beaten
• 1 jar of your favorite pasta sauce

Preheat your oven to 375ºF. Pour 1/2 of the pasta sauce into the bottom of a large casserole dish and set aside. Cook the giant pasta shells according to the instructions on the box and drain the pasta. While the pasta is cooking, mix up the cottage cheese, salt, bread crumbs, Parmesan cheese, parsley, and the egg. It should look like this:

When the pasta is cooked and drained, you can start assembling the shells. Scoop a rounded tablespoon or so into each shell. Basically, scoop enough into the shell to fill it.

As you fill each shell, lay it seam-side down in the casserole dish like this:

The number of shells that you’ll be able to make varies with the size and shape of your casserole dish, and it’s likely that you’ll have some plain shells left over. Those are actually my favorite part, because as I was growing up my Mom always saved those plain shells for me to eat with Parmesan cheese! We still snack on the plain shells together when we make this recipe.

After you’ve arranged the shells in the casserole dish, pour the other half of the pasta sauce over the top of the shells.

Cover the dish with foil and bake it for 30 minutes. Then, take the dish out of the oven, remove the foil, and sprinkle Parmesan cheese over the top. Return the uncovered dish to the oven and bake it for another 15 minutes. When it’s done, it should look like this:

Now, go ahead and dig in! These shells are so good, and your family and friends will love them. When my family came over, there were absolutely no leftovers. It was great! I hope you give these a try and enjoy them as much as my family does! Have a great rest of your week!