Stuffed Shells

This is a recipe that I was given by my mother. I was looking for something different from lasagna but still about the same. And so she gave me this Stuffed shells recipe. This recipe is time consuming but the end result is well worth it and it is great fun to get kids involved with too. After all those shells wont stuff them selves. (inless you buy the frozzen ones)

What you will need:

1 Ib ground beef

2 Eggs

1 med sweet onion, chopped

1/4 cup Parmesan cheese

2 cups crushed Ritz crackers

salt and pepper to taste

20 Jumbo shells

1 Jar spaghetti sauce

1-2 cups shredded mozzarella cheese

Directions:

Brown your ground beef in a large skillet and drain.Cook pasta shells according to directions on the package and then drain. Set aside the Jumbo Shells so that they can cool. Mean while mix your ground beef with the 2 eggs, chopped onion, crushed crackers, Parmesan cheese and add salt and pepper to taste. Next you will want to spread 1 cup of spaghetti sauce on the bottom of a greased 13x9 baking dish. Now that your shells have cooled enough to handle spoon your meat mixture into your Jumbo Shells. using a tablespoon should do the trick. place each stuffed shell into baking dish. Top with remaining spaghetti sauce and cover with foil bake for 30 min. Uncover and sprinkle with shredded mozzarella cheese and bake until cheese is melted (about 10 min) Take out of oven let rest for about 5 to 10 minutes then serve. This feeds up to 6-8 people but leftovers are the best with this dish. Also you can make this and freeze it for a rainy lazy day. Hope that you enjoy. Get the kiddos involved with stuffing the shells it will help take some of the work from you and my niece always loved helping me.

Quick Tip: To help the shells cool faster I always spread them out evenly over a cookie sheet. This also helps keep them from sticking together.