The pasta shells we had for dinner aren’t the only things stuffed right now. Ugh, somebody please take this fork away!

After a ridiculously busy few weeks at work and an illness, I decided that I would try to do that whole make-one-freeze-one thing. We’ve eaten out more during the last two weeks than all of April and it’s noticeable. Really noticeable.

I began my search for freezable dinners a few days ago and was immediately discouraged. I guess being a child of the Google era has spoiled me a bit but even Google couldn’t easily deliver results for fresh and tasty recipes for the freezer. Everything was either lasagna or some soupy chicken-rice bake with cream of celery soup. [Shudder] Celery.

Allrecipes has a recipe for stuffed shells that received raves on the newlywed cooking forum that I frequent. I had my husband taste-test the filling as we went along to make sure that he would eat it

Garlic and Chicken Stuffed Shells
1 box uncooked jumbo pasta shells (about 40-50)
6 cloves garlic
2 boneless skinless chicken breasts (cooked and coarsely shredded)
30 oz fat free ricotta cheese
1/3 cup Italian breadcrumbs
1 1/2 tsp salt
1/2 tsp black pepper
1 Tbsp parsley
4 large basil leaves
1/3 cup fat-free half and half
28 oz pasta sauce (jarred, canned, homemade)
1/4 cup Parmesan cheese

Preheat oven to 375 degrees. Cook pasta shells according to package directions and drain. Separate onto a cutting board to prevent the shells from sticking. Add ingredients garlic through fat-free half and half to a food processor and process until just combined. Taste and add more salt and pepper, if necessary.

Spoon 1/2 cup sauce in the bottom of the baking dish. Fill the cooked shells with ricotta mixture (about 2 Tbsp) and place filled-side up in the baking dish. Spoon as much of the remaining sauce over the shells as desired. Bake covered with foil for 15-20 minutes, remove foil and continue baking for 5 minutes. Sprinkle with Parmesan cheese and serve.

Note: I baked 15 shells in a small baking dish for dinner and separated the rest into single-serving (7 shells) oven/freezer-safe dishes for future meals. To cook from the freezer, thaw the dish in the fridge overnight and bake as directed above.

Recipe adapted from AllRecipes.com

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