Fabu Stuffed Shells!

I had a box of shells in the pantry for a while now that I wanted to use - and since we were busy all day yesterday making peanut brittle and putting christmas touches around the house, I decided this would be a great make ahead and pop in the oven meal.



In a large bowl I mixed all but 6 T of a large container of skim ricotta cheese.

To that I added, salt, pepper, 1 egg, garlic powder, pasta sprinkle from Penzy's, 3 T of parmesan and about a half cup of shredded Italian cheese, and about a half cup of frozen chopped spinach.



I stuffed the shells with the cheese mixture and placed in a sprayed baking pan. I then topped with half a bag of baby spinach leaves, one jar of Newman's Own Cabarnet Marinara sauce, then I topped with the remaining dollops of ricotta and more shredeed cheese. I also poured about a half cup to a cup of water ontop as well to help cook the noodles.



Cover, bake at 375 for one hour, uncover and let cook another 5-10 minute suntil bubly brown.

Cookies, Sweets & Treats everywhere!

So the kitchen has been baking central for over a week now as I'm feverishly making cookies and candies to give as gifts for the holiday season.

So far I've made 10 items but still thinking I want to make a few more. I'm just doing one batch of each thing to save time too.

So far:
Spritz
Chocolate Chip Cookies
Gingerbread
Jan Hagel
Oreo Truffles
Almond Coconut Truffles
Butterscotch Pudding Candies
Key Lime Cookies
Vanilla and Walnut Fudge
Rocky Road Fudge

I'd still like to make macaroons - cause I have an extra bag of coconut, snickerdoodles, and pretzle haystacks.

We'll see how far I get!

The Breakfast of Champions

Or atleats someone who enjoys a warm, filling breakfast on a quick weekday morning.

I always loved cream of wheat as a kid, infact I hated oatmeal but went for the good ol' fashioned farina.

As I got older, well really just in the last 5 years or so, I started getting burnt out on Cream of Wheat and moved to the oatmeal craze. And I love to do anything with oatmeal - add anything to it and mmmm delicious!

Well, this past October when I visited my dear friend Jill up in Albany, she made these wonderful, hearty, breakfasts for us each morning.

Saturday we had this fantastic stove top oatmeal with raisins and bananas, wheat germ and milk. Delicious and my first experience not eating oatmeal laden with cinnamon and splenda and adding wheat germ to the diet - delicious.

Well Sunday morning she made cream of wheat and I was so excited. And when I sat down to eat it it was like a flavor explosion. She made stove top cream of wheat with dried apricots and bananas and wheat germ and milk. OH MY GOD FANTASTIC.

So, my mother in law Jane recently sent us a box of goodies (per our request) from Trader Joe's and I had her include some dried apricots. Surprisingly, it's very hard to find affordable dried fruits out here at an affordable price.

So I've been eating the cream of wheat with apricot and bananas and mmmm so good, you must try it!

Recipe
Heat serving of cream of wheat with water either in the microwave or on the stove top. Make sure you put your dried apricots, sliced up, in there too when it's heating. When it comes out place your sliced banana in there and then top with a T or 2 of wheat germ and a sprinkle of cinnamon. Top with milk if you'd like.