When I was a child, I was a horrible eater, so picky.  One of my daughters was also a picky eater, and it was a real hassle, but she was easy compared to me.  My poor mother, there were so few dinners I would eat; I struggle to think of more than 5.  Often, she resorted to pancakes or cereal – maybe that is why, to this day, I love breakfast for dinner?  Eventually, when I hit my teens, she was slowly able to add to my dinner menu.  One of the hits that worked for both me and my almost pickier brother was spinach stuffed shells.

Over the years, I have evolved the dish, changing the cheese to whole milk rather than part-skim, changing the ratios of spinach to cheese, changing sauces.  But it is still a very easy, very tasty dinner that also served me well with my picky daughter who wouldn’t eat anything green but the green in here was ok.  I make the marinara sauce, but you can use jarred sauce; I use creamed spinach, I like it best, but you can also use chopped spinach if you can’t find creamed.

Spinach Stuffed Shells

12 oz pkg Jumbo shells

9 oz pks frozen creamed spinach

15 ox container whole milk ricotta cheese

8 oz mozzarella cheese, shredded

1 tsp Kosher salt

1/4 tsp freshly ground black pepper

3 1/2 cups marinara sauce

Directions

About 1  – 1 1/2 hours before you plan to serve dinner, prepare the shells according to package directions.  Rinse and drain.

Prepare the creamed spinach, open the package, cool.

Heat the oven to 350F.

In a large bowl, mix together the ricotta cheese, mozzarella, salt, pepper and spinach.

Pour the sauce into a 9 x 13 pan.  Stuff the shells.

Add the shells to the dish.

Bake for 30 minutes. Serve and enjoy!

Serves 6-8.