Where there is hot melty cheese involved, I am happy.

It's true. I love a few things in life, some most of which involves food. I love chocolate, bread, garlic, cheese, and pudding. My dinner tonight and the recipe I am about to share involves 3 of the 5. Not bad. I have been on an Italian kick for the past week or so. I had homemade personal pan pizza twice, baked spaghetti once, and pizza at a restaurant once. All in one week. Like I said--hot cheese has a special place in my heart. Plus, where there is Italian food, there is bread. And garlic. And butter.

Anyway, tonight for dinner i made my mom's Stuffed Shells. They are pretty easy to make and will fool your roommate into thinking you are a world famous cook. Here's how you do it.

Stuffed Shells

Ingredients:
1/2 of a 16oz box jumbo pasta shells
2 cups large curd cottage cheese
6 oz mozzarella cheese, shredded (I used the bag of like 4 different kinds. Romano, mozzarella  parmesan, etc. and it was really good!)
1/4  cup grated parmesan cheese
1 egg, lightly beaten
1/2 pinch garlic powder (Naturally, I used much more than a pinch. What does "pinch" even mean, anyway?)
1/2 t dried oregano
1/2 t parsley
1/2 jar spaghetti sauce
Cheese for sprinkling on top
8 oz frozen spinach, optional (I always use spinach because I think it makes it even better.)

Method:
1. Cook shells completely and place in cold water. (Those shells take a while to cook cause they are so thick.)
2. Mix cottage cheese, mozzarella cheese, 1/2 cup of the parm, egg, and garlic in a bowl.
3. Rub dried herbs on your hands and mix cheese using your hands. Add the spinach if you choose to include it.
4. Spread 1/3 of the sauce in the bottom of the pan (I used an 8x8 square pan)
5. Drain shells and stuff with cheese mixture. Place open side up in pan, close together.
6. Pour remaining sauce over the shells and sprinkle with cheese.
7. Bake at 350 for 25-35 minutes and let stand 10 minutes before serving (I probably waited a whole 2 minutes. YOLO.)

Perfect. Or, should I say, perfetto!

Of course, you can't have sauce and cheese without bread. I got this garlic and herb topped bread at Wally World and was pretty impressed.

We also had salad with it of course. Complete with Olive Garden dressing. Yum.