Stuffed Manicotti for the Freezer

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My second freezer meal plan for this last shopping trip was stuffed manicotti. On Tuesday I made the stuffed shells. I was kind of “winging” it when I came up with the recipe. I bought 3 packages of manicotti. Altogether there were 42 manicotti shells. Here is what I did..

I cooked the manicotti noodles for 4 minutes. That was about ½ the time called for on the package. I would have used whole wheat manicotti noodles if I could find them. The grocery store I shopped at had a nice variety of whole wheat pasta, but no manicotti noodles. I will look for them online and see if I can find them for the future. But for this time, I bought the white ones (picture shows 2 pkgs, but I used 3).


While they were cooking I put together the manicotti filling. Here is what I used…

3lbs cottage cheese (this was the large container from Costco)
3 cups grated mozzeralla cheese
2 cups parmesan cheese
4 eggs
3t dried parsely
2t minced garlic
1t salt
½ t pepper

I mixed the ingredients together..




After the noodles were done cooking I drained them….



And then I stuffed them. I ran out of stuffing and still had 3 shells left to stuff so I just stuffed them with grated mozzarella cheese.




And laid them on a tray…


And put them in the freezer to freezer individually (flash freezing). When then were frozen I put them in a zip lock bag and back into the freezer.

I was going to serve this meal on Wednesday, but the menu plan this week is a little jumbled up.. so we had them tonight instead. I pulled out 12 stuffed shells and put them in a 9x13 pan…


I cut up one onion and about 3 mushrooms and cooked them with 1lb of hamburger until the veggies were soft and the hamburger was cooked completely. Then I added 1 quart of my homemade spaghetti sauce (you can use a purchased equivalent) and I added ½ cup water…




I poured this over the frozen stuffed manicotti shells…


Topped it with a little more grated mozzeralla cheese...


Covered the pan with foil…


And baked at 350 for about 50 minutes (bake until the noodles are soft)…


This was soooo yummy!! I served it with bread and a green salad and everyone gave it 2 thumbs up.. which is good because I have enough for 2 more meals in the freezer!

Comments

  1. SherryMarch 24, 2012 at 3:31 AM

    This sounds so good...it will be tried out at the our house this week.. Have a wonderful weekend,

    ReplyDelete
  2. Cozy Seaside HomemakerMarch 24, 2012 at 3:57 AM

    Cant wait to try this!

    ReplyDelete
  3. SharonMarch 24, 2012 at 6:07 AM

    That sounds great, I am going to have to try this.

    ReplyDelete
  4. KristinMarch 24, 2012 at 9:28 AM

    I have never had stuffed manicotti until this week. Yummy! Thumbs up around the table! I found the recipe on momonamission (dot) me - the main differences are that she doesn't cook her noodles first, stuffs/pipes in the filling with a bag, & she makes up the dish before freezing. Yours looks like it takes less room in the freezer though, which I love! I wonder if I can do like you but with uncooked noodles?

    ReplyDelete
  5. AnonymousMarch 24, 2012 at 1:32 PM

    Crystal I saw a recipe this week where you use Lasagna noodles and roll them so you do not have to stuff manicotti noodles it just makes it easier to place the cheese mixture in the middle and then roll up the noodle cut to your choice and you have the same result. Just a thought.

    ReplyDelete
  6. AnonymousMarch 24, 2012 at 2:51 PM

    This looks great! I like the idea of having the shells stuffed and waiting. That is the time consuming part, but not having to take up freezer space with large pans.

    On our menu tonight -- Teriyaki Pork (smells so good my husband keeps asking what time we're eating), rice, steamed stir fry veggies and orange slices.

    My son and daughter have asked me to be sure to include the recipe in their respective cookbooks. :-)

    Thanks!

    ReplyDelete
  7. Felecia CofieldMarch 24, 2012 at 3:52 PM

    Crystal, This sounds delicious! I think my guys would love it! Thanks for sharing! Blessings from Bama!

    ReplyDelete
  8. Judy HammondApril 1, 2012 at 11:43 AM

    Would using a pastry bag to fill the manicotti shells work?

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. CrystalApril 1, 2012 at 7:48 PM

      Judy, I have not done it that way.. as long as the pastry bag had a large enough opening for the filling to come out that might work well.

      Crystal :)

      Delete
  9. amanda_227January 7, 2013 at 10:17 AM

    This was delicous! Thank you! You are a lidesaver around my house. :)

    ReplyDelete

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