Manicotti, or something like it.

The final product!

A few months ago, my sister Michelle (here she is!!!)

 told me about this stuffed noodle recipe she makes.  It sounded pretty good, so I bought some of the ingredients I thought went in it.  Time passed, and I kept forgetting to get the recipe from her! 
Well, the other day (yesterday)  I decided since things had calmed down a bit I wanted to cook a home made meal.  I looked in my cupboard to see what I had and I saw those stuffed shells I had bought months previous!  I decided to see what kind of meal I could make with them.  Unfortanately, as I was searching through recipes almost every meal included ricotti or other cheeses like that.  Even more unfortanately, I was in a mood where I really didn't want to go to the store! Then I stumbled across the one and only recipe I could find that didn't take a whole lot of ingredients. I was in very unfamiliar territory, but I decided to try it.  It turned out YUMMY! And I even made some changes to the recipe, so I feel pretty cool. Also, i just have to say that being back in the kitchen and cooking a meal felt so absolutely wonderful.  I love it!  This recipe was simple and quick.  I think overall it took about 30 minutes.
Here is the original recipe:

Ingredients:

14 uncooked manicotti shells 1/2 pound ground beef 1 small onion, finely chopped 1/2 green bell pepper, finely chopped

1 (15 ounce) can tomato sauce 1 teaspoon dried oregano 1 teaspoon dried thyme 1 cup shredded mozzarella cheese, divided

Directions:

1.

Cook manicotti according to package directions; drain. In a skillet, cook the beef, onion and green pepper over medium heat until meat is no longer pink; drain. Stir in the tomato sauce, oregano and thyme; bring to a boil. Reduce heat; simmer, uncovered, for 10 minutes. Add 1/2 cup cheese; stir until melted.

2.

Stuff half meat mixture into manicotti shells; arrange in a greased 8-in. square baking dish. Spoon remaining meat mixture over shells. Bake, uncovered, at 325 degrees F for 20 minutes. Sprinkle with remaining cheese; bake 5-10 minutes longer or until heated through and cheese is melted. Here is how I made it...and wow.  Looking at the recipe again makes me realize that I really did change it up! The following is the Lazy Persons way to do this recipe: First of all, I realized a little too late that I had stuffed shells instead of Manicotti noodles.  At this point, I decided to stick with it and see what happened. So, to start off, I boiled a package of stuffed noodles for about 5-7 minutes.  The important thing here is to undercook your noodles so that they are easier to fill with the ingredients.  Don't worry, they will finish cooking later in the oven! As I was boiling my noodles, I defrosted my groundbeef in the microwave.  I used a guestimate of 1/2 lb of ground beef.  I've found that you can use more or less groundbeef and it is okay! The meal will turn out great. After I had drained my noodles, I started cooking my groundbeef in a saucepan.  Instead of an actual onion, I used 1/2 TBSP of onion powder.  I've started doing this substition quite frequently and I haven't been sad as of yet.  I also added 1/2 tsp of garlic powder.  Helpful Hint #7: 1 small onion = 1/2 TBSP onion powder.  1 medium onion = 1 TBSP onion powder.  1 large onion = 1 1/2 TBSP onion powder.  1 medium sized clove garlic = 1/4 tsp garlic powder.  1 large or 2 medium cloves = 1/2 tsp garlic powder. After my groundbeef was browned, I drained it. I always drain it and am shocked by all the grease that comes out - YUCK! I put the groundbeef back into the saucepan and instead of tomato sauce, i added 1 jar of spaghetti sauce, 1 tsp oregano and 1 tsp thyme.  I did not use the green bell pepper, although I think this would only add excellence! I brought the sauce mixture to a boil and then reduced heat and let it simmer for about 10-15 minutes.  The longer you let it simmer, the better the taste will be.  As I did this, I turned my oven on to 325 degreees.  Then i added some mozarella cheese and dove into the scary part! After I greased a 9X9 baking dish, I poured my noodles in the pan.  Stuffing the noodles!!!  I would pick up a noodle, open the noodle slightly, spoon some of the sauce mixture in and set it back into the pan. And yes, some of the sauce mixture would fall out. Some stayed in, so I wasn't too worried.  It may simple to describe this process, but I had no idea what to do so this is what i did! And it worked!  I didn't end up using all of my noodles, so i took some out, but it was about two layers of noodles in the pan.  I stopped when I decided I had just enough left to cover all the noodles and then I put it in the oven! I baked it for about 10 minutes, added some cheese on top and put it back in for about 3 minutes.  It came out looking delightful and then luckily it tasted just as delightful! Evan seemed to love it and I did too! We even had leftovers. I haven't tried them yet, but I believe they will be yummy! The last thing you should take from this is that stuffed noodles can work with manicotti recipes :) Here i am checking on my noodles!