Healthy Cheesy Stuffed Shells

 This recipe is super yummy and a little healthier than other stuffed shells recipes. It is also very adaptable to whatever you want to put inside. I don't like cottage cheese, but that is the main ingredient in the stuffing and I can't even notice it. You can also replace with ricotta and you can add italian sausage, but mine doesn't have any meat inside.

1 container of low fat cottage cheese
1 pkg of frozen chopped spinach, thawed and well drained
1 cup of shredded mozzarella, divided
1/4 cup of parmesan cheese
1 tsp of Italian seasoning (you can use Italian salad dressing or a mix of basil and oregano if you don't have an "Italian blend" seasoning
20 jumbo pasta shells cooked and drained
1 jar of spaghetti sauce

Heat oven to 400 degrees. 
Cook the shells according to package, but drain and rinse about 2 minutes before what the package says, they maybe a little more than "aldente" but they will continue cooking in the oven, so it's okay.
Pour about half of the spaghetti sauce into a 13x9 baking dish.
Mix cottage cheese, spinach, 1/2 cup of mozzarella, parmesan, and Italian seasoning; spoon into the shells and place the shells in the baking dish on top of the spaghetti sauce.

When all shells are filled top with the remaining spaghetti sauce and cover.
Bake 25 minutes or until heated through.
Top with remaining mozzarella and bake uncovered for a couple minutes or until cheese is melted.....yummm enjoy :)

Pasta With Roasted Sweet Summer Vegetables

 Picture Source

Another blog I follow is Choosing Raw there are quite a few recipes I really want to try on there like the Banana Soft Serve and the Roasted Peach and Ginger Chia Pudding.  Today, I made the Pasta With Roasted Sweet Summer Vegetables and Pine Nuts.  It turned out amazing and the sweetness of the caramelized roasted veggies with the crunchy texture of the toasted pine nuts was great!

My basil plant :)

 toasted pine nuts, yummm

Roasted veggies

My plate, now you see why I used the original photo and not mine LOL, clearly I need to learn a thing or two about food photography!

Black Bean, Corn and Shrimp Salad Ceviche and Homemade Tortilla Chips

It's been a while since I have posted, so I will just post everything all at once. This recipe is AHHH-Mazing! I found it in All You Magazine and they just listed it as a salad, but after I tried it, it could totally be a ceviche-type appetizer served with chips! YUMMM and you can totally add or subtract anything and it will still taste fantastic.

2 ears of corn shucked
1 15oz can of black beans, rinsed and drained
1 or 2 avocados pitted and diced
1 cup of cherry tomatoes halved
2 green onions sliced 
1/2 tsp. cumin
1/4 cup olive oil
2 tbsp. lime juice (I used a little more, just taste it first and add little by little)
3/4 lb. cooked, peeled, deveined shrimp chopped
salt and pepper to taste
 *I also thought adding cucumbers might be awesome*

Cut kernels off ears of corn into a large bowl.  Add beans avocado, tomatoes, scallions, cumin, olive oil, lime juice and shrimp and toss gently to combine. Season with salt and pepper. 

At this point, the salad is made so you can eat it however you want. I put it inside a romaine heart and ate it like a "salad boat" lol. 

You can also make your own tortilla chips, which I loved and are sooooo much more healthy for you, I didn't miss any flavor.

Homeade Tortilla Chips

Corn tortillas cut into quarters

Preheat oven to 400 degrees. Spread tortilla wedges on an ungreased baking sheet, make sure it is just one layer, no overlapping, so you may have to do a few batches. You can do a quick spray of Pam, but you don't have to.

Bake about 10-15 minutes or until golden brown.