{family dinner} manicotti...

Little Bit has loved getting into the kitchen more these days.  Our family cooking nights have been perfect for this!  She especially loves when cracking eggs are involved!  ;) 

I also love her having a hand in making the meals because it helps her know what goes into the dish and hopefully gets her to try some new things! 

We are big pasta lovers in this house, so manicotti was a perfect dish to try and create together!  Sometimes stuffing pasta might turn people off because it seems time consuming, but I thought it was fun and fairly easy to put it all together.

 Little Bit was a big help with measuring and pouring ingredients!

To stuff the shells I put my filling into a Ziploc bag, squeezed it down into one of the corners and then snipped off the corner tip to create a piping bag.  Then it was super easy to fill each shell!

Baked Manicotti

Ingredients:
manicotti noodles
16 oz. ricotta cheese
8 oz. shredded mozzarella cheese, plus
3/4 cup grated parmesan cheese, plus
1 egg
1 tsp fresh chopped parsley
1 Tbsp fresh chopped basil
salt & pepper to taste
16 oz. pasta sauce

Directions:
Preheat oven to 350 degrees.  Grease a 9x13 baking dish and set aside.  Boil your manicotti noodles for about 4-6 minutes, you don't want to over cook them because they will cook more in the oven.  Drain noodles and let them cool enough for you to handle them.

Combine cheeses, herbs and egg in a mixing bowl.  Add salt and pepper to taste. Transfer cheese mixture into Ziploc bag and snip one corner. 

Spoon 1 cup pasta sauce in the bottom of the baking dish.  Begin filling your shells with cheese mixture and place them in the prepared baking dish.  Spoon remaining sauce over top of shells and sprinkle with additional mozzarella and parmesan cheese.  Bake for 30-35 minutes until bubbly and cheese is melted. 

Enjoy!

This meal got rave reviews from my smiley girl!