Meaty Stuffed Shells

The first time I made this was when I was living with Rachel & Mark just after they got married. They got this recipe with a gift for their wedding (do you remember that, Rachey?). Well, I cooked it for them and the recipe has stuck in my head all these years and I've made it several times. Personally, I love the stuff - and it's one of Jason's favorite meals.

(Please excuse the messy picture. Jason plated for me and the picture was an afterthought - I was just excited to dig in!)

Ingredients:

1 lb ground beef
1 green pepper
1/2 lb Mozzarella cheese (or more if you like it super cheesy *yum*)
1 jar of your favorite marinara sauce
1 box manicotti shells

Directions:

Cook shells as directed on package. Brown the hamburger and drain. Dice the green pepper and Mozzarella cheese (yes, I said dice the cheese - not shred) and combine in a large bowl with the hamburger. Using a spoon, fill the shells with the meat/pepper/cheese mixture. Spread a small amount of sauce on the bottom of a 9x13 cake pan. Line the stuffed shells up in the pan. Cover shells with the remaining sauce. I usually have meat mixture left over so I just dump that on top too. Cover with cheese and cook at 350 until heated thru (about 15-20 minutes).

Cashew Chicken

**CASHEW CHICKEN**

1 Tbsp. oil
1/4 c. or more cashews
1 chicken breast half, cut in chunks
1/2 c. chicken broth
2 Tbsp. soy sauce
1 Tbsp. cornstarch
1/2 tsp. sugar
1/4 lb. Chinese snow peas
1/4 lb. fresh mushrooms
1/2 c. celery, sliced or chopped
1/2 c. carrots, sliced or chopped
2 green onions, sliced

1. In large nonstick pan, heat oil and stir-fry cashews on medium heat until lightly toasted. Remove cashews from pan with slotted spoon.
2. In same pan, stir-fry chicken until tender and no longer pink in center. Remove chicken from pan with slotted spoon. Remove pan from heat.
3. In a small bowl, combine chicken broth, soy sauce, cornstarch and sugar. Set aside. Return pan to heat.
4. Place snow peas, mushrooms, celery and carrots in pan and stir-fry 3 minutes, stirring constantly. Stir in soy sauce mixture.
5. Add green onions and cook until well blended and thickened and add chicken.
6. Add cashews just before serving.

Makes 4 cups (serves about 1 person)

I made this for dinner tonight and it was DELICIOUS! I had to quadruple the recipe to feed everyone, but it worked out nicely. (If you are feeding 2 people double it, 3 people triple it, and so forth.) We left out the mushrooms. But other than that we followed the recipe spot on and it was SUPER easy! I was intimidated by the name of the meal "Cashew Chicken" sounds pretty fancy shmancy...but it was so easy and SO good! We put ours over noodles but everyone agreed it would have been better with rice. Anyway, this is a MUST TRY recipe!