Meatless Mondays

There's no doubt that grocery shopping on a strict food budget has cut down on the protien in our diet and raised the carb quotient!  (Sorry, Paleo Diet gods...)

BUT... that doesn't mean our menu has become unhealthy!  I'm determined to prove that you can eat healthy, whole food in the midst of relative poverty.

Last night I launched Meatless Monday!  It was a major success! 

What was on the menu, you might ask?  Veggie Stuffed Shells!

I made up my own recipe which went something like this:

Ingredients:
Large Shell Noodles, Garlic, Onion, Zucchini, Mushroom, Spinach, Olives, Cottage Cheese (the cheap alternative to Riccotta), Mozarella, & Parmesan.... and left over spagetti sauce.

Instructions:
1. Sautee garlic & onion until softened...
2. Add diced zucchini & mushroom... cook until... well, you know... they're cooked! =)
3. Add olives & frozen spinach
4. Remove from heat and add a few big scoops of cottage cheese, & sprinkle generously with Mozarella & Parmesan
5. Add a slosh of spagetti sauce (your favorite flavor)
6. THE FUN PART...... Stuff those pre-boiled shells!...
7. LAST STEP.... grease your glass baking dish, make a bed of spagetti sauce and lay the shells in! I had some left over cheese so I sprinkled it on top for good measure.
8. LAST STEP PART TWO.... Cover with tin foil and bake at 350 until the cheese on top looks a little crispy/baked...

Um.... three words.... AH  MAZE  ING!  Highly recommend.

I'm not gonna blow smoke up your dress... this probably ended up being the most expensive meal that I shopped for this month because of all the ingredients... but I totally made up for it with Cauliflower Soup & French Onion Soup on the meal plan... sooooo cheeeaaaaaaaaap!!

If you try it out, let me know how it goes.

Cheers,
The KawaMama

(I cheated & didn't do my own photography... but it looked EXACTLY like this photo.)