Meat Filled Jumbo Shells-Secret Recipe Club

My assigned blog for September’s Secret Recipe Club was Join us, pull up a chair.  This blog is written by Heather who also has a family blog, Silly Goose Adventures.

As always, I found many recipes that have been added to my “to make” list.  Heather recently posted a recipe for Cheesy Cauliflower Patties that I am going to make soon as I have cooked cauliflower in my fridge.  I would have made that one for this post, but I had already cooked something else.

Other recipes that made my list are Honey Pecan Pork Chops and Honey Chicken, which is made in a slow cooker.  There are plenty of great cookie, granola, and smoothie recipes that I will be back to try, also.

Since I love to make stuffed jumbo pasta shells, I chose to make Meat Filled Jumbo Shells.  I like this recipe because of the combination of ground beef and ground pork and that it has no ricotta or cottage cheese in it.  I do have recipes that contain those ingredients and make them, but I was glad to see something a bit different.

I do not know what brand of jumbo shells Heather buys.  I buy Ronzoni, and one box has too many shells to fit into a 9x13-inch baking dish.  I usually buy two packages and use about 24 or 25 shells per recipes.  I get three recipes from two boxes

I made a few changes to the recipe, adding chopped red pepper to the meat.  I make my own bread crumbs so used plain and added Italian Seasoning.  I increased the amount of the mozzarella to 1 1/2 cups because we like things really cheesy.  We also like things really saucy so next time I will use two jars of spaghetti sauce.

My hubby ate these for his dinner for the entire week, and I did not hear one complaint about them.  Definitely will be making them again.

One side note:  I had some meat mixture left over, so I refrigerated it and saved out a little spaghetti sauce.  The next day I spread the sauce on flat bread, topped it with the meat, some pepperoni slices and some mozzarella and had pizza for lunch.

Meat Filled Jumbo Shells
adapted from Join us, pull up a chair
24 or 25 jumbo pasta shells
1 lb. lean ground beef
1 lb. ground pork
1 t. Italian seasoning
1/4 t. oregano
1 t. salt
1/4 t. coarse ground pepper
3/4 c. finely chopped onion

1/2 c. finely chopped red pepper
1 c. plain dry bread crumbs
4 eggs, slightly beaten
1 1/2 c. mozzarella
1 to 2 jars (28 oz.) spaghetti sauce
1/2 to 1 cup shredded Parmesan cheese

Cook shells according to package directions.  Remove from water and cool in a single layer on waxed paper or foil.  In a large skillet, brown ground beef and pork.  Drain any excess grease.  Add Italian Seasoning, oregano, salt, pepper, onion and red pepper.  Stir well to blend and cook for about 5 minutes.  Remove skillet from heat and allow to cool slightly.  Stir in the bread crumbs until well mixed.  Add the eggs and mozzarella, mixing until well combined.  Spread a thin layer of spaghetti sauce on the bottom of a greased 9x13-inch baking dish.  Fill each pasta shell with about 2 tablespoons of the meat filling and place in the prepared pan.  Pour remaining spaghetti sauce over the shells.  Cover with foil and bake at 350 degrees for 45 minutes or until hot and bubbly.  Uncover and sprinkle with the shredded parmesan.  Return to oven until Parmesan melts.  Remove from oven and serve.  Makes 6 to 8 servings depending on how hungry your diners are.

This was very good and is certainly going in my rotation of stuffed jumbo shell recipes.

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