The first time I ate this dish, I wasn’t even done my first bite before I was scribbling down the recipe and asking clarifying questions with my mouth full of cheese and tomatoes.
The first time I served this dish, my apartment smelled like heaven, my guest was floored/impressed/hungry, and we drank white wine, ate raspberry crumble and watched Glee until the cows came home.
This is my friend Shosh’s delicious, simple, indulgent recipe. Thanks Shosh! :)
Oh stuffed shells, how much do I love you? Let me count the ways.
You are easy peasy.
You impress people with little-to-no effort made on my part.
You smell heavenly.
You contain four types of cheese: mozzarella, cheddar, goat and cottage.
You are absolutely positively one of the most delicious things I have ever consumed.
So if I have convinced you that this food must be put into your gullet at the earliest possible convenience, READ ON young foodies and be amazed, astonished, delighted, full.
Preheat that oven to 350!!
Ingredients:
Jumbo pasta shells
2 Cans of diced tomatoes
3 cloves minced garlic
1 tbsp basil
1 package of goat’s cheese
2 cups cottage cheese
1 1/2 cups grated cheddar
1 1/2 cups grated mozzarella
2 eggs
Salt & peppa!
For the sauce:
Combine the tomatoes, garlic, basil and goat cheese in a large saucepan. Stir together on medium heat until the cheese is melted and the sauce is a even consistency. Season with salt & pepper to taste.
For the shells:
Cook the shells like you would any other pasta – in boiling water with a bit of salt. I used an 8×8 glass baking dish, and I was able to squeeze in about 25 shells. Depending on the size of your dish you may want to cook more or less shells. Once they’re cooked, let them cool while you prepare the filling. Combine the grated cheese, cottage cheese and eggs (beaten). Put 1/2 the sauce on the bottom of the dish. Stuff the shells with the cheese mixture, and place them in the pan. Add the rest of the sauce on top. Cover with tinfoil and bake at 350 for about an hour.
And voila! Delicious, easy, impressive. Serve it to your friends and listen to them gush over your food. Experience a slight ego boost. :)
So. You had a long, luxurious break spent gorging yourself on food, friends and free time. You wasted away the days sleeping in, watching movies and making sandwiches, leaving the mess for someone else to clean up. You had a wonderful, lazy, ridiculous few weeks off.
..Unfortunately, all good things come to an end, and school has presented itself as an inevitability that you are suddenly dreading with every fiber of your being. You have begun your goodbyes: “Goodbye, social life! Sayonara free time! Adios fun!” and begun your hellos: “Hello boring academic reading! Bonjour exhaustion! Ola junk food!”. Suffice to say you’re probably not feeling great about the coming semester. Visions of sugarplums summer vacation are dancing in your head.
Never fear! Your guide to beating the blahs is here!
1. Make it easier for yourself
Photo thanks to cfetcher
Get organized! Pick up some colourful binders, label them and keep your notes filed away where you can easily find them. If possible, take an interesting, easy course. Re-arrange your schedule so that it fits your life: for example, eliminate early classes. Stock your freezer with quick, easy meals like perogies, lasagna, edamame, pizza, burgers, bagels, frozen dinners, etc. Make it easy for you to eat whole, balanced meals instead of skipping them or ordering food (expensive!). Stock up on essentials like toilet paper, paper towels, kleenex, toothpaste, etc, so that you don’t have to always be running to the store for more.
Anything that you can do now, up front, to make it easier for yourself in the long run, I encourage you to do! That way, later on, when you’re running out of energy, time, and any essentials, you’ll be grateful to yourself for having cleared away some of the muck and creating a slightly easier existence.
2. Inject fun into your routine
Photo thanks to mlr
Brighten your note-taking with colourful pens and/or paper. Schedule a study/textbook reading/cooking gourmet food date with a friend once a week. Make time for your personal special activities: turn the computer off one hour earlier and spend the time reading, writing, drawing, dreaming. Take the scenic route to class. Create elaborate meals whenever you have time. Dress up for school. Take a bubble bath instead of a shower. Watch part of a movie every time you finish a reading/assignment. Reward yourself for doing annoying tasks (laundry, dishes, toilet-cleaning?) with candy, a magazine, a new eye shadow, etc. Resolve to wind down with a glass of wine once or twice a week. Listen to music while you’re getting ready in the morning.
I know people who say they just don’t have any time for fun. That’s nonsense! As long as you make a small effort in your day to stop and smell the roses & appreciate the little things, you’ll be happy at the end of every day, rather than burnt out and depressed.
3. Fix what’s broken
Photo thanks to daviddoctorrose
Replace that old towel that never dries you off properly. Buy a shoe rack so that it’s easier to find and organize your shoes. Write yourself a reminder to water the plants, take out the garbage, etc, etc. Pick your clothes up off the floor. Move that table that you keep running into. Re-organize your kitchen cabinets so it’s easier to reach the things you use most often. Hang up that picture that’s been leaning against the wall since March. Buy a timer for the oven so that you stop burning things. Re-arrange the furniture so that you feel more zen. Get to class earlier so you don’t get a bad seat.
By ‘broken’ I mean not working. Take a good look at your life, your home, your daily routine, and hone in on the things that annoy you every day. There are most likely several things that bug you on a daily, weekly or occasional basis that only require a few minutes of effort to change. In order to have a successful semester, try tweaking a few things in your life to keep you running smoothly and happily throughout the school year.
4. Make your space beautiful
Photo thanks to missvu
Buy new linens for your bed and make it a cozy, nest-y haven. Keep photos of friends and family around all the time. Clear the clutter off your desk or workspace. Cover the walls with magazine cutouts, photos, murals, collages, artwork. Keep all your favourite things in plain sight. Colour-code your bookshelves. Paint the walls your favourite colours. Hang up a blackboard and write inspirational quotes on it in colourful chalk. Buy scented candles. Have living things: pets, plants, flowers. Always have soft music playing.
Make your house a home, a place where you love to be. Make your bed just for sleeping so that when you cozy down into your fluffy duvet, it feels luxurious and comfy. Light candles, play music, keep beautiful things all around you. When exams roll around, it will be nice to have a special, comfortable place that relaxes and calms you.
5. Cut back on time-wasters
Photo thanks to balakov
One of the things I’ve never understood are people who complain and complain about how exhausted, burnt out and stressed they are, who complain about having absolutely no free time, and who spend several hours a day on facebook. Huh? I don’t get it. Unless your desired use of what little free time you have is to creep people on the internet, than this whole statement doesn’t make sense. The sad part is, I know people who say that no, they have no free time and no, time spent on facebook doesn’t count as free time. Wait, what? So they’d rather be doing activities that they actually enjoy, like reading a novel, riding their bike, hanging out with friends? And they can’t do those things because they don’t have time? But they have time to log into facebook for hours at a time? Confusing.
I’m not exactly a saint on the social media front, and I have logged a good chunk of time on facebook, but I would never claim that I had no time for activities I enjoy. I simply chose to spent that free time online instead of engaged in interesting activities. One of my resolutions for the new year is to cut down on time wasters. Force yourself off of facebook, off of twitter, off your blog reader, stop watching tv shows you don’t even enjoy, quit checking your email 340 times a day, and focus. Force yourself to find other ways to spend that time. Force yourself to do a more mindful activity. It won’t be easy, since your brain would initially prefer to be on autopilot skimming through pictures of that weird kid from high school’s family reunion, but your soul will thank you in the end. Pump up the creativity!
And Breathe Deep!
Find joy in the little things. Always plan so that you have something to look forward to. Put in the work every day so you don’t have to cram at the very end. Spend some time every day re-centering yourself, relaxing, and breathing deep. Work hard, play hard, focus in class (my very best advice to myself, it’s the single best way to spend less time reviewing at the end of the course), don’t procrastinate. Make time for the special things. Get enough sleep and good food. Don’t burn yourself out. Smile.
Okay, so now that I’ve tackled gifts for the men and for the women in your life that you can purchase, how about a few ideas of what you could potentially make them yourself?
Creating a gift yourself is a totally a win-win situation. You will feel very accomplished and fulfilled, and they will LOVE it because you put in the three key ingredients: time, effort and love. That is the recipe for successful gift-giving.
I know what you’re thinking though: “I suck at DIY. I am the least crafty person in the whole world. It’s too much work. I don’t wanna!”
Hush, child. It will be fine, alright? I’ll take you through this, step by step!
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1. Framed Photos
Photo thanks to room2593
While not exactly DIY, giving a gift of a photo in a beautiful frame definitely reflects thought and effort. People are always looking for unique, pretty things to put around their homes as reminders of people who love them! So here’s your chance to contribute, I promise your present won’t be in vain.
Here’s what you do:
+ Find a beautiful photo, either online (try here, here and here) or of your own creation
+ Look for one that would be special to the person: either a photo of them, their family, or just a beautiful landscape or image of something they really love.
+ Get your hands on a frame! Idea: see if you can find one at Goodwill or a thrift store and spray paint it a pretty colour. Fun fun fun.
And there you have it. A lovely reminder of you and your love!
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2. Baked Goods
Photo thanks to booleansplit
One of my favourite gift options for the holidays is baked goodies. Cheap, easy, adorable, thoughtful, it’s the perfect gift! Plus, there are so many fun and creative ways to package your treats.
+ My top picks? Cookies of any variety, cupcakes, squares, holiday-themed bark (try candy cane, maple, white chocolate & cranberries..the list goes on!), if you’re ambitious – or you only have a few gifts to give – pie, cakes, pumpkin breads, biscotti, chocolates (truffles, brownies, mmm)! Am I making you hungry yet? Good, that means your giftee will be just as amazed and delighted by your present.
+ Wrap them up in cute ways! Find an old tin with a cute pattern on it, line it with wax paper and fill with goodies. Or get a pretty plate and stack it high, then wrap the whole thing with cellophane and a pretty bow. Or how about buying a pretty purse or bag or cute little Christmas stocking and stuffing it full of treats?
You do that, and visions of sugar plums will be dancing in their heads.
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3. Do-it-Themselves Baked Goods!
Photo thanks to photoann
Another fun and easy idea is to create a cute little package for someone to make themselves their own treats on a cold winter’s night. Even if they are self-professed non-bakers, they will definitely be grateful if you package up all the ingredients for them and include a short recipe. :) Here are some ideas:
+ Get a cute mug, and fill it with the ingredients for Microwave Chocolate Cake. Attach a little hand-written card listing the steps in how to make it!
+ Package together a gourmet hot chocolate mix, complete with an adorable cup and plenty of mini marshmellows
+ Fill a mason jar in layers with the ingredients for a yummy cookie (sugars, flours, chocolate chips, extras) and affix the recipe to the side. Try this adorable recipe from Bakerella!
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4. A Token of Your Talents
Photo thanks to ummella
What’s something you’re really good at? Don’t say you’re not good at anything. I know you are. Why not use that special talent to create something special for everyone on your list?
If you’re an artist (even an amateur!), draw/paint/sketch/pastel/sculpt.
If you enjoy taking pictures, see #1.
If you’re a writer, dream up a short story (or a long one), get it printed (try here) and gift it.
If you like to knit, create some fluffy mittens or a scarf.
If you’re a musician, record some holiday music on your computer or online!
..You get the point, right? The point is: no matter what you’re good at, and no matter what you think of the finished product or its caliber, the receiver of these gifts will be astonished. They will cherish them forever, because they came straight from the heart, wrapped up in love. :)
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5. Bath Products
Photo thanks to cyron
Again, don’t freak out about how DIY this sounds. It doesn’t have to be super complicated or stressful! Here are a few recipes to make some delectable lotions and potions for everyone on your list:
Bath bombs (so expensive at Lush, so cheap DIY – I read that citric acid = lemon juice for our purposes)
Bath salts (mmm, I want to add peppermint oil to mine!)
Check out tons more great ideas for slightly more complicated recipes here :)
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And you’re done!
See! That wasn’t too scary, now was it? Just think how nice it would feel to gift something straight from your heart, made with your own two hands. I’d say that’d be living the true spirit of the holidays. :) Hope you were inspired!
Any other ideas for DIY gifts? I’d love to hear them!
As promised, I am back with my gift ideas for any woman in your life: sister, friend, Mom, girlfriend. I’ve tried to include something for any type of girl: I have quite the eclectic group of women surrounding me!
Of course, everyone is unique. I chose each of these gifts with a different special lady in mind, and I’m certainly not suggesting that you throw a lot of glitter and pink on whoever identifies as a female and call it Christmas! Think about who the person is first, and choose something to fit them and their interests. For example, one of my best friends would be on the moon if I bought her a steamy romance novel, a Star Trek box set, a t-shirt with a funny saying on it, and some imported beer. Everyone is special! Make sure their gift is special too.
Let me know what you’re pondering for your special women this season!
