Spinach Stuffed Pasta Shells with Mushroom White Sauce ~ Meatless Monday

It's been really busy around here for the last week or so.  We've been having new flooring installed in half of the downstairs...the half with the kitchen, dining room, laundry, entry hall and 1/2 bath.  There were problems (lots) at the beginning, but eventually the new replacement contractors got it handled, and it all turned out OK.  Needless to say, since my kitchen was torn up and the stove was parked in my garage for most of last week, not a lot of cooking (nor blogging) has been done around here as of late.  But, that's OK, for I love my new floors and will post before/after pics soon.  (but, I'm just so excited to share how pretty my new floors look...here is a sneak peak of my new pride and joy)

After the last week, our stress level is now back in the normal range and we have been having a nice weekend. Sunday we were getting a handle on putting things back and I started to think about cooking again.  So, for dinner last night I was trying to use up odds-and-ends and came up with this Spinach Stuffed Pasta Shells with Mushroom White Sauce.  It became a creative mix-and-match (heavy on the canned/frozen items) and I was happy with the result.  For the stuffed pasta shells ~ Since I haven't been grocery shopping for a while, I relied on frozen spinach, some leftover fat free cottage cheese and some dried Italian herbs to stuff the already-cooked jumbo pasta shells (from a 1/2 full box I found when emptying the pantry so they could put the flooring in).  I then added some canned fire roasted tomatoes over the top, along with some frozen Trader Joe's tri-colored bell peppers.  For the sauce ~ I was all out of Alfredo and spaghetti sauce, so I used a can of condensed low fat cream of mushroom soup.  I added just a little water and then pureed it with a 1/2 can of drained canned Navy beans (to up the protein count) and poured my 'white sauce' all over the stuffed shells.  I sprinkled on a bit more Italian herbs, some shredded cheese and baked it semi-covered at 400 degrees for 30 minutes. 

Our neighbors (Bill & Cheryl) were hanging out with Roy on our front porch at the same time I was getting dinner ready, so they were able to stay for a very casual dinner, dining al fresco on the porch.  Our meal was a concoction, to be sure, but with a side salad and a quick brownie dessert, it was a nice way to end our Sunday.  As we were eating, I decided this would have made a good Meatless Monday meal.  Who says you have to plan them?  Sometimes you can just scrounge around your kitchen and make a meal happen. So what if our Meatless Monday happened to be on Sunday this week ~ that's OK by me!   :)    It's finally starting to feel like spring around here and it was so nice to be able to enjoy good friends, good weather and share good meatless eats!  Hope the weather where you're at is just as nice.