"Shared Food Has No Calories"...

My husband absolutely LOVES Italian food! He could eat spaghetti and meatballs every.single.day and be in heaven:-) Me, not so much. It's not that I do not like pasta with tons of cheese and sauce, it is that I know that I will instantly gain 5 pounds if I do not work out even MORE after eating it that makes it less desirable for me. 

That being said, I do not cook Italian foods that often. Truth be told, my husband makes a killer lasagna! So, when I do break from our healthy eating trend and make something special--I go all out! You have been warned. This is NOT normally on our menu and won't be again for a very long time, but boy is it DELICIOUS!!!!

****If you are on a diet....don't look....trust me, you will kick yourself for even peaking. You will dream about this dinner. I know, I am getting hungry just thinking of it:)****

This was my very first attempt at stuffed shells. I think they turned out pretty well. Hubby says  "I out-did myself on this one!" That's a pretty good review, I'd say.

 It really was pretty simple. I used some ricotta as well as cottage cheese, spinach, ground turkey, onions, eggs and grated parmesan and shredded mozzarella cheeses for the filling. Oh, and extra cheese and sauce on top:-) I told you it is not the diet version, lol. 

As you can see, I used a ziploc baggie to pipe the filling into the shells. One additional tip I would offer is to cook the shells about 2 1/2 to 3 minutes LESS than what the box calls for and shock them in cold water. This way they stay firm for filling and get fulling baked in the oven.

Now, for the BEST part of the meal. Oh, my!! I cannot even begin to tell you how amazing this CHEESEY garlic bread is! Maybe because I haven't had anything but whole wheat bread in so long, but it is truly amazing! Sinfully good. I found the idea on a blog by a woman who is a true inspiration to my heart. You can find it here. I started with it and tweaked it a bit to suit our family. I added some garlic to the cheese and also italian seasoning in the cheese and on top of the bread. It was AMAAAAYZING!!

Elle did a wonderful job helping me. She had so much fun stuffing the cheese into the bread!

 Did I mention it was CHEESEY!??

 See what I mean??? Oh, it is divine!!

A MUST-TRY recipe!!

 Of course, we had to have our fruits and veggies first. Elle did some fraction work while de-seeding the cucumbers for salad:)

 When Em finally woke up from her nap, she was happy to join us in the kitchen!

Everyone LOVED it!!

And, now to explain the title of this post. I heard long ago that "shared food has no calories" and it is certainly true! I am known for feeding friends and family and giving away tons of food to our neighbors. So, I made an extra batch of stuffed shells and baked some banana bread to go along with it and blessed our elderly neighbors with it---they LOVED it, too:) {Even though I think I heard my husband's heart break just a tiny bit as he was walking it over to their house, LOL. He wanted to keep it all in the house for him us to eat, LOL!}

Now, back to my carrot sticks...:-)