I made a GREAT Sunday night casserole this week, and it’ll make for several fantastic leftover meals during the week.
Two weeks in a row now of Sunday night casseroles, and I’ve got no complaints.
I forget how easy stuffed pasta really can be, but it feels so special. This meal came together pretty quickly, too! A little long if it were a weeknight, but I think there’s something very old school and satisfying about a nicer and more time-consuming Sunday night dinner, even though this one was just for little ol’ me. 🙂
For the ricotta, I used this recipe from Sunday Morning Banana Pancakes, which I absolutely swear by. Each time I’ve made it, I’ve been lowering just a teeny bit the amount of tofu I use (mostly because the tofu I used the first time tastes the best and I should really go out of my way to buy just that tofu), and I’m pretty happy with the results. This time I used a LOT of lemon juice and love that bright lemony note.
serves 5
9 manicotti shells (or however many fit in your favorite casserole dish…)
1 T avocado oil
1 small onion, finely chopped
1 C cremini mushrooms, chopped
1 C shiitake mushrooms, chopped
2 C spinach
1 1/2 C ricotta recipe
1 jar store bought marinara sauce
6 slices Daiya provolone (you can top with whatever your favorite vegan cheese is, or just sprinkle some nutritional yeast and panko breadcrumbs on top for a parmesan-type crispy crust)
Preheat oven to 350 degrees.
Boil water to cook your manicotti. Before adding the manicotti, drizzle a little oil in the water – it will help prevent your big pasta from sticking together (and then tearing when you have to separate them!)
Meanwhile, heat a large skillet over medium heat. Add the oil, and sauté the mushrooms and onion until soft. Add the spinach and cook until wilty. Mix them in a bowl with the ricotta.
When your pasta is cooked, gently remove them and place them either on a cooking sprayed plate and make sure they don’t touch each other (you don’t want them sticking together.) I found it worked really well to put them back in the little slots of the plastic container they came in. Allow to cool a few minutes until you can handle them.
Pour some marinara into the casserole dish to thoroughly cover the bottom of the dish. With a small dinner spoon, carefully fill the manicotti with your ricotta and veggie filling and line them up in the dish. When you’re done, cover the top with the rest of the marinara, top with cheese, and throw it in the oven for about 30 minutes. I put the broiler on for 2 minutes at the end to brown the cheese.
Gooey, warm, cheesy manicotti for dinner! This was an awesome Sunday night dinner, but I swear it is almost twice as good leftover. I’m getting plenty of meals out of this one! Two dinners and a lunch so far! Love an easy meal 🙂
You can switch up the filling as much as you’d like. Sautéed onions, mushrooms, and spinach are exactly my style, though a Field Roast sausage would have been pretty awesome, too. Maybe some lentils, fresh spring veggies, cannellini beans? Mmmmm!
Nutrition facts per serving (this one’s just my best guess since I altered the ricotta recipe a bit and didn’t measure how much I used…): Calories: 361; Calories from Fat: 129; Total Fat: 14.3g; Saturated Fat: 3.7g; Sodium: 127mg; Total Carbohydrates: 43.0g; Dietary Fiber: 7.6g; Sugars: 2.6g; Protein: 17.5g
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