A favourite recipe

So I actually got off my arse and did a few things today, wandered around a shopping centre for 3 hours (including a 15 minute coffee break), I got all the presents I need for Christmas and my trip and also got a couple of crochet shrugs which I've been searching for. I finally got snail pellets for my poor little tomatoes and herbs, I did a load of washing, and have just cooked a a dish of ricotta and spinach cannelloni so I can store it in the freezer in portions to have on Thursday after training. I've been buying quite a few lean cuisines lately and not only is it expensive the one I like is more than 400 calories and it's not like you feel really full after any of those meals anyway, well I don't and also it's not exactly a whole food experience is it?

So I thought I would share this recipe as it's one of my favourite pasta meals that is really satisfying and really low in fat. Plus I have used so many recipes and food ideas from manny of you health bloggers out there so it's time to give another little bit back

I got the recipe from the Australian Women's Weekly Best of Vegetarian Food except I changed it from the thick enormous shells they use to the much thinner cannelloni.

Ricotta and Spinach (pasta shells) Cannelloni

Make a tomato sauce, an onion finely diced, garlic, sauteed, herbs, 2 tins tomatoes, few spoons tomato paste simmer for a while. add salt and pepper and I always throw in a pinch of sugar too. Once it's all cooked together add 1 cup vegetable stock

In a bowl mix 500g cottage cheese, 250g ricotta (both low fat) and 500g spinach (I always use frozen and drain it really well and squeeze as much water as you can out)

Fill a zip lock bag with the spinach mixture, cut a corner off and pipe into the cannelloni tubes (It takes 1 1/2 packets) This is a fine art and it's a case of practise makes perfect via lots of mess. Once they're all full, nestle them all together in a lasagne dishand pour over the tomato sauce. If you're like me and you find you haven't really efficiently laid your canneloni tubes out and there are lots of pieces sticking out of the top you might have to throw an extra tin of crushed tomatoes over the top, oops!

Sprinkle with grated parmesan (not the powdered stuff), I used a 25g single serve pack and put in a moderate oven for an hour. I have no idea what a moderate oven is, I guessed 180C and it's always worked for me and I check it at 55 mins. When it's done it should be bubbling round the eges and the cheese starts going golden. If the cheese doesn't brown up you can always pop it under the grill for a few minutes.

Pre-oven!

Now the recipe says it serves 4 which is odd as when I use the cannelloni tubes I can get at least 9 serves out of it.

I had all the best intentions of typing that out nicely but you get the idea.

This weekend could have been a disaster, but I feel as though Friday never happened. I'm pleased that it wasn't even an effort not to binge again once I threw that sodden piece of toast in the bin on Friday night. A victory.