Italian night

I realize that last night was Fat Tuesday & I should have done something a little more topical, but I decided to make myself a belated birthday dinner from last week. My birthday was Friday, but we were so wrapped up in party preparation for my 4y/o (whose birthday was Wednesday) that my day flew by without even a mention.

Stuffed shells are a favorite around here, although normally too expensive for a co-op meal. The sale stars aligned this week with pasta sauce AND silken tofu both on sale this week, so I was able to get Muir Glen organic sauce for only $2.50 a jar, and boxes of silken tofu for only $1.29 each! Plus, I had about 12oz of baby spinach in my fridge leftover from making spinach quiche for the party.

The jumbo shells were stuffed with basil tofu ricotta, modified from Vegan With a Vengeance and mixed with steamed & chopped spinach. It took a little over 4 boxes of tofu to make enough shells for 4 families. The jarred sauce is poured over & topped with a sprinkle of nutritional yeast. I used 2.5 jars of sauce total.

The side dishes were polenta fries from Vegan Lunch Box and garlicky sauteed green beans, two more favorites for me!

I was hoping to make a dessert to round out my birthday meal, but I took a birthday nap instead! Ahhhhh.

The meal cost about $27.