Jill Can Cook: Philly Cheesesteak Stuffed Shells

This year marks the second year in a row that my parents put on a Valentine's Day party (granted, a week after the fact, to ensure more people could make it). I love having an excuse to see everyone between the other major holidays this time of year: New Years and Easter. Any excuse to hang out with family, catch up on our busy lives, and eat a ridiculous amount of yummy food is worthwhile in my book. It's also fun to have an excuse to dress up and take pictures with everyone (more on that later!)

Where was I? Oh yeah, second year. Blah blah blah.. Last year, the party theme was "Italian Food" and I brought stuffed shells. I even wrote about it here: Parmesan Chicken Pesto Stuffed Shells.

This year, the party theme was also "Italian Food." I was again on the hook to make stuffed shells. I couldn't make the same shells though. That would've been throwing away the opportunity to make stuffed shells for the second time of my life.

I checked out some recipes and unfortunately, most of them require red sauce of some sort. That would be fine in any other situation, but my mom was already planning to serve spaghetti/meatballs and lasagna. I didn't want everyone to be in red sauce overload. I also didn't want to make anything that veered away from the Italian element, like making Taco Stuffed shells, of which there are a lot of recipes! After much searching, I came across Philly Cheesesteak Stuffed Shells. Let me show you how that panned out!

Philly Cheesesteak Stuffed Shells

Adapted from: Like Mother Like Daughter

Ingredients

• 1 pound ground beef
• ⅓ cup diced yellow onion
• ⅓ cup diced green bell pepper
• ⅓ cup diced mushrooms
• 4 oz cream cheese
• 12oz jumbo pasta shells
• 2 cups alfredo sauce
• 1½ cups shredded mozzarella cheese

Directions:

1. Preheat your oven to 350 degrees.
2. Bring a large pot of water to boil.
3. Boil your pasta shells for about 10 minutes, or until cooked al dente. Rinse shells when they're done cooking.
4. Meanwhile, in a large saute pan cook up your ground beef, onion, pepper and mushroom until the beef is cooked thoroughly. Drain the excess grease from the pan.
5. In a large mixing bowl, combine your beef mixture and your cream cheese until its mixed thoroughly.
6. Pour about ⅓ of your alfredo sauce on the bottom of a 9x13 in pan and spread around.
7. Fill each of your shells with a heaping tablespoon of your meat mixture and place into your pan.
8. Repeat until all shells, or the meat mixture is gone.
9. Pour the remaining alfredo sauce over the top of your shells.
10. Wrap pan in foil and bake for 30 minutes.
11. Remove foil and top with cheese.
12. Return to oven and bake for an additional 15 minutes until the cheese is melted and bubbly.

I had a lot going on in order to get ready for the party, so Joe was kind enough to help with a few of the steps. 

I gathered all the ingredients, boiled the water and started cooking the noodles. Then I cut up the onions and peppers:

I probably could've chopped the green peppers a little smaller, but oh well.

I kept going back and forth between putting the onions/green peppers in or leaving them out. On the one hand, the flavors go together like Jenny and Forest (... you know ,because they were like "peas and carrots" ?? Weird reference? I don't know. Ending this parenthetical thought now.. Sorry). On the other hand, not everyone, including ME enjoys those flavors. Joe talked me to into putting them in. He was of the mindset that most people would prefer them in and since he was helping me (and I really wanted his help!!) I put them in.

Look at that handsome man, cooking up the steak for me!! That's love right there, my friends!

The noodles boiling. I finally took a ton of pictures and they're boring as boring can be!

Oh look! The noodles are done.

Joe frying up the veg. Are you guys asleep yet? I'm even boring myself.

Ok, everything is cooked. I love these kinds of recipes for parties. I love that pretty much everything is cooked, so when I get to the party all I have to do is heat it up. Easy. Plus, no one dies of food poisoning or anything, which is good because I only cook for people I want to live.

The mix of steak, cheese, and veggies for the stuffing.

The sauce layer on the bottom of the pan.

Two things.. 

1. I effin' love this pan. Joe's grandmother got it for me a few years ago for Christmas and if you haven't noticed, I use it all the time especially for parties. It's the perfect pan because it has a hard cover that is great for transporting and stacking.
2. I'd never tried this sauce that I'm using before so I'm going really easy on it in case it's terrible.

Anyway, now that the sauce is lightly coating the bottom of the pan, it's time to fill the shells and place them nicely in the pan to be reheated.

Pre-stuffing the shells..

Post stuffing the shells.

After I poured a very small amount of sauce over the top.

Extreme close up!!!

So, as with most of the recipes that I make for parties, I forgot to snap a pic of the finished product. This last picture is what they looked like before I threw them in the oven for half the cooking time. Later, I put them back in my parents oven to reheat, considering everything was precooked anyway. They looked pretty much the same way when they were ready to eat.

There was a lot of food to eat at this party (like every party at my parents house!), but I still managed to find room on my slightly overfilled plate in order to try them. I was pleasantly surprised that I liked it! I mean, I pretty much hate onions and green peppers (love 'em raw, hate 'em cooked). Am I finally an adult now?! Do I no longer hate these food items? Am I no longer, as I like to refer to myself: "Picky as crap!?" Did I somehow manage to grow some tastebuds?! I'm not really sure, but whatever happened to me, I hope it keeps happening. I like not needing a detailed list of ingredients in my food before I'll try it.

Another picture to break up all these paragraphs. This makes my lazy blog look more professional.

I enjoyed my shells and I think a couple of other partygoers enjoyed it as well, but at the end of the meal, it looked like there was a lot of shell leftovers. Was it because they sucked? Was it because there was a lot of other food to fill up on? I'm not quite sure and I didn't think it would be considered good manners to go around asking people if they liked my food.

I still feel like this was a win and I'd make it again. I guess my only complaint (or "PSA" or whatever) would be that these did end up being pretty rich. I think they were delicious along with a ton of other items, but I don't think I'd serve these for a dinner at home, where they're the only food option. Well, I guess if you only served 2-3 per person, plus a ton of salad and some garlic bread. I guess that could work.

I take it back. I guess I would serve it at home for dinner, just Joe/the kids/myself.

Also, here are some more pics from the party as promised...

Father and son love moments on Valentine's Day.

My parents and I. And yes, my 3 inch heels make me taller than my father, who is normally only 1 inch taller than me.

Getting our dancing on!! We also made like 2 dozen "Musical.ly" videos that night. We are total dorks.

And now you know a few things about me:

1. I wear black shorts underneath my dresses for modesty. I try to be ladylike, but I like the insurance.
2. I love heels, but after standing around for several hours for the party, I changed into some sparkly flats at the end of the evening.
3.  All who see me are jealous of my awesome dancing abilities. I think Channing Tatum should play me if there's ever a movie made about my life.
4. My family can't really be all that embarassed considering they're in the throes of dancing alongside me.

And that's it for my Valentine's recipes. I'm glad I was able to post this before Valentine's day 2017 (-;