I love making pasta dishes and these are a couple of my favourite shells to make. One is lasagna stuffed shells, and the other is crab-spinach shells. I made these tonight for my daughter, her boyfriend and me.

Preheat oven to 375 F degrees. Cook large shells until just al dente, drain and rinse with cold water.

Cheese filling

1 onion, chopped
3 cloves garlic, mashed
mushrooms (as many as you like), chopped into chunks
Butter and olive oil
Ricotta cheese (1 500-ml container)
Cheese (I use mozzarella and cheddar mix), 1 cup shredded

Saute the onion with the butter and olive oil, once nicely browned, add garlic and mushrooms. Cook just until the mushrooms are browned. Put in a big bowl. Add the ricotta cheese and shredded and cheese and mix together until the cheese has melted. Set aside.

For the lasagna shells, brown 1/2 pound ground beef in frying pan after you have cooked the onion mix. Put half the cheese mixure in a bowl and stir in the ground beef.

For the crab meat and spinach mix, take one package of frozen imitation crab meat (run under warm water to loosen it up) and shred the crab meat into a bowl. Add the remaining cheese mixture and stir together. Saute the spinach for about 2 minutes in the frying pan, then stir in with the crab and cheese.

Have two pans ready for the shells. Layer the bottom of each pan with some spaghettie sauce (I use a marina or a can of spaghetti sauce- the choice is yours). Stuff the shells with the two mixtures and place in the pans, using your hands or a spoon. Once all are stuffed, drizzle more sauce over them all, just enough to keep them moist. Bake for 20 minutes. Serve with a caesar salad and you have a delicious meal!