This is our first reader submitted, family tested, recipe review for the recipe project! This great penny pinching recipe can be made in 30 minutes or less, it’s great when you want to feed a lot of people but are limited on time.  The recipe was easy to make, so a great start to our project.  I made this after baseball practice.  This recipe was submitted by Deb, who grew up enjoying this and now makes it for her family.  It’s become a long time family favorite.

• 1 box of Shells pasta
• 1 stick of butter
• 1 large container of cottage cheese
• 1 yellow onion

Dice the onion and brown it in butter
Cook the shells, drain
Add the onion mixture and cottage cheese
Mix it up, serve it, enjoy it!

So let’s get started! First step, normally would be grocery shopping, but I had all these ingredients handy in the pantry and fridge already. Another great advantage to this recipe, less than 5 items to buy!

Chop and brown the big yellow onion…no problem! As a side note, that is my “chop and serve” from my Ronco knife set and I love it! Makes chopping up anything easy! My grandpap bought us the knife set, and at first I teased him about buying knives off the television, but they are really great knives!

Boil some noodles…drain

Mix it all up!

Serve & eat!

Leftovers for lunch tomorrow!

Okay, so that was easy peasy to make, I put it together fast on a night that we were in a crazy hurry. Everyone reacted a little bit differently. I told them that my friend Deb recommended this recipe and I wanted everyone to try it (except Lucas, as will happen with any pasta dish! Lucas has texture issues and he really just can’t eat noodles. And I’m not just saying that because he won’t eat them, he literally can’t eat them, he gags, chokes, throws up, so no pasta dishes for him!) Anyhow…here are the final ratings for Shells & Cottage Cheese!

Brian loved it, and he was the lucky winner of the leftovers for his lunch the next day. He wasn’t sure at first because he’s not a cottage cheese fan, but he sprinkled a quick dash of parmesan on top and was totally happy with it.

I enjoyed it a lot too! I am guilty of dashing a little salt on top of mine. It reminded me a lot of when I was younger and I used to eat butter noodles all the time, only this had more flavor.

Dylan was neutral on this one. He ate his whole bowl, followed it up with a small salad. I asked him what he though, and all I got out of him was “it was okay,” Not something he’ll be requesting I don’t think.

Lucas had PB&J ~ no noodles for Lucas!

Noah didn’t like it, but he ate about half his bowl before saying so. Which surprised me. He usually likes pasta dishes, I think it was the cottage cheese that he didn’t like. I did notice him making the scrunchy nose face, but he seemed to determine to try it. I guess it’s a taste that’s just not for everyone.

Ethan had one spoonful, and made a PB&J, he said “white spaghetti is just wrong, mom!”

That makes it a tie! Even with Lucas not participating, Deb’s Shells & Cottage cheese dish scored two thumbs up, two thumbs down and one neutral vote from our dinner table. What’s your vote?! Leave us a comment and let us know how you and your family enjoyed this dish as well.

And we’ve got a handy dandy printable recipe card for you to print out and file away.
>>Click here to download, save, and print the Shells & Cottage Cheese recipe card<<
Recipe cards are standard 4x6 size. You can print on paper or card stock and cut them out, or you can do like I do and buy a pack of 100 unlined index cards for $1 and print right on those *wink* (and if you can't find the unlined just print on the backside of the lined ones!)

Don't forget to submit your recipe to project and have it featured and reviewed. Remember when I use your recipe here on the blog I send you a thank gift, and we'll be having drawings and contests using the submissions for bigger prizes too!

technorati tags: recipe, recipes, cooking, cook, cottage cheese, pasta, shells, pasta shells, pasta dinner, penny pincher recipe, low cost recipes

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