Mexican Stuffed Shells

I have pasta with almost all of my meals. It's kinda ridiculous. But it's easy and it goes with pretty much everything! I also love mexican food. I think it's actually the cheese and sour cream, they are some of my favorite things in this world, and I would eat them with every meal if I could, but I digress.
I found this recipe on a wonderful little site called Pinterest. Since I love mexican food and pasta I was quite excited to find them combined. I did have doubts on whether or not they would mix well together, but it was on the internet so it had to work, right? Well as I looked through the recipe I had another thing jump out at me. Cream cheese?!? I love cream cheese! ...but with taco meat? What? Yeah I know it sounds kinda sketchy, but somewhere in the back of my mind I just knew this was going to be a good one. Lucky for me it was. I was so excited to go to work just so I could take this yummy creation with me!

Mexican Stuffed Shells

Ingredients:
1 lb. ground beef
1 package low-sodium taco seasoning
4 oz. cream cheese
14-16 jumbo pasta shells
1.5 cup salsa
1 cup taco sauce (or enchilada sauce will work)
1 cup cheddar cheese
1 cup monterey jack cheese
3 green onions
Sour cream
Black Olives

Preheat oven to 350°.

In a frying pan cook ground beef; add taco seasoning and prepare according to package directions. Add cream cheese, cover and simmer until cheese is melted. Blend well. Set aside and cool completely (if you don't you will be touching really hot food). 

While ground beef is cooking, cook the pasta shells according to directions; drain. run over them with cool water this will stop them from cooking and they won't stick to each other as much.

Pour salsa on bottom of 9×13 baking dish. Stuff each shell with the meat mixture. About 1.5 spoonfuls. Place shells in 9×13 pan open side up. Cover shells with taco sauce and cheese. Cover with foil and bake for 30 minutes. After 30 minutes, remove foil and bake for another 5-10 more minutes.

Top with any condiments you’d like (green onions, black olives, etc.) Serve with sour cream and/or more salsa.

In total this should take about an hour to make. That includes prep, cooling, and baking time.

Microwave score: 4.5-heats up great, and everything is still yummy, just like it is right out of the oven. I would make sure to reheat it where everything its spread out (don't put a glob on a plate), otherwise the inside will stay cold. Yuck!
Freezer score: 5-I created some extra and put them in a pan and then froze them. Then I let them thaw out some and put it in the oven for about 30 mins (don't put a really cold glass dish in a really hot oven, could crack glass). Might need to be in longer if the shells and meat are still frozen all of the way through. It tasted just as good!
Overall Score: 5-It seemed like the good thing about this recipe was...everything!

Larissa's critique: All in all, I LOVED this recipe. It wasn't too complicated, was really easy to make, and was super yummy. My husband DEVOURED it and said I had to make it again...which is kind of a huge deal. I completely agree with the overall score of 5, there really wasn't any down sides to this dish!