Bolognese Papparedelle and minestrone! :blushing:

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Abby's cake, all done! Thank goodness. It made me a nervous wreck. It's only my second fondant cake. I'm just so happy it's over!

Ok, I know a lot of you will find the calories high on this, but you can use chicken breast or shrimp instead of thighs or omit the meat entirely. This to me is not a terrible calorie count for dinner and I find that only 3 shells is actually enough for me, so I usually get a few less calories and throw in a salad. You can play with the seasonings, but this is the mix we liked. We used Newman's Own Marinara.

Chicken and Spinach Stuffed Shells
Serves 6, serving is 4 shells with 1/3 C. sauce
Calories: 462

Cooking spray
2 C. marinara, divided
1 lb. boneless, skinless chicken thighs, cooked and chopped
1 C. part skim ricotta cheese
1 1/2 C. plain 2% Greek yogurt
1/2 C. shredded Parmesan cheese
1/2 tsp. onion powder
1/2 tsp. dried oregano
1 tsp. garlic powder
2 Tbsp. Mrs. Dash Garlic and Herb seasoning
1/4 tsp. salt
1/2 tsp. cayenne pepper
1/4 tsp. black pepper
5 ounces fresh baby spinach, chopped small
1 large egg yolk
24 cooked jumbo pasta shells, drained

Spray a 13 x 9 pan with cooking spray. Spread 1/2 C. of marinara over the bottom of the pan. Mix the filling ingredients (chicken through egg yolk) in a bowl. Fill each shell with filling and place in pan (about 2 Tbsp per shell). Pour remaining marinara over the top and spread it around. Cover the pan with foil and bake at 350 for 30 minutes.

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Root Beer Can Chicken from Cooking Light. This is supposed to be made on the grill, which I think would be amazing, but I had to make it in the oven due to rain and the little man running around. I did make changes. I added some smoked paprika and doubled the spice rub mixture (it was super good--plan to make a good bit of it up and use it on other meats for grilling this summer). The root beer part was good, but you really didn't taste root beer flavor, just sweet. I think this would work equally well with Coke or Dr. Pepper. I plan to try it again with some of the sweetie's all natural cola (cane sugar) or with some of the Zevia Ginger Root Beer. Ginger would be a good addition to these flavors.

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I finally got around to making the same pavlova that Angel made. It is a Nigella Lawson recipe. She is my total girl crush. I drool over her cookbooks. For some reason I don't seem to like her as much on tv as in books, but her Lemon Meringue Cake is responsible for at least 20 of the pounds I still need to lose. This was really good. I cut back the sugar by 1/4 cup and it could stand to be cut a little more, easily. Instead of the heavy cream, I cheated on my clean eating and used lite Cool Whip (due to laziness and lack of calories). I don't think the taste suffered for it. I used raspberries and blackberries. The raspberries are prettier but the blackberries tasted much better and went great with the chocolate. I love the little bits of chopped chocolate that get mixed into the pavlova that give little bursts of chocolatiness, if that is a word. This is most definitely a make again recipe. Oh, and I cut the pavlova first and then added the cream and berries because it is just the two of us (and mine was huge--10 servings easy) and that way I can freeze the leftover pavlova if we take too long eating it.

I'm having red snapper with roasted cauliflower and broccoli - yum. No starch tonight, i don't deserve it!

WW - that salad looks divine! The chicken too (hooray for GARILIC!!!)
Loves - is that a parsnip I see in your roasted veggie medley? I love roasted parsnips!