A unique way of making lasagna

Okay, well, I've been a little busy to blog! Dog hunting is very time consuming! The kids are very well educated now and have been to the pound a couple of times. They like it there, though, sis gets a little scared at times and holds onto my leg. Sometimes we can feel a big dog's breath on us and it even scares me a little! Bay has had a lesson and knows what mange is now. By the way, anybody who has not heard his impression of Job (our cat) when he met the dog we had briefly must hear it! Be sure to ask him what the cat said. I make him do it all the time and it still cracks me up! Okay, so I said there'd be a recipe for lasagna. This is really good! I don't know why I like it so much better than lasagna! It must have something to do with using shell pasta and adding spinach to it. I went to a friend's house to make strawberry preserves and she served us this for lunch. I have made it for dinner two times in a row and as our family eats it quickly (even the kids love it), I would honestly make it for dinner again tomorrow night if I could get away with it! The kids helped me make it (they stirred the cheese mixture and put it in the shells). It was a lot of fun cooking with them and I think I'll try to do it more often. They also helped make preserves (they loved cutting strawberries-and eating some- with plastic knives and mashing the strawberries). Not only do we get to spend time together, though the kitchen is messier, they are not off making a mess somewhere else while I am cooking! I think Bay's favorite part is licking the spoons afterwards.

Spinach Lasagna
First I make the meat sauce. I used 2 pounds of lean ground beef. You can use store-bought spaghetti sauce but I like it with this homemade recipe: 1 can (13 oz.) can tomato puree, 1 (12 oz.) can tomato sauce, 2 (6 oz.) cans tomato paste, 1 TBS salt, 1 tsp italian seasoning, 1/2 tsp. pepper. Simmer while preparing meat and onion.
I cook the meat and a sweet yellow onion, drain and then add everything for the sauce and let simmer. Then add the meat mixture at the bottom of a pan. Then you stir cottage cheese (small container), ricotta cheese (whole container), an egg, and spinach (either from a can or boil some spinach leaves until they look wilted. I was actually surprised that I preferred the stronger flavor of the canned spinach. You can't taste the other, it basically is just "health content") together & put it inside large pasta shells. Place on top of meat mixture (make sure shells are deep enough into mixture so they soften and covering pan with foil will also help that), put shredded mozzarella cheese on top (if you want), and bake at 350 degrees for about 45 min.- 1 hour.