Manicotti

This one is one of my favorites. I love the ricotta and spinach in it. Nice to have a meatless dinner sometimes and you definitely don't miss it in this meal it has a lots of flavor and will fill you up! I'm not sure where I got this recipe from but I have used it for years! So good!
(thanks to Kraft Recipes for the picture)

Ingredients

Pkg of manicotti pasta
Block pkg of frozen spinach
1 (6oz) ricotta cheese (you can use cottage cheese if you want)
1/2 cup parmesan cheese
2 cups mozzarella cheese
2 eggs
1/2 tsp garlic powder
1/4 cup bread crumbs
Salt and pepper
Romano or Parmesan cheese
Your favorite pasta sauce (I will include the recipe for the one I use)

Instructions
1.Cook manicotti in boiling salt water just until tender -you don't want to cook too much or they will split easy.
2. To thaw the spinach I put the package under warm water then when the spinach comes out easily I put it in a colander and run under warm water again until thawed then squeeze as much water out as you can with your hands.
3. Mix all ingredients together well in a bowl.
4. Pour a bit of the sauce on the bottom of a 9x13 baking dish.
5. Stuff the manicotti. The easy way to do this is using a pastry bag without a tip or a wide mouth tip. You can spoon it in with a teaspoon also. Hold the bottom of the manicotti when filling to hold the filling in place but don't over stuff as it may split the pasta.  Fill as many as pan will hold  (I'm not sure how many that is I forgot to count maybe 10ish)
6. Pour more pasta sauce on top to cover well. Sprinkle with Romano or Parmesan cheese.
7 Bake at 375 degrees for about 30-45 mins.

Pasta Sauce

1 large can of tomato juice
1 tomato paste
2 cloves garlic, chopped (or 2 tsp minced) or more to taste.
2 tsp basil
1-2 jalapeno peppers (depending on how hot you like your sauce)
1 Tbsp Olive oil
1/2 tsp salt

Heat olive oil in pan and add garlic. Saute a bit over med/high heat. Add tomato juice and paste stir together and add remaining ingredients except the jalapenos. Cut the jalapeno pepper in half lengthwise and take out the seeds. (if you want hotter keep them in) add to sauce.   Cook until boiling turn down and simmer for about 15-20 mins. This is actually great to make the day before because the flavors taste so much better and it thickens up a bit. Take out the jalapenos before using the sauce. The sauce recipe comes from my children's grandmother who grew up in Sicily.