Manicotti

This is how I made the marinara sauce:
2 Cans Crushed Tomatoes (Kroger brand)
1 Can Tomato Paste - Italian (Kroger brand)
About 4 tbsp chopped Parsley (I accidentally bought curly, does that make a difference?)
1 tsp Oregano
1/2 tsp Basil
1/2 tsp Rosemary
1/2 tsp Thyme
Tiny bit of bay leaf.
I mixed all of that together in a bowl and set aside.

Four cloves minced Garlic
About 1/3 of a mediumish onion, chopped
1/2 cup of Olive Oil
I sauteed the veggies in the oil in a pan for 2 minutes.

I put the tomato mixture into the pan, as well as half a cup of chicken broth, and turned it on medium until it started bubbling then I realized my mistake and put it on medium-low. I put the timer on for a half hour and have been stirring it every so often. It smells great so far. Oh, I just remembered I didn't add any brown sugar, so as soon as I post this I'll go put 1 tbsp brown sugar in, it. I don't know when that was supposed to be added since it wasn't in the recipe but everyone in the comments recommends it, so right now works. I assume when you put in the broth would be a good time otherwise.

For the rest I did this:
2 tbsp Olive Oil in a pan and I heated it on medium
I chopped the rest of the onion and saute'd it till translucent, then I added about 6 cloves of garlic.
1 lb Italian Sausage went in next until crumbly (and kinda gray I guess)
I put in salt, basil, and oregano to taste.
I set that aside.

I shredded the spinach by hand and tossed it into a frying pan on low and flipped them over and stirred them up a bit until they looked wilted then put them in with the meat.

While the spinach was cooking I brought lightly salted water to boil and put in the noodles. I cooked them for 4 minutes, but it should have been longer, I think, 5 minutes would have been good. Then I poured out most the water and put more in to keep them wet.

I put the cottage cheese into the meat. I beat two eggs and put those into the meat as well.

I got the sauce out of the fridge and put enough in a cake pan to cover the bottom. Then I had the fun of stuffing the noodles. I had read that it's easiest to put it into a bag, snip the end, and squeeze it in but that seems nearly impossible and I dribbled and squirted all over. So I dumped it back into the pan and just stuffed by hand.

Then I covered the cake pan with a wet towel and set aside.

I made the white sauce by melting 2 tbsp butter on medium heat. Then I turned up to medium-high and put in 3 tbsp flour and 1 tbsp chicken granules. I stirred constantly. Once it was bubbling I put in a pint of half and half (Darigold Fat Free) and stirred frequently until it was boiling. Then I stirred constantly for one minute. I continued stirring after I took it off the burner for a bit because I didn't want it to scorch. Then I added the parsley, some basil, and a small bit of bay leaf.

I poured that over the noodles, and covered that with more red sauce. Then I covered with foil and baked for 43 minutes and then uncovered it and put parmesan and mozzarella on it and baked for another 10 minutes. We let it sit for 10 minutes after that to cool down before eating.

Victor loved it, he's napping now. He thinks it was fantastic. I didn't like it so much, might be the red sauce. Next time I'll just use canned. I'm not a big fan of sauce anyway. I don't even like soup because it's too watery and whenever I have it it has to be something with noodles and big chunks so I can either drain off the water or drink the water before I eat it. But I'm glad Victor likes it. There's a lot of leftovers so he'll have night meals for a while. Because I have breakfast before he wakes up, then while I'm eating lunch he's having breakfast. We have dinner together. He has lunch after I go to bed.

Overall, if I make it again it won't be for a good long time. I'm just glad someone really enjoyed it. I'd like it more if there was less sauce and more substance. Also the noodles weren't done all the way, I think. Need to boil them longer.

*Edit:* Victor says it might be the sausage that I didn't like. So next time I'll use half sausage and half hamburger.