Had a bad day, so what's for dinner anyway?

It was one of those days when I wish I had stayed in bed.  Things went wrong, from the kids in my classroom to trying to register for school nothing was going my way.  One thing I do to de-stress is to cook.  When I am in my kitchen all is well and nothing else matters!  I just love this little recipe and I hope that you will to.  It has very mild flavors and is perfect with a nice salad topped with a bit of lemon juice.

Baked Manicotti Bundles Stuffed with Tilapia & Mozzarella
Adapted from Clean Eating Magazine March 2011

Ingredients:
olive oil cooking spray
3 or 4 green onions enough to make 10 layers
10 whole wheat lasagna noodles
1 carrot peeled
1tsp EVOO
12oz fresh tilapia fillets
4oz light cream cheese
1/2 cup skim milk
1/2 tsp dried dill (I used much more)
1/2 tsp sea salt
2oz reduced-fat mozzarella

Preheat your oven to 350 degrees. Lightly mist an 8x8 glass pan with olive oil spray

 Rinse oions well and trim off the white tops. With the tip of a paring knife score the upper end of the connected layers to form single onion strips like my picture. Set aside

prepare noodles according to package directions

during the final 90 seconds add the onions then lift out with tongs and set aside before draining pasta.

grate carrot into a small bowl and set aside

heat a large skillet add oil and heat for a bit more. add fish and shake pan so they won't stick. cover and cook for a good 3 minutes. carefully flip them over and cook for about 1 minute more.  break up into pieces if it still is opaque/not cooked, cook for a bit more. remove from heat and set aside.

Add cream cheese, milk and dried dill to a medium saucepan. break up the cream cheese, add salt  and stir with a wire whisk over low heat until melted. add half of the mozzarella and continue heating and whisking until all the cheese has melted.

Scoop out 1/2 cup of the cheese sauce mixture and, you guessed it, set aside.

stir in carrots and tilapia into the pan with the cheese mixture (not the one that you just set aside)

lay out noodles on a cutting board and put some of the fish mixture on each noodle.

carefully role each noodle up but don't let any of the fish mixture escape out the ends.

tie with an onion strip and place the bundle in the pan.

Spread the reserved cheese mixture over the top

sprinkle the rest of the mozzarella and bake for 25 minutes until cheese is bubbly and browned a bit.

and now it's time to...

GET YOUR YUM ON!!!