Meal Planning: Baked Shells with Meat and Tomato Sauce

I'm so tired of spending my money of groceries that end up in the trash. I've found that telling myself I'm too busy to cook on a regular basis is not a valid excuse for wasting food by letting it go bad in my fridge. My sister suggested that I meal plan for the week. She's been helping me come up with meal and recipe ideas that span over two weeks. I'm usually starving by the time I get home from the office and will stand in my kitchen with my hand in a cheez-it's bag until I can figure out what to make for dinner. Planning in advance not only takes the guessing out of what to eat, but has already saved me money while shopping for food. This baked shells dish was the first item on the menu for the week. It's filling, easy to make, and its great because you have the ability to be as creative as you want with it. This serving was for about 6-8 people. I ate it over three days.

What you need:

2 cups of uncooked pasta shells
1/4 lb of ground beef
1 cup of carrots, chopped (or any veggies of your choice. You can use green peppers, onion etc)
1 onion
1 cup of shredded mozzarella cheese
Seasoning of your choice (seasoned salt, black pepper, italian seasoning etc)

If you want to make your own pasta sauce use the following ingredients, if not just a jar of pasta sauce will do.
1 can of diced tomatoes
1 can of tomato paste
1 can of tomato sauce
Fresh garlic
Italian Seasoning, oregano, and any other seasoning of your choice

What you need to do:

Step one:

Cook pasta regularly and drain. You can even undercook just a tiny bit since you will be baking it.

Step two: 

Season Brown the beef with onion with a little bit of olive oil

Step three:

Boil and cook carrots 

Step four:

If you decide to make your own sauce rather than use store bought. Simply mix the tomato paste, diced tomatoes, and sauce together over low heat. Add garlic and seasoning.

Step five:

In a baking dish, mix beef, pasta, veggies and sauce together. Top with cheese. Bake for about 20 minutes at 350 or until the top is browned a bit and the cheese has melted.

Do you meal plan?