Assembly and Freezing Directions:
Spread 1/3 of spaghetti sauce in ungreased 13x9x2 baking dish. Sprinkle garlic salt on chicken. Insert chicken into uncooked manicotti shells, stuffing from each end of shell to fill if necessary. Place shells on sauce in dish. Pour remaining sauce over shells. Sprinkle with cheese and olives. Wrap unbaked dish tightly with foil and freeze.

Cooking Directions:
Bake right from freezer at 350 for 1 1/2 hours; or, if already thawed, bake for 1 hour.

Options:
If you have leftover raw chicken after stuffing all the manicotti shells, cut up the rest of it and put it in the sauce that covers the shells.

Try Parmesan in addition to the Mozzarella. Because Parmesan tends to get browner while baking, cover the dish for the last 15 minutes of the baking time.

Try adding mushrooms, ricotta cheese, and Italian seasoning.
Fettuccini-type white sauce topped with parmesan only (I left off the olives)...just stuffed them with chicken as usual Stuff with cheeses (mixture of ricotta, mozzarella and romano), top with spaghetti sauce that has shredded chicken in it (first marinated in Italian dressing)

Stuffed with cheeses and chopped, drained frozen spinach,
Italian herbs, top with spaghetti sauce ( I served these as a side dish with ground turkey patties that were dipped in Italian bread crumbs and fried)

Also, for you moms out there with picky eaters, a friend of mine came up with a great idea. Her husband and kids don't like onions and green peppers. She tried making this meatloaf without them and found that it had no flavor. Her solution? Puree the onions and peppers in the food processor, then add them to the recipe. She gets all the flavor without the "chunks." Her family now gobbles it down. Enjoy!

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This page was last updated on Monday, June 02, 2008.

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