spinach and ricotta canneloni

I don't like to have a ton of food in my kitchen. I watch the chefs on Food Network Canada, and read cook books that tell you that the easiest way to cook is to have huge pantries FULL of ingredients. I suppose there are people out there who are so devoted to cooking, that if they have a desire to create a 5 course Indian meal at two in the morning, a stocked pantry is all they need. Not me. I have cooked for the P-Man and myself for so many years now, that having cupboards full of food, just in case I feel like cooking 'X'...seems extremely wasteful . My mom was a big food shopper. It seemed that the bigger our house, the more cupboards and freezers we needed to store the FOOD. Did I mention that it was just my mom and I living in a big house? I remember all the food that we used to throw away, because it had gotten freezer burned, or things were way past their best before date, or little critters got into the half opened packages. When the P-Man and I first got married, we went through a COSTCO stage. The two of us used to waste half a day driving to the brand new COSTCO, that always seemed to be out in the middle of nowhere. Once there, we would find a parking spot and get one of those ridiculously HUGE shopping carts, and start the long walk around the enormous store. We would always spend at least 200 dollars, and come home with food that would take us months to eat. It seems so insane, looking back.
Fast forward to today. I have 5 drawers that roll out of my modest pantry. I look at the food in those drawers almost daily. I then try to make a mental note of when I last purchased what...and decide what else I need to purchase to turn it into a meal. I have had a package of dried cannelloni shells for a month or so, and decided that this weekend, I would try to turn them into spinach and ricotta cannelloni. I purchased the other ingredients, and found a recipe that looked reasonable. This morning, I put them together. If there is a prize given for PRETTY looking cannelloni...I'm not going to get it. Some of the shells were a bit broken, so when I boiled them, a few more stuck to the bottom of the pot. My filling looked pretty good, except that I forgot to buy mozzarella cheese, so tried to use a bit more Parmesan. I also don't have a food processor...( Please don't get the P-Man started on that topic!) so I attempted to mince the spinach and parsley and green onions in the blender. I also didn't have a piping bag to pipe the mixture into the shells, so I did the old plastic bag with the one corner cut off, trick. I laid them out on little saucers and froze them. I will look at them later, and attempt to put them into little freezer bags, so I can dazzle the P-Man with my culinary razzamataz when he returns from his trip. I will also have to make a nice tomato sauce to bake them in, and get some mozzarella for the top. Thankfully, I know exactly where to get my last few ingredients...my shift starts tomorrow at 9 am!