I got my meaty manicotti recipe from Southern Living 30 Years of Our Best Recipes.  I love this cook book.  It has many good recipes in it. 

The recipe has you make a sauce, but I am going to skip that part because I always make my own.  You can use your own sauce, or just a jar.

1/2 lb Italian link sausage

1 lb ground chuck

1 (15 oz) carton ricotta cheese

1 (8 oz) package cream cheese, softened

1/2 (8 oz) tub cream cheese with chives, softened

1/2 C grated parmasan cheese

4 cloves garlic, crushed

1/2 tsp pepper

1/2 tsp dried thyme

1/2 tsp dried oregano

4 C (16 oz) shredded mozzarella cheese, divided

1 (8 oz) package dried manicotti shells, cooked

a jar or two of your favorite sauce

Remove sausage from casings.  Cook sausage and beef in a large [enough] Dutch oven until beef is browned, stirring until meats crumble; drain well.  Return meats to Dutch oven.  Add a jar of tomato sauce.  Heat.

Combine ricotta cheese and next 7 ingredients in a large bowl; stir in 3 cups mozzarella.  Stuff mixture evenly into manicotti shells.

Spoon half of meat sauce into a lightly greased lasagna pan or two lightly greased 2 1/2 quart shallow casseroles.  Arrange stuffed shells over sauce.  Spoon remaining sauce over shells.  You can add more sauce if you would like.  We like alot.

Cover and bake at 350* for 35 min or until thoroughly heated.  Sprinkle with remaining 1 c mozzarella cheese.  Let stand 5 min before serving. 

Yeild: 7 servings

I don't think I have ever had all the ingredients.  Sometimes I make it without the meat.  One time I didn't have chive cream cheese, so I used plain, and threw in some chives from the garden.  I use 1/3 fat cream cheese, and low fat ricotta.  I don't always have garlic cloves, so I use jarred garlic, or just powder.  This is the best recipe ever.  I served it when my friend came over with her extreamly picky son, and he ate it.  She was shocked. 

I have also doubled the recipe and stuck one in the freezer.  I did that yesterday, but I forgot I only had one box of manicotti!  Oops.