Overnight Ham and Cheese Breakfast Enchiladas

This was the other recipe that I ended up using the leftover ham for.  I know I've mentioned plenty of times how breakfast for dinner is always a hit in my house.  Since I get to sleep in on the weekends I don't end up making these types of dishes for breakfast. Since the kids are such great breakfast eaters I try to serve a breakfast for dinner type meal every week or two.  The nice thing about these enchiladas is that they are made the night before.  So when you're ready to eat you just stick the covered dish in the oven for 30-40 minutes.  These enchiladas were really tasty and a dish that we all enjoyed.  I served this with some fresh fruit to round out the meal.  

Overnight Ham and Cheese Breakfast Enchiladas
recipe from The Girl Who Ate Everything  adapted from Look Who's Cooking Now

Ingredients: 2 cups cubed and cooked ham
1/2 cup chopped green onions
2 1/2 cups shredded cheddar cheese, divided
10 flour tortillas (6-8 inches)
1 1/4 cup half-and-half
4 whole eggs
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 tablespoon flour
salsa, sour cream, and additional green onions for serving

Directions:
1.In a medium bowl stir together ham, green onions and 2 cups of cheese (save the remaining 1/2 cup for later). Spray a 9x13 inch baking dish with cooking spray. Use a 1/3-cup measuring cup to scoop out cheese mixture onto a tortilla. Roll up tortilla and place seam side down in the baking dish. Roll up all tortillas and place them into the baking dish with the sides touching.

2.Whisk together half-and-half, eggs, salt, and flour. Pour over tortillas. Cover and refrigerate overnight.

3.In the morning, preheat oven to 350º. Bake covered for 30-40 minutes. Remove foil and sprinkle remaining 1/2 cup of cheese over enchiladas. Bake for 10 more minutes or until tops are golden brown and the egg mixture is set.

4.Serve with salsa, sour cream, and additional green onions.

Family Rating: 1 1/2 thumbs up.

This post is shard at:
Tasty Thursdays @ The Mandatory Mooch
Foodtastic Friday @ Not Your Ordinary Recipes
Showcase Your Talent Thursday @ What's Cooking Love?
Tasty Creations Link Party @Michelle's Tasty Creations
Recipe Sharing Monday @ Jam Hands

Ham & Cheese Lasagna

So what to do with all of the leftover ham from my daughter's party.  I didn't want endless meals of just leftover ham so I went on a search for different ways I could use it.  This was one of the first ones I found that caught my eye.  Although I like lasagna I don't make it very often because it's so time consuming.  I have to warn you that this lasagna does require a little prep work and then 40 minutes of cooking and a 15 minute cooling period.  So NOT a quick and easy dinner.  However, it's really tasty and well worth it if you have the time! I was a bit skeptical of the cottage cheese in the sauce.  You do not end up tasting "cottage cheese" but rather a creamy and tasty sauce. Even the kids enjoyed this (after picking out the mushrooms)!

Ham & Cheese Lasagna
recipe from The Kitchen is My Playground

Ingredients:
12 lasagna noodles
1/2 c. chopped onion
2 T. butter
3 T. all-purpose flour
2 c. milk
1 c. cottage cheese
2 c. shredded Monterey Jack cheese, divided
2 c. finely chopped fully cooked ham
1 (8 oz.) can mushrooms

Directions:
Cook lasagna noodles according to package directions; drain and set aside.

Melt butter in a medium saucepan over medium heat; add chopped onion and cook until tender, about 4 to 5 minutes.

Blend in flour until onions are well coated. Add milk all at once; cook and stir over medium heat until thickened and just beginning to bubble, about 5 to 7 minutes.

Add cottage cheese and 1 cup of the shredded Monterey Jack cheese; stir until melted. Stir in the ham and mushrooms. Remove from the heat.

In a 9x13" baking dish coated with non-stick cooking spray, arrange three lasagna noodles and top with 1/4 of the ham mixture. Repeat to create three more layers of noodles and sauce. Sprinkle the remaining cup of shredded Monterey Jack cheese on top.

Bake at 350 degrees for 40 minutes. Remove lasagna from the oven and let it stand for 15 minutes before serving.

Family Rating: 1 1/2 thumbs up.

This post is shared at:
Tasty Tuesdays @ 33 Shades of Green
Time to Sparkle Link Party @ The Recipe Critic
Totally Tasty Tuesdays @ Mandy's Recipe Box
Work it Wednesday @ High Heels and Grills

The Weekend Chef: Mustard-Whisky Glazed Ham

This was the main dish we served at my daughter's party.  Both her and my son LOVE ham.  Lucky for me I got this one "free" from Shoprite (after spending a gazillion dollars!) right before Easter and stuck it in the freezer until her party.  My husband was responsible for cooking it since I was busy cooking all of the side dishes.  Because we only have one oven (one day I'll get my dream kitchen with a double oven!) he decided to grill the ham.  Good choice because I had no room in the oven with all of the sides!  The original recipe had cinnamon, nutmeg, clove, and allspice in the glaze.  I'm not a huge fan of those spices in savory dishes so my husband ended up adding just a little nutmeg into the sauce.  The glaze created a nice crust on the ham, as seen in the pic below, and added a nice sweetness to the ham.  Both my daughter and son loved this! Of course we ended up with a ton of leftover ham, so more ham recipes will be coming soon!

Mustard-Whisky Glazed Ham
recipe adapted from Serious Eats, courtesy of Joshua Bousel

Ingredients:
1 ready-to-eat bone-in ham, around 10 pounds
1 1/4 cups dark brown sugar, packed
1/4 cup dijon mustard
2 tablespoons Jack Daniels Whiskey
1/4 teaspoon ground nutmeg

Directions:1. Remove ham from packaging, wash, and pat dry with paper towels, allowing it to come to room temperature.

2. Heat grill (we used a Weber charcoal grill).

3.Mix the dark brown sugar through ground allspice into a thick paste in a medium bowl to form the glaze, set aside.

4. Cook ham to desired temperature, about 4-5 hours for a ten-pound ham to reach 120 degrees. Brush on the glaze during the last hour of cooking. Remove from grill, slice, and serve.
  Family Rating: 1 1/2 thumbs up.

Hawaiian Pizza Grilled Cheese Sandwich

I mentioned in yesterday's post that I made these sandwiches to go with the Green Gazpacho.  The kids didn't enjoy the soup but they loved these sandwiches.  That wasn't hard to predict!  I hadn't made grilled cheese in a loooong time and needed something quick and easy to go with the gazpacho.  These were definitely quick and easy.  My kids love all of these ingredients on their own, so I knew they'd enjoy them in a sandwich form.  As you can see from my photo, I wasn't patient enough to let the cheese get all gooey.  But this was tasty as is!  My husband told me he could go for another one, after he ate his first.  I told him that I unfortunately used up all of the bread in making these. 

Hawaiian Pizza Grilled Cheese Sandwich
recipe slightly adapted from Cheese Curd In Paradise, inspired by Healthy Food for Living

Ingredients:
(for 4 sandwiches)

8 slices bread of your choice
2 cup tomato sauce
8 slices of low-moisture, part-skim mozzarella cheese
8 slices of deli ham (2 slices per sandwich)
4 pineapple rings
Butter

Directions:
In a skillet heat about one Tablespoon of butter over medium heat. On 8 slices of bread dab a small amount of butter on each side. Place 2 slices butter side down in skillet. Spread 1 Tbsp of tomato sauce onto each slice of bread in the skillet. Next, layer 2 slices of mozzarella, 1 pineapple ring, and  2 slices of ham.  Top with remaining 2 slices of bread. 

Cook sandwiches until golden brown on the bottom, about 3-4 minutes. Flip sandwiches and cook until golden brown on the other side and the cheese has fully melted, about 3-4 remaining minutes. If the bread turns golden brown before the cheese has fully melted, reduced stove heat to low. Remove from heat and repeat for next two sandwiches.

Family Rating: 1 thumb up.

Chicken Cordon Bleu Casserole

Although it's officially spring, the weather here in New York still feels like winter.  Cold enough that a casserole for dinner sounded good.  My kids have gotten used to me asking, "How would you rate tonight's dinner?" that my daughter often volunteers her rating before I even ask.  Another dinner that I made this past week (my Secret Recipe Club recipe which will be revealed April 8) was first rated 10 thumbs up!  But once my daughter tasted this she edited her previous rating.  "That one gets down a little to maybe 8 1/2 or 9 and this dinner gets 10 stars!"  This has all the flavors and components of Chicken Cordon Blue in a one dish meal.  This was a dinner that we all enjoyed....even my picky eater of a son!  A couple of days after I made this my dad came over to watch the kids so my husband and I could go out to dinner with my brother.  I had some of this leftover that I told him he could eat for dinner.  He enjoyed this so much that he's been asking me for the recipe.  A reminder to myself to read through a recipe in its entirety either the night before or earlier in the day.  If you don't pre-make some of this, it can take over 2+ hours.  I had some Tyson already cooked grilled chicken breasts in the freezer which I thawed in the microwave and then marinated while I finished prepping this.  So, it didn't get the hour of marinating time but it saved me about 30 minutes of chicken cooking time.  Plus, the chicken had a grilled/smoky flavor that added a nice touch to the dish.  I also bought the already diced cooked ham which saved chopping time.  With a pint of heavy cream this is not a "light" dish but it is really tasty!

Chicken Cordon Bleu Casserole
recipe adapted from I Thee Cook

Ingredients:

2 Boneless Skinless Chicken Breasts, cooked and chopped
1 cup Honey Dijon Salad Dressing
1/2 Pound diced ham
1 pound large pasta shells

Cheese Sauce:
1 pint heavy cream
1 tsp prepared Dijon mustard
3/4 tsp onion powder
1/2 tsp salt, and then to taste
1/4 tsp freshly ground black pepper
1/4 tsp garlic powder
1 Tbsp all-purpose flour
8oz Monterey Jack Cheese, shredded
8oz Swiss Cheese, shredded
1/2 cup bread crumbs

Directions:
Place chicken in a zip lock bag with honey dijon dressing and marinate for an hour.

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Place chicken in a baking dish and bake for about 30 minutes.

While chicken is baking cook pasta according to package directions drain and set aside.

To prepare the cheese sauce add the heavy cream to a sauce pan and heat over medium low heat, whisk in the flour and add the rest of the ingredients in the order they are written. Continue cooking and stirring frequently until sauce is thickened and cheese is melted. Pour cheese sauce over pasta stir to coat. Add chicken and ham.  Mix into pasta.

Grease a 9 x 12 casserole dish and pour pasta mixture into dish. Sprinkle bread crumbs over the top and bake for 25-35 minutes.

Family Rating: 2 thumbs up.

This post is shared at:
Melt in Your Mouth Monday Recipe Blog Hop @ Make Ahead Meals for Busy Moms
Recipe Sharing Monday @ Jam Hands
Making the World Cuter Monday @ Making the World Cuter
Motivate Me Monday @ Keeping it Simple

Ham and Pineapple French Bread Pizza

My family loves bread.  We are big carb lovers in this house! I originally found a recipe for Ham and Pineapple Pizza subs in Cooking Light.  This recipe was inspired by the one that I saw in my magazine.  The original recipe called for refrigerated crusty French bread dough.  I thought to myself, why don't I buy a loaf of French bread instead and cut out some cooking time.  We recently went through a brutal heat spell and I wanted the oven on as short of a time as possible.  However, when I went to the grocery store, they didn't have any French bread!!!  They were having a one-day sale on Italian bread and the worker at the bakery counter told me that they were only baking Italian bread.  I did score a warm, fresh-out of the oven loaf though from her.  Honestly, it was very difficult for me not to rip into that loaf and eat the bread right there.  While we are big pizza eaters in our house I don't think that the kids ever had "french" bread pizza before now.  Like I said, they love bread....and they loved this pizza!  This was a big hit and was super quick and easy to make. I may have to try making some other versions of this type of pizza.

Ham and Pineapple "French" Bread Pizza
recipe inspired by Cooking Light, November 2011

Ingredients:
1 loaf Italian bread
1 cup tomato sauce
1 ham steak
1 cup shredded mozzarella
1 can (8 oz) diced pineapple, drained

Directions:
1.Heat ham steak in small saute pan, cooking 2-3 minutes on each side to brown and heat through.  Once warmed, dice ham into small cubes.

2. Preheat broiler to high. 

3. Cut bread in half laying both sides open on foil-lined cookie sheet.  Spread tomato sauce evenly over both sides. Sprinkle ham, shredded mozzarella, and diced pineapple on top. 

4.  Broil approximately 3 minutes until toasty and browned.

Family Rating: 2 thumbs up.

Ham and Pineapple Pizza

Home-made pizza has become almost a weekly dinner staple in our house.  It's cheap, quick, easy to make, and tastes so good!  Plus, the variations are endless.  I can't remember the last time we ordered a pizza.  Although I've eaten variatons on "Hawaiian" pizza I had never made it before.  My kids love ham and pineapple so I thought it would be a winner.  It pretty much was, although we discovered that our daughter who loves pineapple, does not like it warm, on her pizza.  My son really liked it.  I ended up making two pizzas, one for the adults with the crushed red pepper, and one for the kids without.

Ham and Pineapple Pizza
recipe adapted from Cooking Light, December 2001

Ingredients:
1 store bought pizza dough
1/2 cup tomato sauce
1 teaspoon Penzys Pasta Sprinkle
1/2 cup (2-inch) julienne-cut cooked ham
1 (8-ounce) can pineapple tidbits in juice, drained
3/4 cup (3 ounces) preshredded part-skim mozzarella cheese
1/4 teaspoon crushed red pepper
 
Preparation:
Preheat pizza stone in oven at 450°.

Roll out/shape dough into desired shape. Spread sauce evenly over the pizza crust, leaving a 1/2-inch border. Sprinkle Pasta Sprinkle on sauce.  Top with ham, pineapple, and cheese; sprinkle with red pepper. Bake at 450° for 10 minutes or until the crust is crisp.

Family Rating: 1 thumb up.

Creamy Ham Casserole

I was looking to use up a ham steak that I've had sitting in my freezer for awhile.  A couple of weeks ago I came across this recipe while I was planning the meals for the week.  While it looked good and enabled me to use the ham steak, I realized that I already had a pasta dish for the week.  I thought that I'd try substituting potatoes for the pasta.  Surprisingly, it ended up working out nicely.  It was super cheesy (I may have needed to use more potatoes) but we all enjoyed it. It did require some prep in the beginning (the kids got to watch a little television while I did the prep work) and then while it baked for thirty minutes it gave me enough time to get the kids showered, so although a little time-consuming, it all ended up working out well.

Creamy Ham Casserole
Recipe adapted from The Novice Chef

Yield: 8 servings

Ingredients:
1 pound of potatoes, peeled and quartered
2 quarts boiling water
2 cups broccoli florets
1 cup chopped carrot
1 cup fat free milk
1 10oz can reduced-fat, reduced sodium, cream of mushroom soup
2 cups (8 oz) reduced-fat shredded cheddar cheese
1 (6 oz) tub light cream cheese with chives and onions, softened
2 cups chopped lean ham
1/2 cup bread crumbs

Directions:
Cook potatoes in 2 quarts boiling water for 12-15 minutes, until tender. Add broccoli and carrots and cook 3 minutes more.

Combine milk, soup, cheddar cheese, and cream cheese in a large bowl; mix well with a whisk. Add noodle mixture and ham and stir well.

Divide potato mixture evenly between a 9x13 baking dish that has been coated with olive oil (or Pam). Sprinkle the bread crumbs evenly over casserole.

To bake immediately: Cover casserole with foil and bake at 350 degrees for 30 minutes. Uncover and bake an additional 10 minutes, or until topping is lightly browned.

Family Rating:  1 thumb up.

The Weekend Chef: Ham, Brie, and Pear Panini

The second dinner The Weekend Chef decided to make was a Ham, Brie, and Pear Panini.  We don't have sandwiches for dinner very often so this was a nice change.  This was an adultified (again, I think I'm making up my own words!) version of a grilled cheese, if I do say so myself.  It sounded delicious and it was quick and easy to make.  However, no one was really impressed when eating it.  I felt like it was missing something.  We had talked about possibly adding some caramelized onions and ended up not.  They might have helped a little bit.  We don't think that the pears were sweet enough to offset the saltiness of the ham and brie.  This recipe still needs some tweaking.....suggestions are welcome!

Ham and Pear Panini
Recipe by The Weekend Chef (his own)

Makes 3 sandwiches

Ingredients:
6 slices, large-sliced Panella bread (or bread of your choosing)
9 slices deli ham
1 pear, peeled and thinly sliced
6 oz. wedge of brie cheese, rind cut off and cut into 6 thick slices
butter

Directions:
1. Place two slices of brie on each of three pieces of bread.  Place three slices of ham on the cheese.  Top with thinly sliced pear (to your liking).  Put another slice of bread on top.

2. Butter the top and bottom of sandwich and place in preheated cast iron pan (medium heat).  Cook until browned, approximately two minutes on each side.

Family Rating: So-so.

Ham Casserole

I had a ham steak and I wanted to do something with it besides heat it up and serve as is.  Ham and swiss cheese always go well together.  Add in some potato and a creamy sauce and you have this awesome casserole!  Of course, I'm infamous for not reading through an entire recipe before putting it on the menu.  This was one of those times that I'm glad I'm at home.  If I came home after a long day of work and realized that I had to cook the potatoes first.....well, we would have been eating take-out!  So, this ended up taking a bit longer than I had expected to make.  However, we all really enjoyed it and there was enough for leftovers for lunch the next day!

Ham Casserole
adapted from food.com - by cuisinebymae

Ingredients:
2 cup potato , cooked and cubed

1 cup chopped onion
4 tablespoons butter
6 tablespoons all-purpose flour
1/4 teaspoon salt
1/4 teaspoon pepper
2 1/2 cups milk
1 cup shredded swiss cheese
4 cups cubed cooked ham
1 cup ritz crackers, crushed

Directions:
1. Preheat oven to 400 degrees F.


2.  Cook onion in butter.

3. Blend in flour, salt, and pepper.

4. Add milk slowly, stirring continuously, cook until thick.

5. Remove from heat.

6. Add cheese and stir until it melts and is well blended.

7. Add ham and potatoes and mix together.

8. Pour into a casserole dish, sprinkle with cracker crumbs.

9. Bake at 400 degrees F for 30 minutes.

Family Rating: 2 thumbs up!