If you are like me, one of the easiest way you find to save money is making use of leftovers from meals. Well everyone is always trying to give away their leftover ham on Christmas and the other surrounding days. Of course there’s the real basic options of either just eating it as slices as a snack or on a roll, there are so many other options. Here are some I hope you will find appealing:
1. Jambalaya- Cube some leftover ham and add chicken, shrimp, or sausage to it, some cajun style rice, peppers, and onions and you have a nice meal that can be used for quick lunches or a dinner.
2. Hawaiian Pizza- Get a pizza crush, put some sauce on it, pineapple chunks, and ham chunks or strips. Top it with mozzarella cheese (actually provolone works better for a hawaiian pizza), and cook it, nice easy meal or snack.
3. Ham and Egg sandwich- Scramble up some eggs, take your leftover ham and any other toppings you want, put them on a sub roll, english muffin, or bread and it’s a real simple sandwich.
4. Ham Fried Rice- Hey you’ve heard of pork fried rice right? Well where do you think ham comes from? It’s the same animal, you can make it the same way as you make the other staple fried rices such as chicken fried or pork fried rice.
5. Ham stir fry- Stir fry some ham with pineapple pieces, onions and peppers. Heat up some angel hair pasta in another pot and combine them. Makes a quick tasty dinner.
6. Ham Pita Pockets- Find a nice spicy mustard and coat the inside of the pita pocket, put in your ham slices, maybe a slice of tomato, your choice of slice, and put them in the over at 425 degrees for 5 minutes or so to melt the cheese and give it a nice toasted flavor.
7. Grilled Cheese with Ham- My favorite to do this with is swiss, but you can do it with any type of cheese. Slice the ham thin and put it between the layers of chees when you make the sandwich.
8. Ham and Veggie Muffin melts- This is one of my favorite quick meals and I do it with many different types of meats and toppings but ham works well. Toast english muffin halves in your oven, and then top with ham, veggies, and your choice of cheese, I also link a nice spicy bbq sauce on the muffins to make them a little less dry. Again, swiss cheese I feel works best but any type will work, my wife likes it with american.
9. Ham and Cheese Rollups- Again your choice of cheese is up to you. Take a slice of ham and a slice of cheese and put them on top of each other and then roll them up, holding together with a small toothpick. Dip this in eggwash, and then into bread crumbs, repeat in the egg wash and bread crumbs again. Put in the oven at 425 for about 10 minutes and you have a nice crispy treat. For a dipping sauce try a nice spicy or sweet mustard.
10. The old standby …. Omelettes!- Of course how you want to do them and what ingredients you want to add to the ham are personal preference. Some will develop them into fluffy omelettes, some into fritatta’s, and some just your standard old omelette.
Well, I hope these suggestions have helped you come up with ideas to use all that leftover ham. Hey, even if you don’t have leftovers….. don’t forget the grocery stores do! You can probably get a nice price on ham the week after Christmas (or maybe a week later) if you are having that ham craving and want to try some of these suggestions!
