Wednesday, December 3, 2008

What to Do With the Leftovers

I guess it really depends on what you have leftover. Also, you should take into consideration whether or not you really like what's been left for the bottom feeders. No offense meant to any bottom feeders reading this post. Let's say you had a 20 pound ham and you've got fifteen pounds of it left. What are you going to do? I mean really, how many ham sandwiches can you eat without putting your blood pressure at risk or your sweet swelling to Fred Flinstone proportions?

Cooked ham freezes really well. I'd cube some to make a nice potato and cheddar soup. Diced ham is a great addition to macaroni and cheese. Turns a wonderful side dish into a hearty one pan meal. If you have a sturdy KitchenAid mixer with the grinder attachment, send some ham through for a fine textured ham salad.

I chose option two for my ham leftovers. I added some diced ham to this mac&cheese recipe from RecipeZaar.com. I needed to add a little milk to it as it was really stiff after the addition of the ham. I also topped mine with buttered breadcrumbs and bacon bits. It got rave reviews and every bit of it was gone in two days.

Tell me what you do with your holiday leftovers. Stay tuned and I'll tell you what I'm going to do with the rest of the turkey.

3 comments:

Mrs. C said...

I have been making turkey left overs all week.
Keep in mind I am a cheater when it comes to making food so here are my 3 dishes:
Turkey Enchildas-sorta. I mix shredded turkey with some enchildada sauce and warm it up in a sauce pan-warming up the turket cuts down on baking time. I warm up the rest of the sauce in a seperate pan. I cook 12 tortillas for a few seconds in oil to soften them up then I dip them one by one in the sauce as needed. I make a layer of tortillas (4) on the bottom of a baking dish I spread some of the turkey mixture and add shredded cheese-you could add green chiles, onion or whatever your heart desires I stick with the frugal way, I put another layer of the tortillas and repeat and top with the last of the tortillas and pour the remainding enchilada sauce on top and sprinkle with shredded cheese. Bake 30 minutes at 350 and yummy.

Baked Pasta:
I make a package of spiral pasta according to package. I mix shredded turkey with a jar of garden vegtable spag. sauce and warm up turkey. I drain the pasta and mix the turkey mixture and half a jar of another spag sauce-spinache, meat, whatever- and mux with cheese in baking dish. I pour the remainder sauce on top and sprinkle shredded cheese. This is yummy too and as cheap as you want it to be.
We had chicken tacos-no recipe needed right?
Lastley, we just warmed up whatever turker was left and had a finale turkey feast with all the traditional sides freshly made.
Enjoy,
AZMOMX3

AJ said...

Those sound good. I love enchiladas. I want a good green sauce. I haven't found one around here.

Anonymous said...

We usually get a big ham for Christmas. I tend to make fried rice with some of the leftovers.

As for Thanksgiving. NO LEFTOVERS. What was left went to my little sister who was sick. I think she won't have to cook for herself for a week. But we were so bummed, we had to out for pizza the day after Thanksgiving!