Post By: Brittney - Ham it up!

Sunday:

Spiral baked ham

Rosemary baked red potatoes

Salad

Notes: Buy a large ham at Costco, bake as directed but don't put the glaze on the whole thing. Eat less than 1/4 of it. Cut the remainder into bite size pieces. Put in 3-4 freezer bags and keep in the fridge/freezer for the week. For the potatoes, cube them, mix them around with oil, kosher (or regular) salt and dried rosemary. If you don't have rosemary, you could use another spice of your choice. Buy whatever kind of salad you would like. Costco has this great salad mix called Parisian (spelling??) that has dried cranberries, nuts, cheese in it. It's in the cold freezer room. It's not too big and could be used for lunch the next day, too.  Though the Quiche for Monday does call for Spinach so you could use leftover spinach from this salad for the next day. Enjoy! 

Monday: 

Quiche

Carrots

Notes: 

You could either buy a pie shell or just make one. Cheaper to make but easier to buy. I kind of combine two recipes for my quiche so below is the best guess at how I always combine them. For the carrots, I actually like to grate them like you grate cheese. Then eat them like a "salad." Or you could steam them.

Quiche:

6 eggs

1 1/2 cups Milk

1/2 tsp Salt

1/8 tsp pepper

Dash ground nutmeg

1 cup chopped cooked ham

1-2 cups lightly packed chopped fresh spinach

1 1/2 cups cheese (I like swiss or cheddar)

1 Tbs Flour

Add first 5 ingredients, then add ham. Add spinach and stir gently. Mix flour and cheese together then add to everything else. I usually make this part earlier in the day (even before work!) and keep it covered in the fridge. Then before dinner, add it to the ready pie shell and then back in the over at 325 for about 50 minutes. You could even make this the night before and reheat the next day. Often, if I had just a tad more of everything, it'll make two quiches nicely. Save one or give to a friend. Enjoy!

Tuesday:

Split Pea Soup

Corn Bread (JIFFY box all the way!)

Notes: I don't have a recipe for the split pea soup other than what I remember mom telling me. Pretty much, I put the dried split peas into the crockpot, cover them with water and a lot of salt, add some ham and the ham hock (save this from Sunday. If there was no actually hock in your ham, just add all the fatty portions of ham to this soup). If the dried peas came with a seasoning packet, add it now. If not, seriously consider adding the "trinity"-onions, celery, carrots all finely chopped (cuisinart!). Leave it on low all day. If you don't get this into the crock pot until mid morning, put it on high first then turn it to low after lunch. For the corn bread, just buy the Jiffy box and follow the directions. Enjoy!

Wednesday:

Ham meatballs

Rice

veggie of choice

Notes: the recipe for ham meatballs is below. They aren't your average meatballs and take quite a few ingredients. If you don't have most of them already on hand, skip this recipe. However, if you want to try them, they are pretty good. Or at least my boys ate them up. You can start the rice in a rice cooker and put the meatballs in the oven at the same time and they'll be done at the same time. Enjoy!

Meatballs:

2 beaten eggs

1 1/2 cups bread crumbs (put them in toaster, then put them in cuisinart. Makes great bread crumbs for cheap!)

1/2 cup chopped onion

2 Tbs milk

1 tsp dry mustard

1/4 tsp pepper

12 oz cooked ham

12 oz ground beef (you could also do ground pork)

3/4 cup brown sugar

1/2 cup ketchup

2 Tbs vinegar

1 tsp dry mustard (you could use regular mustard)

Combine first 8 ingredients. Shape into balls and place in a slightly greased baking dish. It'll probably make 18-20 meatballs. (If this is too many, half the recipes. Or make them and freeze them after baking them)  In a large bowl, combine last 4 ingredients, stir until sugar is dissolved, pour over meatballs. (you can do all this beforehand and keep covered in your fridge. Just take off cover before baking) Bake uncovered at 350 for 35 minutes or until meat looks cooked enough. Serve with sauce from bottom of baking dish. Enjoy! 

Thursday:

Eggs w/ ham Burrito (add ketchup for a fun flavor)

Fruit salad

Notes: make scrambled eggs and add remaining ham for the week, add cheese (if desired), salt/pepper, anything else you want. Put in warmed up tortilla, add ketchup, roll up. If I were mom and I frequented the farmers market, I would add cooked kale to this burrito! For the fruit salad, chop and mix any leftover fruit from the week. Add yogurt for a sweet taste. Enjoy!

Friday:

Forge for yourself.