What to do with leftover ham...

 I realize that many families ate ham today for Easter.  We did!  But, what my family doesn't know is that we had some of our frozen leftover Christmas ham for dinner this past Friday.  

It was a super busy week for me and I was exhausted by the time I got to Friday night.  And I still needed to take the kids to youth group and get dinner made in 45 minutes so we could eat together before they left.  Family dinner is really important to my kids and my husband.  And it's important to me.  

Dinner always takes me at least an hour.  I have no idea why, but it does!  So 45 minutes is a tall order for me!  But, I did it and here's what I made--with leftover Christmas ham.

When I froze the ham at Christmas, I divided up the ham into three portions and chopped it up.  So, I took one bag out of the freezer (probably 2 1/2 cups of chopped ham) and placed it in a dish to defrost in the microwave.  

The dish I decided to make was Pasta Carbonara.  

I looked up a few recipes online and then made my own...

Ingredients:

2 cups diced cooked ham

1/2 medium onion minced

1 lb pasta, angel hair or shaped noodles like Penne will work

3 garlic cloves, minced

3 whole eggs

1 cup Italian blend finely shredded cheese (parmesan or shredded provolone would work too)

1/4-1/2 cup half and half (depending on how creamy you want the dish to be, I use 1/4 cup)

Salt and pepper to taste

Directions:

1. Cook noodles as directed on the box, drain, and set aside in sink.

2.  Once noodles are boiling in the pan, saute ham, onion, and garlic over med-high heat, stirring 1x/every minute until crispy in a nonstick frying pan on stove.  When done, place in bowl and set aside.

3.  Crack eggs into a small dish and whisk with the half and half.

4.  Measure out finely shredded cheese.

5.  Once all ingredients are ready (noodles cooked, ham mixture sautéed), place noodles back in warm pan they were cooked in and place pan on burner used for sautéing ham.  Then, turn stove on to med-low heat and add egg mixture.  Stir into noodles for a minute or two, then add in cheese and ham.  Continually stir for another minute or two.  The egg will cook from the remaining heat in pan and the low heat on the stove, plus the heat from the warm noodles and ham.  The cheese will add creaminess (and yumminess to the dish).  Add salt and pepper to taste.  Stir the noodles until you feel they have warmed enough that the eggs are cooked.  This is the strange part about pasta carbonara, but it really does work and it's yummy!

Serve with a green steamed vegetable like green beans or asparagus on the side.