If you had ham for your holiday meal, you might want some new ideas for using up the leftovers. (Cheap tip: Now is the time to make all those recipes that call for cooked, diced ham! It’s much less expensive than buying the pre-packaged kind.)
Don’t have any ham leftovers? You still may be able to find a good deal, because grocery stores will sometimes have them marked down after holidays. This past January, I found a terrific deal on a whole ham, and Dillons cut and wrapped it for me for free, ready for the freezer.
Here are some recipes I’ve found that take advantage of the leftover ham in our refrigerators and freezers. I’ve also pinned these on Pinterest:
- Impossible Ham & Swiss Pie Similar to the recipe on the box of baking mix, but no box required for this one.
- Slow-Cooker Ham and Beans This recipe uses pinto beans instead of the more traditional white beans.
- Delicious Ham and Potato Soup My favorite soup. Good for cooler weather, and not very good if you’re counting calories. (Uses real heavy cream and butter.)
- Split Pea and Ham Soup I I might be in the minority, but I LOVE good split pea soup. This recipe uses the ham bone and dry split peas. Really inexpensive and very easy. If you’ve never used dry split peas, you should try them!
- Ham Salad Sandwiches This is the standard leftovers meal, because in April you probably have both leftover ham and hard-boiled eggs. Just use the ingredients you have on hand.
- Broccoli and Ham Frittata This one looks great.
- One Pot Ham and Penne Skillet What could be simpler or more delicious??
- Another light and simple meal that uses leftover ham and hard-boiled eggs is a good old chef salad. For croutons, you can cube a couple of pieces of whole wheat bread and toast them over low heat in a skillet coated with a little bit of olive oil.