Spiral Ham and Pinto Beans

Mine are like these, but I won't add seasoning until they're cooked.

My daughter was given a spiral ham for Christmas by her new employer. We never baked it because she's not fan of ham. I decided I wanted ham yesterday. I REALLY wanted ham. I could just taste it I wanted it so bad. But, I wanted to do it in my crock pot instead of in the oven. I found instructions online on how long to cook the ham, but I ran into a problem. The ham was too big for the crock pot. Apparently, the one used in the instruction was oval. Mine is round. 

So, I took the crock out since it already had the ham in it and stuck it in the 250 oven and baked it for just over 50 minutes per the regular instructions. It was perfect! It came with a brown sugar glaze, but I didn't put that on it. Instead I made it as a side sauce and used it to dip my ham in.

Today, I cut off the remaining slices of ham from the bone and froze the large end piece of ham. The slices are packed separately and are in the fridge for breakfast, lunch and dinner options (for a day or two - after that, I'll freeze them, too.)

Then this evening, I took the crock that had the ham in it and added a pound of pinto beans to it along with sufficient water for cooking. I am going to have myself some pinto beans flavored with the ham drippings from that Christmas ham. I am looking forward to it.

Right now, I'm thinking of breakfast - scrambled eggs, crisped up slices of ham and a side of beans with a flour tortilla. I don't have any potatoes, but that's OK. I'm better off with the lower carb option. Still, I'm looking forward to my breakfast in the morning. 

Impossible Tomato Broccoli Pie - finally!

Well, I finally got the Impossible Pie made! It looks great, doesn't it? See the tomato slices peeking out of the top in the first picture? The only thing I would change is to chop up the tomato slices and drain them better because the overall pie was a bit wetter than it should have been. I'm assuming because of the water in the tomatoes. I also might be able to compensate for that liquid with a little more self-rising flour.

I tried leeching the tomato slices by salting them in a colander, but they didn't really drain. I also added diced onions and some broccoli florets. I put some onion powder in the batter along with some parsley flakes. I still wanted some salt on my own serving because it was a little flat, but I'd rather under spice than over spice. 

I also might lean towards Italian seasoning next time maybe with some pepperoni added on top. The cheese was just enough for this recipe. I'd also rather use a sweeter onion next time than the strongly flavored and fragrant one Deb bought that I had diced and frozen. Even cooked, it's not my favorite flavor.

I didn't pre-cook the broccoli and it turned out good. Because the pieces were small, they cooked all the way through. But, I would definitely want to dice up the tomatoes next time. These tomatoes were pretty fibrous, so they were on the tough side as far as being able to cut through them with my fork. They were plenty cooked, but near the center, they held fast and didn't want to break down completely. Not sure what kind of tomatoes these were, but that might have played a role in it. Maybe next time I'll use the Tommies Snack Tomatoes instead.

So, here's what I did to make this. 

3 medium tomatoes, sliced after coring

3/4-1 cup broccoli florets

1 cup shredded cheese (I used Colby/Jack)

diced onion to taste (I had about 1/4 cup)

3/4 cup self-rising flour

3 eggs

1 3/4 cups milk (I used reconstituted powdered milk)

Any other seasonings you are inclined to add - I used onion powder, parsley flakes, fresh ground pepper and a bit of salt.

Spray a 9" casserole dish with PAM (or equivalent). Prepare the veggies if they aren't already. Layer the tomatoes and broccoli (you can use zucchini or other veggies, too). You can also add a bit of Parmesan cheese here as well. Spread the shredded cheese over the vegetables. Mix up your batter with the flour, eggs and milk. Add seasonings if you want. Pour the batter over the cheese and veggies without stirring, other than to make sure they're covered. Place in a 400° F oven and cook for between 35 & 40 minutes. I took mine out after 35 minutes and allowed it to sit. It was nicely browned, but I wonder what five more minutes might have done for the excess liquid.

So, I hope you try this and maybe even experiment a little. This method of casserole making has just so much flexibility!