Ham and Eggs (and Pintos, too)

Top to bottom: pan fried ham, scrambled eggs, pinto beans.

Holy cow, I've enjoyed my meals since cooking that ham and those beans. But, I think my favorite of all was when I used the ham for breakfast and fried it nice and brown along with eggs nicely scrambled and some of those wonderful pinto beans.

I know this photo isn't the prettiest. Our plates aren't made to display our meals and there was more juice in the beans than I'd meant there to be, so what you see surrounding the eggs is that juice that ran across the plate. (My daughter bought all of our plates at Dollar Tree because she liked the colors and how sturdy they are. My set of white plates is unused in storage.)

Well, I enjoyed this breakfast so much that I just had it again for supper (or dinner, depending on where you live). The slices of ham were nicely crisped, the eggs had picked up the ham drippings (this time I cooked them AFTER the ham) and the beans were as good as they were the first time. I didn't even have bread or a tortilla with this. It was satisfying just as it was.

I wish my daughter would eat ham (not counting deli ham which she will eat). I could have it more often. But, by the same token, I can have more of it since she doesn't like it. 

Now, I'm wondering, and maybe someone reading this could advise me, about making ham gravy. I'm not talking about redeye gravy or the milk gravy you make from the ham drippings (love it!!), but ham gravy in the sense of sausage gravy or dried beef gravy. These slices are too thick to really do it justice like dried beef could, but there's so much flavor in this ham, I was wondering if I could grind some of the ham up (one time through the grinder) and then sizzle the ground ham until it begins to get color before adding my fat, flour and milk. Do you think that would work? I'm really craving a milk gravy with that kind of salty kick that sausage or dried beef would give it. I'll take any suggestions!

Oh, and even after eating beans for four meals, I still had enough left to freeze two pints of them. Well, they're not frozen yet, but they will be once the containers cool off. Good for making chili or burritos.

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. 

Hamburger Helper Cheesy Enchilada

I was supposed to go out to dinner the other night, but the person who was going to take me, after making a big production of where we were going to go, suddenly decided we were going to go somewhere else. Because he's done this numerous times in the past to the point of extreme annoyance, I decided not to go out at all and make something at home. I'm glad I did.

From Google images - this is how I ate mine!

I went to our trusty pantry and pulled out the box of Hamburger Helper Cheesy Enchilada. I didn't really look at it, other than the name and that it would be Mexican inspired. I assumed it would be pasta as all of them usually are. (Obviously, I failed to look closely at even the photo on the front of the box - and, yes - I am the kind of person who tries to assemble things without reading the instructions.) 

I had already decided that I would incorporate some vegetables because we had a half can of corn my daughter had opened and left in the fridge plus two small portions of limas and green beans in the freezer. That way we have more of a one pot meal than anything. When I realized this particular HH was a rice dish, I wasn't sure the veggies would work out well. I did it anyway.

The instructions said to put the rice in with the hot water and milk, so that's also when I added the three small portions of vegetables. I lowered the flame and put the lid on and let it simmer the 20 minutes required. 

Of course, being the lazy butt that I tend to be, I didn't stir during that time, so I had quite a mess on the stove and counter from the hot liquid escaping past the lid. But, the end result was wonderful!!! 

The flavoring was mild and only hinted at being Mexican-esque. The vegetables incorporated themselves quite well without altering the overall flavor. Even my daughter ate it and she's not a fan of either lima beans or rice. 

I have one more box of this flavor in the pantry. I will not hesitate to make it when I'm craving a rice dish.