Leftover Ham Mac and Cheese

I know another post about Mac and Cheese. Actually I had all this left over ham from Christmas and decided to make a traditional mac and cheese and tossed the ham in. My Grandmother use to make awesome baked mac and cheese, so I have worked hard over the years to make mine like hers. I admit I changed it up some with the things I liked and didn't liked. This version is likely the closest to hers with a few twists.

Ingredients

12 oz of elbow noodles 

1/2 of the processed cheese brick (large) or one small brick- cubed

2.5 to 3 cups of Skim Milk

3 tablespoons of flour

3 tablespoons of butter

1/2 cup Panko breadcrumbs

2 cups of cubed ham

1. Bowl your noodles according to the directions. I like to do them about 7 minutes so they are firm and can cook a bit more when I bake it.

2. As the noodles are boiling put the butter and flour in a large sauce pan. Heat over medium heat until the roux is brown and than add about 1 to 1 and 1/2 cups of milk. Stir in and wait till it boils. When it starts to boil, add another half cup of milk.

3. When the sluree mixture is boiling begin adding in the cubed brick cheese. I like to add some in, let that melt and than add more till it is all incorporated. You may need to add another 1/2 cup to 1 cup of milk into the mixture depending on the how thick it is getting.

4. Once all the cheese is melted, turn off the heat and add in the ham. When your noodles are done, drain, and than add that into the pan. Mix ti all together and pour into a greased baking dish.

5. Spread the Panko around the top and than bake for 30 minutes at 350 degrees. The Panko is my new touch. My grandma liked to actually use big pieces of cubed bread which never toasted enough for me.

6. Enjoy as a main meal or as a side dish. This is also a great item to take to a potluck.

New Column

I was so lucky to be voted in as the contributing Mommy for the Macaroni Kids -League City website. I am so excited to have this opportunity for this coming year and am lucky enough to have my first column of Mommy Confessions published this coming weekend. Stay tuned for the link on here.

You can catch up with Macaroni Kids here. It is a great site that profiles lots of great happenings around the Clear Lake/League City area!

Reindeer Cake Balls

I have to saw I love my cake ball maker. The thing makes them in no time at all. I was some what ambitious and decorated them to look like little reindeer.

Warm Soup for a Cold Day

We have had cold weather here in Texas for the last week. For us this cold weather is hard when you go from 70s to 30s in a short period of time. Texas doesn't give you the luxury like the north to change seasons gracefully. I had this butternut squash in the fridge and have been deciding how to use it. I usually just bake it and than serve it with some butter but I wanted something different this time.

So I went to work making a butternut squash soup. It was really easy and I thought it was good. I used a basic recipe I found off the internet and well I always make it my own.

I used one butternut squash that I peeled and cubed (I used my vegetable peeler to peel it and it went super fast).

While I was cutting up the squash, I had chopped up some onions and put them in the stock pan to sweat with some butter. When they were done and the squash was all chopped up, I tossed it all together and added one carton (32 oz) of chicken stock. You could also use vegetable stock. I let the soup simmer for about a good 45 minutes or until the squash was soft enough and almost falling apart. I than but the squash in the blender and pureed it. I added it back into the stock and added about a 1/2 cup of milk to give it some creaminess. I let it simmer another 15 minutes or so. 

I served it with a cheddar bacon biscuit and topped the soup off with  dollop of fat free sour cream (still on WW so the extra fat isn't needed). It was a good soup that was both sweet and savory I put some pepper on mine because I always like some on my squash.  The kids well they were okay with it. If I make it again, I would add chopped bacon in with the onions to give it some more body. 

Let me know if you try it and what you think. 

Who Pillow

I so have been wanting to make a owl pillow for awhile and I have been thinking about it and finally had some time to work on it. I created my own template and put him together. He is roosting here on my couch and I am sure that more of him will be appearing because he was pretty easy to make.

Lotion Wrappers

I just loved the hand sanitizer purses that I played around yesterday and created little wraps. B&BW always has a small lotion scent for a buck and I picked up a few the same day I got the hand sanitizers. These too will be fun little gifts to give.

Cake Balls

I made some cake balls for our Daisy Scout meeting this past Monday and they turned out so cute. They actually look like candy to me. For this batch I didn't put sticks in them because they looked so much like candy.