Yes, I made a dish with ham. Before you fall over, true to form, I used turkey ham. I was at my local Whole Foods one day, spotted it and ended up bringing it home with me for some unknown reason. I make dishes using ground turkey, turkey bacon and turkey sausage but turkey ham? I don’t crave ham or really miss eating it but I ate it often as a kid. My mom would make ham and usually serve it with peas and either macaroni and cheese or some kind of cheesy noodle. I admit that when I was younger, ham was one of my favorite dinners. In fact, at Thanksgiving, we had both turkey and ham and I never ate the turkey. My how things have changed.

Rotini and Cheese with Broccoli and Ham seemed like a perfect way to use up the turkey ham. The ham is mixed with pasta, chopped broccoli and a creamy cheese sauce made tangy by the addition of dijon mustard. Use any cheese you might have lingering in your refrigerator if you don’t want to use Velveeta. With simple seasonings of salt, pepper, and garlic powder, this is a flavorful, jazzed up version mac-and-cheese that packs up well for workday lunches.

The ingredients:

Cook pasta according to package directions and add the broccoli when 5 minutes are left. Drain.

While the pasta cooks, spoon flour into a medium saucepan and gradually add the milk, stirring with a whisk until blended. Cook over medium heat 8 minutes or until mixture is thick, stirring frequently.

Remove from heat and stir in cheese, dijon mustard, salt, garlic powder and pepper.

Combine pasta mixture, cheese sauce, and ham and serve.

Additions: None

Omissions: None

Substitutions:

• Whole-wheat rotini
• Reduced-fat cheddar cheese

Overall Rating: Like It

Source: Cooking Light Magazine