Ham and Broccoli Casserole

Ok, so I know what you are thinking. "Another food post. Seriously? I mean this is supposed to be 52 Weeks of Crap, not 52 Weeks of What I Make for Dinner." And I agree, when I started this blog I really had intended for more of the posts to be about craft project. But then reality set in. The reality is that I don't always have time to work on my craft projects but I always have to make dinner. And if you ask my children they will say that sometimes dinner can certainly be considered crap. I usually don't think so, but sometimes it is true. We aren't going to talk about my attempts at baked mac and cheese. But I will say this "Someday mac and cheese I will win!" But for now we aren't talking about it.

This casserole is really good. However, I do admit it isn't a meal you can feel good about feeding your family if you are really concerned about nutrition. Which I am, but sometimes you need to make things that you can feel good about because your family actually ate it. Plus, this has broccoli so it is kind of healthy.

I must say that I did not come up with this recipe, but for the life of me I cannot figure out where I got it. I had it posted as a note on my Facebook page and it just took me 10 minutes to find it with the new timeline view. But I found it, phew. It would have been a sad day if I had lost this one.

Here is what you need:

2 1/2 cups uncooked elbow macaroni

3 cups chopped broccoli

1 can cream of mushroom soup

1 can cream of chicken soup

2 cups cubed cooked ham

2 cups shredded cheddar cheese

1 cup shredded mozzarella cheese

2 tbl dried onion

1/2 tsp pepper

2 cups crushed potato chips

Cook the macaroni. In a large bowl combine the broccoli, soup, ham, cheeses, milk (now this is funny I'm copying the recipe which calls for milk but I have no milk on the ingredient list...well, skip the milk, I didn't use it this time), onion, and pepper. Drain the macaroni and add to the ham mixture.

Place in a greased 9x13 pan and top with chips. Bake at 350 for 30-45 minutes (just until it is hot and bubbly-this will depend on your oven).Ok, so when I made this I doubled it, so the recipe you have is doubled. If you double this you will have A LOT of casserole. Which is fine if you want to freeze one or have teenager boys in the house. I use frozen broccoli and pour the hot water over the broccoli to thaw it. Also, I add a bit of cheese on the top before I put the chips on. Who doesn't love a little more cheese? Finally, last time I made it I think I added an extra can of soup because it didn't look wet enough. Maybe it was because I didn't add the milk.

Once again, this is a casserole not rocket science, so don't make it too difficult. Coming up with ideas for dinner is hard enough, actually making dinner shouldn't be.

I'm pretty sure there was something else I was going to share, but I can't remember what it was. So, it couldn't have been too important, right?

Oh, I remember! I wanted to confirm that I didn't say this was a healthy dinner :)