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 :)

Chicken Puffs

Lately I've been posting about a lot more food than I thought I would. I guess that is probably because you have to eat every day so even if I'm not being super creative I can always come up with a blog post about dinner. Hopefully, this weekend I'll be working on (and maybe even completing) and unfinshed project, so I'll be able to share that with you. Once I finish that I can move on to my next Pinterest project.

And actually, this meal was based on a Pinterest recipe. The recipe I used as inspiration was http://jennasjourneyblog.blogspot.com/2010/09/chicken-roll-ups.html

Here were my ingredients:

1 rotisserie chicken shredded (I know you are wondering why I would buy a one legged chicken since that is what is in the picture, but I did not buy a one legged chicken. This chicken had 2 legs, but I removed one before I remembered I wanted the whole chicken in the picture. Now, mind you I would buy a one legged chicken it it were cheaper than a 2 legged chicken and I didn't have plans for the second leg)

Ranch dressing mix (You might notice this is not in the original recipe. I did not notice this. The note on the picture I pinned mentioned ranch dressing mix so I assumed it was in the recipe. Well, it wasn't in the recipe but I had some so I used it)

Cheddar and pepper jack cheese ( i used pepper jack rather than plain monteray jack)

Jumbo cresent rolls (don't use the regular size ones, I don't think they would work very well)

The clementines are an optional side. The truth is I just didn't want to move the box before I took the picture. I will say that these are not the Cuties but some other brand, and I don't like them. they are harder to peel and have a lot of seeds in them. I have to figure something out with them becuase I don't want to give the little people oranges with seeds, but I also don't want to pick them all out. The one I had the other day had a lot of seeds. I should have another, maybe it was a fluke.

I made a double batch of these, but you could make a single one too.

Mix everything together. I only used 1 package of ranch mix, but I think I should have used 2. It should look something like this:

Yummy! Ok, it tastes much better than it looks.

Next you want to unroll your cresents and put a big blob of the filling on the large side. Roll up the cresent roll sealing the filling in. You will end up with little packets that looks a little something like this:

Bake them up and here you go!

This one is actually from the second batch I baked and they burned on the bottom. I don't know why, but they did. But they looked much better from the top, so that is what you get a picture of.

OH! And I skipped the step of putting butter and breadcrumbs on the top, seemed like too much work.

All in all I liked these. I don't think my family were very big fans. They were a little bland. I think more ranch and/or maybe a can of green chilis would have helped liven things up a bit.

I did end up with a fair amount of filling left in the end. I kept it and turned it into a dip. I added a bit more ranch to it for added flavor. I think it turned out ok. I brought the dip to work so we are eating it cold. But I do think it would be very good heated in a little crock pot and served with chips. If you add the green chilis I think it would be a fabulous dip.

I did enjoy the little puffs of goodness so I do have plans to try a few more things wrapped in cresent rolls. If you have suggestions, I'll take them. Note, my family loves hot dogs in cresent rolls, so no need to suggest those little classics.