When our holiday plans got cancelled, I thought it would be a great way to turn the weekend around by giving my dear husband something he loves that I don’t particularly share the same enthusiasm for: honey baked, spiral cut ham.

We had a very tiny one that I got for free from a special online deal for Thanksgiving, but it wasn’t the same. So when we went to get one for ourselves and a couple of friends we invited last minute to partake in a our-families-live-so-far-away dinner, we  decided to go all out. We agreed we didn’t need a big ham, but when my frugal-minded man saw the price tag on the tiny foil-wrapped pig, he was appalled.

“Wait…so this 3 lb ham is only $4 cheaper than the 10 lbs ham? Why don’t we get the big one then?”

Why? WHY? Because WE CANNOT eat 10 lbs of ham. We only had three other people come visit. Who can eat 10 lbs of ham?

Of course, my husband said he would, but he had to leave for a work trip for an entire week. So after the festivities of Easter died down, I was left alone in my home last night…with a huge tupperware container of salty ham. And when I say tupperware container…picture a bucket or at the very least a baby-sized bathtub. It was a whole lotta ham.

I made myself a sandwich in my effort not to waste. Bleck. There had to be a better way to not throw our money down the drain. So I did some research and figured I could freeze some meals for us in the future…you know… so we don’t swell up into a sodium-induced comma by eating ham everyday for a month (plus, that’s just nasty).

It took me an HOUR to chop up the rest of the ham. Given, I did spend a good amount of time cutting out as much fat as I could, but I had no idea it would take so long.

I wish I had pictures, but I was so exhausted, I didn’t even think about it. Last night, I made a Ham & Veggie Macaroni Casserole (recipe to come!). Scratch that. I made THREE. Instead of making a huge tray, I decided to buy disposable 8×8 trays. If each tray serves us four times, the recipe is only 237 calories. Pretty impressive, if you ask me. I’d definitely have to serve it with a salad unless I want him eating half of the entire tray. But I filled those trays with tons of veggies, whole wheat macaroni and some fat free cream of mushroom soup with a light amount of cheese. I think it’ll be a pleaser for sure.

Tonight, I’m embarking on another recipe: Hambone Bean and Spinach Soup. It’ll take a couple of hours to make this puppy, so there will be a whole blog dedicated to this one in the future.

And then after that, I’m making a Ham, Cheddar Broccoli Quiche where the crust is made out of hash browns. The hubs would certainly love that. I still need to calculate that recipe, but because it’s made with egg whites, I don’t anticipate it being a crazy caloric beast.

You would assume that after all of that, I’d be done with the ham. Wrong-o. I have a HUGE bag of chopped ham still, so I’m trying to figure out what to do with it…after all, I don’t want to overly bombard my soup with tons of ham chunks. But at the same time…How much room does my freezer really have? I guess time will only tell. I just know that if our freezer gets crowded, the Hubs will attack our wedding cake we’re saving for our first anniversary. Is it bad luck to eat that early?

Now that I think about it…I probably shouldn’t have chopped up ALL the ham. I could have always made some frozen breakfast sandwiches and just replace my recipe that uses sausage with the ham. Then again, maybe egg patties with ham baked into them are in my future?

Either way, one thing still remains– copious amounts of ham is  still awaiting final transformation in my fridge, making me borderline stumped on what else I could possibly make. Does anyone else have suggestions on great ham leftover recipes? I’d love to hear some!

And stay tuned for recipes about the above mentioned dishes. I anticipate some great results! (fingers crossed!)