Ham Cabbage Pasta

Any ham cabbage pasta dishes are a great way to use leftover ham from a holiday meal. Ham seems an expensive choice of meat, especially if you buy a large ham. I bought a spiral cut boneless ham this year for Easter, and it was almost $30. That seems expensive, but when you count the number of meals that this ham will provide, it’s actually a fairly inexpensive choice. I can only eat ham so often though, because I don’t love meat, but it’s a great ingredient to be used in combination, because it adds flavor to any meal.

This recipe is simple. Use what you have in your refrigerator. In my case I had a bag of chopped cabbage, ham, several zucchini, a jar of sun dried tomatoes, and a package of sprouted wheat noodles that I wanted to get rid of! Voila a meal!

Ingredients for Ham Cabbage Pasta:

• 1/2 to 1 pound finely chopped ham

• 12 oz package chopped cabbage

• 4 finely chopped zucchini

• 1/2 cup sun dried tomatoes in oil

• 1/4 cup water

• 8oz package sprouted wheat noodles

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Directions for Ham Cabbage Pasta:

• Bring a large pot of water to a boil and add pasta and cook until it is done, according to package instructions. Drain.

• Stir fry the chopped ham, zucchini, and sun dried tomatoes. You will not need to add any oil because the oil in the tomatoes is sufficient. Stir fry for just a few minutes until the ham and zucchini are golden brown and the zucchini is still crunchy. Remove from the pan. Do not overcook.

• Add the cabbage and stir fry the cabbage in 1/4 cup water. Water stir frying will save you lots of calories. Cook it for a couple of minutes, but leave it crunchy too.

• Mix the ham mixture back in and the pasta and toss to mix well and heat through.

• Serve with fresh parmesan cheese

This is a yummy pasta dish that is simple and a quick meal. It needs no seasonings because the sun dried tomatoes are nicely seasoned. You can whip it up in a few minutes and it’s delicious and pretty! It’s a great lifestyle solution for time management to collect a few of these types of recipes to pull out in a pinch.

When you do buy a large ham, it’s difficult to eat it all in a few days. I made three meals with my ham and froze the rest of it in serving packages for later leftovers. I simply eyeball around 1/2 pound serving portions of ham and freeze them in separate packages. We will enjoy it for the next couple of months, when I don’t really feel like cooking. I know I can whip up a ham stir fry or a ham pasta meal in minutes. For me that is a healthy diet habit that helps us to avoid the call of fast food that is so available in our town.