A Healthy Holiday ~ Part 1: Simple Glazed Ham

Happy Holidays all!  I hope you all are enjoying the holiday season ~ we definitely are!  Santa was AWESOME to me this year and the best part is that we are not done :D  We celebrated with The Husband’s family and we have my family coming up this weekend – yeah!

I was in charge of our mini Christmas dinner yesterday so the day involved a bit of cleaning and a bit of cooking.  I was really glad I prepared  TWO Texas Style Christmas Breakfast Casseroles the other day so there wasn’t much work involved for breakfast.

I decided to spice mine up a bit by adding Sweet Jalapeño Salsa to it!  YUM!  I LOVE this stuff.

Sweet Plus HOT ~ two of the best flavor combos!

Spiced up Texas Casserole!

Plus 2 cuties.

I didn’t really have lunch since we were running around most of the day getting ready everything ready.  I did manage to snag a few handfuls of the Bunny Chex Mix I made the other day.

Plus a slice of the BEST bread ever made.  The Husband’s sis always gives up a HUGE platter of homemade baked goodies each year.  I always tell him he can have all the cookies, just give me the COCONUT POUND CAKE!  Seriously ~ it’s unreal!

I really do not do anything fancy when I make ham.  There isn’t a need to add tons of butter to get that amazing caramel like flavor.  You simply need TWO things and some spices.

Make sure that when you buy the pineapple slices you buy the ones in pineapple juice, not syrup.

Spices ~ Cinnamon, Nutmeg and Cloves.

Pin all your pineapple slices on your ham with tooth picks and place in the oven at 250 to cook for an hour.  Be sure to reserve your canned pineapple juice.

Take 1 cup of un packed brown sugar

Add your pineapple juice reserve.

Bring to a boil and reduce heat.  Stir until dissolved and remove from heat.

Add your spices (1/4 tsp cloves and cinnamon, 1/8 tsp nutmeg) and your glaze is done!  After the initial hour is up you will pour this glaze over your ham and baste/brush it every 5 minutes for another 15-20 minutes depending on the size of your ham.  Your goal is to “warm” your ham 10 minutes for every pound.

COOLEST SPICE CONCEPT EVER!! We bought these “Cinnamon Chips” when we were in the Caribbean.  You grind the cinnamon just like you would freshly ground pepper.  It’s has such incredible flavor and is more intense than the already ground.

I used Trader Joe’s pre-sliced ham so slice was a cinch 😀

SIMPLE GLAZED HAM

INGREDIENTS

1/4 or 1/2 Spiral Pre-Cooked Lean Ham

15 oz can sliced pineapples in pineapple juice

1 c unpacked brown sugar

1/4 tsp ground cinnamon

1/4 tsp ground cloves

1/8 tsp ground nutmeg

toothpicks

INSTRUCTIONS

1.  Preheat the oven to 250 degrees.  Spray a 9x 13 baking dish with nonstick spray.  Place ham in dish.

2.  Drain pineapple slices, reserving juice.  Place pineapple slices on ham using toothpicks to secure in place.

3.  Place ham in oven and bake according to packaged instructions.  Typically you will cook your ham for about 10 minutes per pound.  NOTE ~ you will be glazing the ham the last 15 minutes of cooking time.

4.  While the ham cooks, prepare the glaze.  Combine brown sugar with reserved pineapple juice in a small sauce pan over medium heat.  Bring to a boil and reduce heat.  Continue stirring until the sugar is dissolved.  Remove from heat and stir in spices.  Set aside.

5.  During the last 15 minutes of cooking time., pour the glaze over the ham.  Then, baste/brush ham for 5 minutes with the sauce until the ham is cooked.

Serve with pineapple slices and reserved juice on the side.  Enjoy!

While the ham cooked, I prepped the sides. Healthy Au Gratin Potatoes (Recipe coming up this week).

My FAVORITE healthy yet a little indulgent veggie ~ Green Beans with caramelized onions and bacon (recipe coming up this week)

 

Honey Balsamic Roasted Brussels Sprouts

 

The Husband’s Mom made these super cute placemats for us so I wanted to make sure I used them for Christmas dinner.

Front

Back

 

Dinner was served up on the fancy new Royal Doulton dish set that The Husband got us for Christmas.  He new I had been eyeing this for ALONG time.  I LOVE how the bowls curve up and it comes with BIG salad bowls plus little ones too.  I could go on for days, but, I think it’s safe to say I LOVE it!

Here is a snap shot of our BIG feast.  The bread is this homemade sweet bread we picked up at The Joy of Eating ~ It’s AWESOME!

For dessert, I made a Simple and Healthy Key Lime Pie.  It’s super easy to make and it was another first for me too :D  You can pretend it’s GREEN,.  I covered everybody’s with whipped cream so they didn’t know 🙂 lol…The recipe will be coming up this week too.  I was too full to have a slice but I did steal two bites of The Husband’s – YUM!

It was great chatting it up with The Family and then watching two AWESOME MOVIES. Four Christmases and The Hangover.  Four Christmases is hilarious and The Hangover we have seen before but some movies just get funnier each time you watch them.

Off to catch some after Christmas sales!  Have a fantastic day all!