Budget: Ham & Chipotle Mac & Cheese

One thing I love about holiday cooking is the leftovers. We know that finding new recipes for leftovers can get a little bit challenging. Today I'm going to show you a leftover recipe using one of my favorite meats, ham. Ham chipotle mac & cheese. So we all love mac and cheese; it's a great crowd-pleaser. I'm going to put a little twist on it using leftover ham and butternut squash. Let's get started. In a blender, I'm going to add 3/4 cup of cottage cheese, 3 cups of skim milk and blend it smooth. I've already diced up one small onion and three cloves of garlic. I've melted the butter, sweated out the onions and garlic, got them a little brown, and now we're going to add three tablespoons of flour. Basically we're making the base for this mac & cheese. Now we're going to add in our liquid. Cook this for about 10-15 minutes until it gets nice and thick. I'm also going to add muenster cheese and 2 cups of parmesan. Stir and let it cook for 15 minutes. So our mixture has thickened up and our cheese has melted. It's looking beautiful. At this point add in our diced leftover ham and leftover butternut squash, and just to give it a kick, add a tablespoon of chipotle puree. This will give it a little spice, so if your family doesn't like spicey than don't add it. Add a bit of salt and pepper. I've already cooked up 4 cups of elbow noodles, so I'm just going to add those in. It's about one box. Now mix it well and put it into our baking dish. It's beautiful and so creamy. And now, we are going to top it with seasoned breadcrumbs. This is going to go into a 400 degree oven for about 25 minutes until it is nice and bubbly. So it's been 25 minutes and our mac & cheese is bubbly and beautiful. It's smelling wonderful. I hope your family enjoys this recipe for mac & cheese as much as mine does. So for more recipes using your leftovers, go to DinnerTool.com.