Easter Leftover Ham Casserole

Are you having ham with your Easter dinner? One meal my family looks forward to every year is Leftover Ham Casserole.  We almost always have plenty of ham leftover after Easter dinner so this is a great way to use it in another form. 

To make this casserole you will need 

2 cups uncooked rice

1 can cream of mushroom soup 

1/4 c miracle whip 

2 cups milk 

about 6 ozs of cubed ham 

frozen broccoli or peas 

shredded cheese 

Preheat oven to 425  

Mix together the rice, mushroom soup, milk, and miracle whip 

Add in the ham, and either the  broccoli or peas. I make the casserole both ways. We like, I usually use whichever vegetable I have on hand. 

Once the ingredients are mixed together, cover with foil and bake for 20 minutes.  

After 20 minutes cover the casserole with 2 to 3 handfuls of cheese and put back in the over uncovered.  

When it comes out of the oven it looks like this.  This picture is making me hungry.  

This casserole disappears fast! If you do have some left over, it tastes good warmed up as leftovers the next day.  

 

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Easter Make Ahead French Toast

Here we are just a few days before Easter.  While I love that it is already Spring, I'm not sure how I feel about having Easter in March this year. I feel I have so much more time to get ready, when there is more than two weeks between St. Patrick's Day and Easter.  

This week I am going to share two of my favorite Easter recipes that are both easy to make, and some of my families favorites.  The first recipe is Make Ahead French Toast.  It is such a great holiday recipe, because you put everything together the night before, and then pop it in the oven Easter morning while you are celebrating with family.  

You will need 

a loaf of your favorite bread (we love cinnamon raisin) 

4 to 6 eggs

1/2 cup milk 

vanilla 

cinnamon sugar (if desired) 

cream cheese (your preferred flavor) 

If you are making this for more than 6 people, double the recipe. 

You will need two slices of your chosen bread per person.  I have made this recipe is so many different ways over the years.  I will be sharing pictures from some of the different variations. 

On this particular day we did not have cinnamon raisin bread on hand, so I used Aunt Millie's Country Buttermilk bread.  My cream cheese of choice that day was strawberry, and added it to each of the bottom pieces of bread. 

On the top pieces of bread I added some cinnamon sugar.  

This picture was from a different day, but at the same step.  I wanted to fit more bread into my pan, so instead of using full pieces of bread, I squeezed in 12 half pieces.  Mix the eggs and the milk together in a bowl, and then pour it over the bread.  Cover the casserole dish with foil, and put it in the fridge overnight. 

In the morning, let the pan sit out for a few minutes so the casserole dish is not too cold when you put it in the oven. Preheat the oven to 350 degrees.  Once in the oven, bake for 30 minutes. I removed the foil the last 5 to 10 minutes.  I would put this in the oven before my kids looked for their Easter eggs, and when they were done  breakfast would be ready. 

I made this variation just a few years ago. I added cinnamon sugar and used regular cream cheese.

I think this year might have been my favorite version. I used cinnamon raisin toast, regular cream cheese, and then covered the toast with strawberries and syrup. 

I believe we had guests this particular year, which is why it looks a bit fancier.  I used thick bread, strawberry cream cheese, sliced strawberries, and Redi-whip.  

No matter how you decide to put together your make ahead french toast, it is always a great dish to serve for Easter morning.  

 

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How to Make a Bunny Cake

Disclosure: This post has affiliate links to the supplies I used to make this bunny cake. 

This Easter we ate our holiday meal at a friend's house.  She made the made the ham, my daughter made the extra cheesy au gratin potatoes, our boys made the deviled eggs, and I made the Easter Bunny cake   A bunny cake is not that hard to make, and might become a yearly tradition in our house from now on.   

To make an Easter Bunny cake, bake your favorite cake recipe or box mix  in two  8 inch or 9 inch pans,  I believe I used 9 inch pans so my bunny will be slightly longer and thinner than if you use 8 inch. 

Once the cake has cooled, cut it in half down the middle 

Add a little bit of frosting between the two halves and place them on their side like in the picture.  This will become the body of the bunny.  Cover the body with lots of frosting. My edges were a little uneven, so they got a little more frosting to even the edge out. 

The next step was to figure out  what size to make the bunny head. so I got out some of my cookie cutters. I was trying to decide between my Wilton 4 piece circle cutter set and my Wilton bunny head set. Either shape would work out well, but I decided to go with the circle head  because we were running late on time, and I thought it might be easier to frost.  

I used the 3 inch cutter , but it is your preference on how big or little you would like to make the bunny head.  

Using the cookie cutter, cut the head piece out of the second cake. Since you will not need the remainder  of the 2nd cake, you can then  crumble up the rest make Cake Pops, or cut out small bunny feet. I decided not to have feet on my cake

Frost the bunny head, and attach it to the body piece with some frosting.  I had my daughter help me choose what candy to use for the face, She went for a simple look with just jelly beans.  

The bunnies ears are made out of pink and white cardstock attached to toothpicks. 

We had to travel about 20 miles with our bunny on a cake plate.  She did get bumped a little bit so she looks crooked in this picture, but I wanted to show her tail.  I used a pink egg shaped marshmallow for a quick and easy tail. I thought the pink tail looked cute with her pink nose.  If you prefer you could use a small circle cutter and use cake, a cake ball, or Sno Ball Snack Cakes  for the tail instead.   You might have also noticed that our bunny cake does not have coconut on it. My kids and I do not like coconut at all, so I did not add any.  If you do like it, you can cover the frosting with a coating of coconut to give it a different look, We swirled the frosting a bit, to give it some texture  

The cake is now ready to eat and enjoy!   

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Last Minute Easter Ideas

Disclosure: There are some affiliate links to the supplies I used making these Easter crafts 

Easter is now only a few days away.   I am so not ready!!  Yesterday I realized I still need to buy eggs, and I also still need to buy some of the food for our Easter dinner. Eek!   Does anyone else feel a bit rushed in their preparations  when Easter is in March?   Over the years I have posted several Easter posts that I thought I would share again, for anyone needing some last minute ideas like me.  

My first picture is of my Bunny Treat Boxes .  They are still one of my favorite Easter crafts. They are quick and simple to make, and kids love them.  The supplies you will need to make them are mini square containers , mini white pom poms, white chenille pipe cleaners, and google eyes.  I found my supplies at the dollar store and craft store.  The dollar store does not always have the mini containers in stock, and can be hard to find, so I linked to the same ones on Amazon.  You can see the full tutorial to the Bunny Treat Boxes here.

If you like other spring animals as well.  You might like my Chick and Lamb treat boxes.  They are made in a similar manner but you would need round mini containers.

These Spring Animal Boxes were a lot of fun to make. All you need is cardboard tubes, a little bit of paint, and some basic craft supplies.  You can fill them with a small bag of candy, or small toy. 

One year I decorated the table with Easter Egg Buddies make from dollar store plastic eggs. 

My daughter made this craft for Easter a few years ago.  She found an extra large chenille stem at the craft store and turned it into a Bunny Head that is cute on it's own, but can also be added to a wreath or decoration. 

One year  I made a water proof Easter Wreath using an item you normally would not use on a wreath.  

Over the years we have shared some Unique Egg Coloring Techniques

Last year we shared a few new techniques like this one in the picture above.  You can see how we made it and a few others here.

Need some food ideas.  We got  your covered there too.  My kids look forward to my Leftover Ham Casserole every year that is made with our leftover Easter ham. 

We also have an Easter morning tradition for breakfast.  Pretty much every holiday, on the night before I whip up a batch of Make Ahead Stuff French Toast.  The family loves it and it makes busier morning breakfasts for much easier.  All you need to do is take it out of fridge and put it in the oven. 

I also have dessert covered.  Several years ago I made Easter Cake Pops. This was when my blog was pretty new, so remember that when you see how bad the pictures are. ;) I really should make them again, because my kids loved them, and they did turn out pretty cute. 

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Last Minute Easter Treats - Features of the Day

Can you believe that Easter weekend is here?! How did that happen.   Today I am featuring last minute Easter Treats that there is still time to make for Sunday.  

Long time followers know that I LOVE Peeps.  I could not resist sharing this quick and easy Peeps Cookie Cake by Growing up Gabel. (upper left) 

I love the pretty pastel colors of the Easter Muddy Buddies by The Rebel Chick. This would be a great to serve as your Easter get together  (upper right) 

If you love Easter chocolate, check out this Macadamia Nut Easter Bark by Woman of Many Roles.  It is colorful and perfect for the whole family to enjoy.  (lower left) 

These Candy Filled Egg Carton Chicks by One Little Project are both a craft and a treat.  Make the chicks with your kids, and then fill them with your favorite candy. (lower right) 

Be sure to stop by each of these last minute treats for the recipes and instructions.   There are so many posts from the party that I would love the feature, I am sharing many of them on my Facebook page throughout the weekend.  

Thank you very much Camille, Jenn, Jacqui, and Debbie for sharing your awesome links on Dare to Share! 

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Brunch Made Easy by Eggland's Best with Giveaway

I was recently asked if I would like to host a brunch and share about Eggland's Best. Since Eggland's Best it my favorite brand of eggs, of course I said yes. 

Did you know that Eggland's Best has a ton of great recipes on their website?  When planning our brunch we chose to try  Ham and Swiss Quiche, and French Toast Cupcakes both of which were delicious when we actually made them.

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