Money Saver Idea

A while ago I noticed that every week I spent about $10 on deli meat.  My husband is a creature of habit who has eaten the exact same thing for lunch every day since college....a sandwich, fruit, and yogurt.  Needless to say, sandwich meat is as necessary as water at our house. 

For Christmas last year I fixed my first ham.  It was easy and my husband ate the leftovers on sandwiches until February.  After that I was hooked!  Every 2-3 months, I buy and fix a large ham for dinner and freeze the leftovers in batches that last about a week.  Every Sunday my husband goes to the freezer and gets out a bag and has homemade ham on his sandwiches that week.  I'm going to try a turkey breast in the next few weeks and will let you know if that works as well.  I like ham b/c it's SOOO easy to fix and is difficult to ruin.  My kind of food!  Anyway, below is my ham recipe.  My glaze is a mish mash of several other recipes I have tried before and it's what my family likes best. 

A large ham costs anywhere from $15-$25 and the leftover sandwich meat lasts for 6-7 weeks.  It saves us $40-50 every 2 months on our grocery bill.  Below is the recipe - enjoy!

1 ham (already cooked - my favorite are the spiral cuts or the butt cut with the smallest bone - you get more meat)
Roasting pan (I got one at Bed Bath & Beyond recently for $10!  Before that I used the disposable aluminum ones)
Glaze: 1/2- 1 cup of apricot or apricot/pineapple preserves, 1/2 cup brown sugar, 1-2 TBS dijon mustard. Whisk together until mostly smooth

Pre-heat oven to 325.  Cut slits in the ham (unless it's already spiral cut) and place in roasting pan with cut part down.  Pour on about 1/2 the glaze & coat ham.  Bake 20-25 minutes/pound at 325 re-glazing with the second half of glaze about half way through the cooking time.  Let sit for a while before carving.