Sheet Pan Ham Dinner for 2

As the holidays approach, I am always thinking up ways to make an easy, quick meal for my hubby and I that celebrates the season, but doesn’t result in a horrifying amount of dishes to wash up when I’m ready to sit on the couch and relax. This meal ticks so many of my preferred recipe boxes: easy, little clean up, and satisfyingly delicious. The recipe I used said this meal was for two, but with our thick pastured pork ham steaks and the nice amount of veggies, this could easily be made for a family of four. We definitely had leftovers, which we used for breakfast the next day! I’ll show you how after the recipe.

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Sheet Pan Ham Dinner for Two

Ingredients

Apple-Mustard Sauce

• 1 tablespoon apple butter

• 1 tablespoon dijon mustard

• 1 tablespoon orange juice

Mashed Potatoes

• 1 pound russet potatoes (1 medium potato)

• 1/4 teaspoon salt

• 1/4 teaspoon black pepper

• 1/4 teaspoon garlic powder

• 1/2 teaspoon dry parsley

• 1/2 teaspoon dry chives

• 1 tablespoon butter

• 3/4 cup milk (hot)

Carrots

• 3/4 pound small/young carrots (cut in half)

• 1 tablespoon olive oil

• 1/2 lemon juice

• 1/4 teaspoon dry thyme

• 1/4 teaspoon dry rosemary

• 1/8 teaspoon salt

Brussel Sprouts

• 3/4 pound Brussels sprouts (cleaned and cut in half)

• 1 tablespoon olive oil

• 1/8 teaspoon salt

Ham

• 2 individual ham steaks

• apple slices

• orange slices

Recipe Instructions

1. Preheat oven to 400F.

2. Apple Mustard Sauce: In a small ramekin, combine the apple butter, mustard, and orange juice. Mix together.

3. Mashed Potatoes: Peel and dice potatoes to approximately 1/2-1 inch in size. Place potatoes in a ceramic dish in 1 layer. Sprinkle with spices and add pieces of butter. Heat up milk and pour over potatoes. Cover potatoes with foil and stick in oven immediately to get the potatoes cooking.

4. Veggies and Sheet Pan Assemblage

   1. Place orange slices onto the sheet pan and cover with apple slices. Place the ham steaks on top.

   2. Add carrots to the sheet pan and drizzle with olive oil, add spices and mix together.

   3. Add the cut brussel sprouts to the sheet pan, drizzle with olive oil and season.

   4. Place ramekin with apple mustard on sheet pan.

   5. Take potatoes out of oven and place on the sheet pan.

   6. Bake the entire sheet for 40 minutes.

5. Remove sheet from oven and take foil off of the potatoes. Mash with fork or potato masher. It will be thin with liquid at first, but the potatoes will absorb the milk and get thick. If your potatoes are not soft enough yet, stick them in the microwave for a few minutes to cook the rest of the way.

And here is the finished result!

Tate and I even had leftovers! I probably could have just made one ham steak for the two of us, but I didn’t mind the extras when we had breakfast the next day. We had finished off all the carrots and brussel sprouts, but we had a little bit of the mashed potatoes and ham steak leftover. So, we had fried potato patties, ham steak, scrapple and eggs for breakfast on Sunday morning. Talk about a he-man breakfast! That breakfast lasted me till dinner time. If you are looking for quality meats, our ham, scrapple, and other pastured pork cuts are available at our farm store. Stop by on Saturdays and Wednesdays and we will help you come up with a meal plan!

Is Chili a Soup or a Stew?

I have no idea the answer to that question. All I know is that when the cool weather comes in the Fall, Tate and I cannot wait to break out our chili recipe. It is the perfect mix of flavors and is always best as leftovers when the tomatoes and meat flavors blend and deepen. It is traditional and hearty and when done right using spicy Mexican chili powder, the heat warms your body all the way to your toes. We sometimes top it with a salsa cruda with guacamole or just make a batch of sweet honey corn bread.

Old Fashioned Chili

• 2 lbs. grass fed ground beef

• 2 medium onions, chopped

• 1 green pepper, chopped

• 3 garlic cloves, minced

• 2 cans kidney beans (drained)

• 2 cans diced tomatoes with juice

• 1 8 ounce can tomato sauce

• 1.5 cup beef broth

• 2 tablespoons Hot Mexican Chili Powder or regular Chili Powder (less spicy)

• 1/2 teaspoon oregano

• 1/2 teaspoon cumin

• salt to taste

1. In a skillet, cook hamburger, onion, bell pepper, and garlic. Drain off fat if necessary.

2. Transfer to slow cooker and add kidney beans, diced tomatoes, tomato sauce, broth, chili powder, oregano and cumin.

3. Stir to combine.

4. Cook on low for 8 to 9 hours.

5. Add salt to taste in the last hour.

6. Serve with corn bread, avocado or salsa cruda.

This recipe can be easily modified for cooking on the stovetop or in the pressure cooker. I have made it all three ways. I usually cook it on the stove until it reaches a thicker consistency. Chili tastes fantastic the longer it cooks, so don’t be afraid to leave it on a low temperature on the stove.

In my instant pot, I follow the same recipe except saute the meat right in the pot and then add the vegetables to be sauted. I pressure cook it for 30 minutes, allow the pressure to release naturally (about 10 minutes). You can serve immediately if you like a brothy chili, but I prefer mine thickened, so I usually turn it on saute for an hour to let it cook down with the lid off. Delicious! You could also add cornstarch mixed with water at this stage to make the thickening faster, but I’m not usually in a rush when I am making chili, so I just cook the heck out of it.

If you are interested, here is our recipe for salsa cruda as well. It makes a delicious, fresh topping to the chili.

Salsa Cruda

• 3-4 ripe tomatoes, diced

• 1 small red onion, diced

• 1 jalapeno, minced

• 1/3 cup chopped cilantro

• Juice of Lime

• Garlic powder to taste (or fresh minced garlic)

• Salt to taste

1. Mix together and serve immediately on top of chili.

Happy cooking!