Hey Mom, What's For Dinner?

Ham Broccoli Ring

This is one of the boys' favorite meals. Maybe it's because they also love Hot Pockets thrown in the microwave for a quick weekend lunch? ;-)

I found the original recipe idea in a magazine years and years ago, changed it up a bit and used to make it once in a while. But then for whatever reason, I stopped. Probably because my (then) little sons were picky about vegetables. One day a couple of years ago I remembered it. I made it up, served it, and watched it disappear in seconds. All the guys loved it, including DS#2 who at that time hated broccoli (or anything green) but loved ham. He didn't believe there was broccoli in it even though it's as green as can be. Silly boy, but I didn't argue.

I know a lot of you are short on time too so tonight while I was making this up for dinner, I took some pics along the way. It's delicious, cheap, and looks like you spent way more time than you did. ;-) I think the total prep time is 15 minutes or less. I hope you like it as much as we do.

Ingredients: (Makes 2 large rings, see notes below for quantity changes)
3 cans of crescent roll dough
1 lb. sliced deli ham, sliced (while still stacked) into 1 inch squares
2-3 cups shredded Swiss cheese
3-4 cups frozen broccoli florets (mostly thawed)
2 medium onions
about 1/2 cup dijon style mustard
2 tbl parsley (fresh or dried)
1 tsp black pepper

Preheat oven to 350°.

Finely chop broccoli and onions in the food processor (or by hand) and turn out into a large bowl. Add ham, separating the slices a bit as you do. Add the cheese, mustard, parsley and pepper and mix together, so it looks like this:



Open the crescent rolls and arrange 12 crescents on each baking stone (or cookie sheet) like this:



Scoop and arrange 1/2 of the broccoli mixture onto each ring, like this: (I use my hands to do this so I can keep the mixture compacted and neat.)



Stretch the crescent points up and over the broccoli mixture and tuck the ends under, like this:



Both rings complete and ready to bake:



Bake for approx. 20-25 minutes, until the dough is golden brown, like this:



Slice like pizza and enjoy!

Notes:

Before my sons' appetites became insatiable, I used to use 1 can of crescent rolls and make only 1 ring, served with a green salad. The rest of the ingredients are then decreased by roughly half, but you'll have a bit left over (great on toast in the toaster oven for an open-faced sandwich the next day!). You can also use 2 cans, 8 crescents per ring, and decrease the ingredients by roughly one-third. Play with it, it's very forgiving.

The original recipe called for canned ham, but I changed that to the prepackaged sliced ham found in the refrigerated lunchmeat section of the grocery store. You can substitute deli or pre-cooked/leftover shredded chicken, turkey, or your other favorite meat, and cheddar (or another) cheese can also be substituted for the swiss. If using chicken or turkey, try substituting tarragon for the parsley.

* * * * *

For Non-US'ers, we have crescent (and other) roll doughs which come pre-shaped and rolled up in a cardboard "can." These are found in the refrigerated goods section of the grocery store. Pillsbury is the most popular brand. The can is "popped" open by tapping it on the counter, hence where the Pillsbury Dough Boy, Pop 'N Fresh, got his name.

(I use the plain dough, not the butterflake dough shown here, but this was the best photo of the can that I could find.)