Crock Pot Rustic Potatoes Au Gratin with Ham

Easter has come and gone and my refrigerator holds a bounty of leftovers. This is one of those times I need to plan my weekly menu on the abundance in my freezer, pantry, and refrigerator. After doing an inventory of what  leftovers I need to use up I contemplate recipes I can use. In the past I've used some websites that allow you to search recipes by ingredients on-hand, but today I have an old stand-by I use for leftover ham. 

This is a recipe I came across years ago in a crock pot cookbook. Unfortunately, I can't remember which one. I've adapted the recipe over the years, but I'm sure it's very close to many recipes in old church cookbooks. This is a great recipe because it is very adaptable. Sometimes I add more cheese. Sometimes I use different "cream-of" soups. Sometimes I add leftover (or fresh) vegetables. The point with this dish is to make it creamy, and to use up leftovers.

Since only GoodMan and I would be eating this I decided to make a very small batch. In the old days I would have at least doubled and probably tripled this recipe. This time I made enough for our dinner and enough for lunch the next day. I like to round out this meal with a green vegetable and a dinner roll. If we have other holiday leftovers like Cherry Fluff Salad, or 7-Layer Jello I try to incorporate them into the meal ~ it's all about cleaning out the refrigerator and not letting anything go to waste!

I'll show you how I made this batch:

I gathered the ingredients; potatoes (the picture shows 5, but I only used 4), onion, garlic, ham, 1/2 block of 1/3 less fat cream cheese, 3 ounces of extra sharp cheddar cheese, can of cream of mushroom soup, 1/2 cup of milk, 1/4 teaspoon of ground nutmeg and 1/8 teaspoon of fresh ground black pepper.

 In a microwave safe bowl, I combined the can of soup, cream cheese, 2 cloves of chopped garlic, and the milk.

I added the cheddar cheese and microwaved the mixture at 30 second intervals until the cheeses melted.

 I added the nutmeg and black pepper and gave it a stir.

 I scrubbed the potatoes and sliced them (with the skins on) about 1/4 inch thick. I also thinly sliced the onion.

 I put about a half of a cup of the soup mixture on the bottom of the crock pot.

 And then I started layering. I added about a third of the potatoes and a third of the onions.

 Then I added about half of the ham. Sometimes I tear the ham slices apart like I did this time, but if the slices are thicker I like to cut the ham into cubes. If I plan to add fresh or frozen vegetables like peas or green beans I add them at this point.

 I add the barest amount of the soup mixture. Then I do another layer of potatoes, onion, ham and soup. Then for a final layer I put potatoes and onion and top it with the remaining soup. I put the lid on the crock pot and turn it low to cook for about 6 hours.

This is how it looked when it was done. It was browned and crusty on the edges and creamy and yummy on the inside.

 And this was the end result. We had some leftover Cherry Fluff Salad and a dinner roll (all leftovers from our Easter dinner). This meal was satisfying on many levels!

What was the taste tester's bottom line?
Since this is a long-time favorite I didn't ask my tester (GoodMan) for a review. I noticed he cleaned his plate, so I think it's safe to say it was a "thumb's-up".

The Bottom Line: This stays in my recipe collection especially for using up leftover ham.