Asiago Cheese and Cracked Black Pepper Rice with Ham

Asiago Cheese and Cracked Black Pepper Rice with Ham. Packed with mushrooms, carrots, kale and ham, this dish is so delicious and the perfect way to revamp your holiday leftovers!

Disclosure: This is a sponsored post in collaboration with Knorr Selects.

And just like that, it’s mid-December! The holidays are here! Are you one of those people who starts their holiday shopping in October? Or, right after Thanksgiving? I start in early December and I love the fact that I can order a lot of gifts online. For the gifts I know I’m getting, it makes the process so much easier and I don’t have to drive anywhere. We don’t go crazy with the gifts over the holidays. We just buy a few gifts for the girls and make sure they get the top 2 to 3 things from their list for Santa.

However, we do try to spend more time together doing family activities. I want to create lasting memories with my girls. I want to establish family traditions and things that they will want to do with their kids.  For the past two years, we’ve gone to watch A Christmas Carol and this year, we’re having holiday tea at a local hotel, in their restaurant.  It will be a traditional English-style afternoon tea, complete with finger sandwiches, delicious desserts like madeleine cookies, macaroons, petit fours and more! I can’t wait! I might be more excited than my kids. The hotel we are going to also has an outdoor ice skating rink so it will definitely be a fun time for us all!

This year, we are spending Christmas in Texas with everyone. My parents, my brother’s family, my sister’s family and my family. My parents will have a packed house but we are so excited! We usually make a Christmas ham and we also have steak (maybe this is a Texas thing?). Either way, the dining table will be full and our schedule will be jam packed.

My mom always calls me a week or so in advance so we can plan out the menu for each day. Yes, I am my mother’s daughter. We are not big on wasting food so we’re always looking for ways to use our holiday leftovers.

A Christmas ham is a holiday tradition for us but we always seem to have a lot leftover. In the past, we’ve made ham sandwiches and other things the next day. This year, I’m going to take our holiday leftovers to a new level with this Knorr Asiago Cheese and Cracked Black Pepper Rice! It’s so delicious and so easy to make! We paired it with some roasted parsnips and roasted sweet potatoes on the side. This recipe would also work in a pita (easy and the kids will love it!) or as a casserole! The possibilities are endless!

For this recipe, I used mushrooms, carrots, kale and, one of my favorites,