Ham Casserole

This is one of those things that I grew up eating, and never knew where my mom got the recipe from, but we all loved eating it, especially when it got cold out!  It is definitely a kid friendly dish...noodles, peas, ham and cheese!  It is colorful, and little ones can eat it with their fingers after it cools a little bit!  It also makes delicious left overs, and is even better the day after!  

Ham Casserole 
Yields 8 servings

To Prepare the Casserole 
1. Pre-heat your oven to 350 degrees.
2. Boil 2 boxes of tri color fiori.  This will be approximately 24 ounces of pasta.  We normally use elbow noodles, but I already has the fiori in the pantry and decided to go with them.  They tomato and spinach in them added to the flavor of the casserole, and it made it look really pretty when it was done!
3. Once the pasta is done cooking, drain it and put it back in the pot you cooked it in, or in a large bowl.
4. Mix in 1 pound of thawed frozen peas.
5. Mix in 2 packs of pre-diced ham cubes.  You can usually find this in vacuum sealed baggies in the meat section of the grocery store with the ham products!  It works out to being about 1 pound of ham, so if you cannot find the cubes, you can cut 1 pound of ham steak into cubes and add it in to the mixture!

6. Mix in 1 pound of extra sharp shredded cheese.

7. Pour the entire mixture into a casserole dish.

8. Bake at 350 degrees for approximately 20 minutes, or until the cheese has melted and the top has started to turn golden brown!