My kids go back to school the day after Labor Day.  We are trying to take advantage of every minute we can at the beach and playgrounds.  So, that means we often don’t even think about dinner until 8:00 pm or later.  I tell my children we eat like Europeans.

This was one of those days.  We got home at 8:30 pm and I needed to get dinner on the table fairly quickly as I was hearing lots of grumbling about how nothing was cooking in the slow cooker.    While everyone was showering and getting all the sand off I was able to pull dinner together.   I found the original recipe for Sweet and Sour Ham at Tasteofhome.com.  The recipe below has triple the original sauce recipe because my family likes more sauce to put over their rice.

It was quick and delicious.  My family loved it over the white rice and there was enough leftovers for one serving the next day.  Dinner was on the table in 25 minutes and served with a green spinach salad it made a complete meal.

Ingredients:

• 1 (20 oz.) can of pineapple in juice, tidbits or chunks are best
• 3/4 cup ketchup
• 6 tsp. low sodium soy sauce
• 4 tsp. sugar
• 3 cups of ham, fully cooked, diced into chunks (I used turkey ham)
• 1 red pepper, chopped
• 1 yellow pepper, chopped
• 3 TBSP cornstarch
• 6 TBSP cold water
• Rice, fully cooked if desired

Directions:

1. Drain pineapple, reserving about 1 cup of juice; set pineapple aside.
2. In a large bowl,combine the reserved juice, ketchup, soy sauce and sugar. Add ham and chopped peppers.
3. In a large skillet, cook and stir ham mixture over medium heat for 5-7 minutes or until peppers are tender.
4. Combine cornstarch and water in a small bowl.  Stir mixture until smooth.  Add cornstarch mix to the  skillet.
5. Bring to a boil; cook and stir for 2-5 minutes or until thickened.
6. Stir in pineapple and heat through.
7. Serve with rice if desired.

HINT:  Start your rice and sauce about the same time and both will be done in about 20 minutes.