Cheesalicious Broccoli and Ham Casserole

Prepare the following recipe in a 9x13 baking dish.  Preheat your oven to 350 degrees.

Ingredients: 

• One small-ish bag of frozen broccoli (or buy a big bag, use your discretion and save some for later)
  
• About two cups of cooked white rice
• One brick of cream cheese (if you use lite or fat-free, I bet no one will notice)
• Four cups of shredded cheddar (don't skimp on the fat here)
  
• One sleeve of buttery crackers
• 2-4 Tablespoons of butter 
• A few shakes of onion powder (lightly dust the contents of the casserole)
• 1-2 cups of chopped cooked ham (it depends on how how much you like ham; leftover ham works really well)
• Ground black pepper
• Garlic salt (or minced garlic if you have it)
  

Directions: 

• Steam the broccoli until tender (an easy way to do this is to put it in a microwave-safe baking dish with about half an inch of water; cook in the microwave on full-power for about 5-7 minutes. Drain the water and it's done). 
• While the broccoli is steaming, put your cheese to work. In a sauce pan, melt the cream cheese and half of the cheddar together. Add pepper and garlic to-taste. If you turn your burner on medium-high and stir continuously, this should go rather quickly. Just keep stirring so the sauce doesn't stick or burn. Also, don't turn it on high...it's just too hot for a cheese sauce. If your broccoli isn't done by the cheese is finished, just turn the sauce down to simmer and keep stirring.
  
• Line the bottom of your 9x13 dish with a nice layer of broccoli
• Dish the rice out on top of the broccoli.
• Add the ham on top of the rice and brocoli.
• Sprinkle with onion powder
• Pour cheese sauce over the entire mixture and stir (carefully) until everything is well covered with cheese sauce. 
• Top all with remaining shredded cheddar.
• Set the casserole aside.
• Melt your butter in a sauce pan (you can use the cheese pan if you want). Crunch up the sleeve of crackers (don't make dust out of them, just crunch them up). Add the crunchies to the butter and stir.
• Once well mixed, cover the top of the casserole with this topping. 

Bake in the oven for 1 hour at 350 degrees. Watch the casserole the last 20 minutes or so. If the crackers are starting to get too brown or starting to burn, take the casserole out cover it (carefully) with foil and return it to the oven to finish baking.

I made this as a side-dish for a Christmas party the last two years. However, it has enough hearty business to it that you could use it for a main dish. :) Enjoy!!