The original recipe called for 1 cup of diced ham and 1 cup of diced turkey but since I don't eat pork, I used two cups of diced turkey ham. Worked fine but might be nice to try with a mix of turkey and turkey ham too. Also, I used chick-pea macaroni instead of regular macaroni, and there was no real difference. I didn't try any of the optional items, but I'm leaving it in the recipe just in case.