Quick and Easy Recipe Sharing

A tradition in my family and in the South is to have black-eyed peas and ham on New Years Eve to bring good luck in the new year.
Here's my easy crockpot recipe!

Ingredients:

1 lb black-eyed peas
1 small can of diced roasted chilis
1 each red and green peppers- diced
1 onion diced
1 lb diced ham
1 lb andouille sausage- sliced
1 tbsp of minced garlic
Creole seasoning and salt and pepper to taste

Directions:

-Rinse beans and put in crockpot
-Add diced green chilis
-In frying pan add a drizzle of oil and cook onion and peppers until slightly soft- add creole seasoning and salt and pepper to taste ( I rarely measure seasonings so maybe like a half teaspoon of each) add to crockpot
- in frying pan add drizzle of oil and lightly fry diced ham, garlic and sausage about 4 minutes and add to crockpot
-add water until its about 2 inches above beans
-cook on high for 3 hours and then turn to low for at least 5 hours.
- take a spoon and mash some of the beans up and add 1 tbsp of corn starch to thicken broth and stir.
- taste test and add any seasoning if needed

Serve over rice or by itself. Enjoy!

Easy Crockpot Pot Roast

A super easy recipe for pot roast that I made one day. Very tasty and you don't need a lot of seasonings.

- 1.5 to 2 lb chuck roast
- 1 cup diced onion
- 1 cup diced celery
- 1 cup diced carrots
- 1 to 2 cloves of garlic diced
- 1 can of French onion soup
- 1 packet of instant onion soup
- salt and pepper to taste

In a separate pan heat tbsp of oil
Salt and pepper your chuck roast and brown your roast
Transfer roast to crockpot and add soup and instant soup
Add all other ingredients

Cook on high for 4 to 5 hours or low for 7 to 8 hrs

Enjoy

What's cooking without great seasoning? Bland! But it can get quite expensive building a spice collection. And it can get confusing what spices to use. I am sharing my secret weapon with you. The Gourmet Collection has a variety of spice blends that make seasoning easy. Along with the Mediterranean blend below, I love the Garlic, Rosemary and Sea Salt blend , the Basil, Sun DriedTomato and Oregano blend and the Paprika, Lemon and Lime blend. It doesn't take a lot of this to season your food and one bottle usually lasts me 6 to 8 months. There are a lot of different flavors and a bottle runs between $6 to $8 bucks.

Truth!

Cherry BBQ Turkey Meatballs

1 18 oz bottle of Sweet Baby Ray's sweet Vidalia Onion BBQ sauce
1 bag of frozen turkey meatballs
1/2 cup of cherry preserves
2 tbsp of soy sauce

- thaw and brown turkey meatballs
- add all ingredients to crockpot and stir up to coat meatballs with sauce
-cook on low for about 2 hrs

Add more cherry preserves for more cherry flavor if you'd like. You can use pretty much any bbq sauce if you don't like the Vidalia onion one I use. I think I am going to try some cherry dr pepper next time instead of the soy sauce.

This is just so easy and it tastes amazing!

Made black bean quesadillas tonight since I have been craving them.

1 can of refried black beans
1 cup diced up red, yellow, and green pepper
1 Poblano pepper - clean out and dice
1/2 cup diced onion
Shredded Mexican cheese blend
Salsa of your choice

* heat up beans and add salsa in to your preferred taste- I used La Victoria Green Sauce
* cook the onion and peppers
* when the pepper/onion mix is done transfer to bowl
* layer your tortilla with black beans, pepper/onion mix, and shredded cheese. I always add some of the green sauce to it again
* transfer quesadilla to pan and brown tortilla about 3 to 4 minutes each side. This will heat up the filling again and melt the cheese.
* garnish with salsa, sour cream, guacamole

Yummy and very filling!!! I don't have a picture cause I ate it, lol!

Used my Instant Pot for the first time tonight. Mushroom chicken and rice. It was okay, I think the recipe I used was too bland, I had to add a lot of seasoning to it and the rice was too mushy. Anyone have any good recipes for an instant pot?

Breakfast for dinner tonight! Mushroom, cheese and peppers scramble, O'Brian potatoes, and bacon! Mmmmmm...bacon.

Dinner tonight: Mediterranean chopped salad with balsamic vinegrette and honey balsamic shrimp. Yummy@

What's your favorite Cooking Book?

This is my dish of the week ~ J

Penne alla Vodka Pasta This penne alla vodka is tender penne pasta tossed in a rich and delicious tomato, vodka and cream sauce, all topped with parmesan cheese.