Slow Cooker Red Beans and Rice

An easy to medium difficulty slow cooker recipe that is tasty and makes a lot of servings. This is adapted from the Slow Cooker Red Beans and Rice Cooking Light recipe. This recipe is easily in our monthly rotation.

Ingredients: 
3 cups chicken stock or broth
1 cup dried red beans (small red beans available in the latin food section of most supermarkets)
1 cup chopped sweet onion
1 cup chopped green bell pepper
3/4 cup chopped celery
1 tsp dried thyme
1 tsp paprika
3/4 tsp ground red pepper - if you prefer less spicy reduce to 1/4 tsp or omit
1/2 tsp black pepper
1 bay leaf
5 garlic cloves, minced
1/2 tsp salt
1 smoked ham hock/ham shank

1/2 package andouille sausage, sliced (I use andouille chicken sausage from Costco)

cooked long grain rice
1/4 cup chopped green onions

Soak beans overnight. Place first 13 ingredients in an electric slow cooker. Cover with lid, cook on high for 5 hours or low for 8 hours. Add andouille sausage and cook for another 30 minutes. Discard bay leaf. Serve over rice and sprinkle with green onions.

Optional approach: Add andouille sausage at the beginning of the slow cooker session. The sausage flavor will blend with the rest of the sauce and become more flavorless and bland... I prefer adding it in 30 minutes before serving.

Salmon Salad

Here is a simple salad easy for a weeknight meal or something for the weekend.

Ingredients

Salmon portions (1-2)

Lemon pepper seasoning (with garlic)

Salad mix - arugula and spring mix

Sweet onion, sliced

Cucumbers, sliced

Balsamic vinaigrette - I prefer Ken's Steakhouse 

Directions: Sprinkle lemon pepper seasoning over the salmon. Broil in an oven for 12 minutes or until salmon flakes. Prepare salad by arranging salad, onion and cucumber on a plate. Cover with salad dressing. Arrange salmon on top. Enjoy!

Table of Contents

Main Dishes:

Almond Chicken

Asian Meatballs
Baked Chicken and Rice Recipe
Baked Crispy Chicken
BBQ Chicken Pizza
BBQ Ribs
Chicken Enchiladas 
Chicken Lo Mein
Chicken Makhani
Chicken Pot Pie

Chicken Teriyaki 
Chicken Tikki Masala
Chicken Tofu Wontons

Herb Chicken and Wild Rice
Malaysian Curry

Mango Chicken and Rice
Orange Beef Stir Fry

Oven Baked Mac & Cheese
Oven Fried Chicken
Singapore Curried Chicken Noodles
Spanish Chicken and Rice

Thai Panang Curry
Thai Red Curry
Thai Yellow Curry

Fish Recipes: 
Asian Inspired Tilapia
Garlic Butter Orange Roughy
Hickory Encrusted Salmon
Lemon Pepper Tilapia

Lemon Herb Sea Bass
Salmon Salad
Soba Peanut Noodles with Salmon
Soy Ginger Glazed Salmon

Vegetarian Recipes:
Tumeric Tofu
Veggie Quesadillas 

Slow Cooker Recipes:
13 Bean Soup
Rosemary fennel pork tenderloin

Slow Cooker Honey Garlic Chicken
Slow Cooker Red Beans and Rice
Slow Cooker Pot Roast

Soups:
Chicken and Shrimp Gumbo
Chicken Wild Rice Soup 

Chicken Tortilla Soup
Ham and Bean Soup
Moroccan Chicken Stew
Peasant Soup
Spicy Asian Chicken Noodle Soup
White Chicken Chili
13 Bean Soup

Sides: 
BBQ Baked Beans
Corn Salad
Chicken and Queso

Baked Goods: 
Banana Bread

Banana Muffins
Blonde Brownies
Carrot Cake
Chocolate Chip Banana Bread
Cinnamon Rolls
Honey Oat Bread
Nancy's Cornbread

No bake chocolate oatmeal cookies
Peanut butter baked oatmeal
Pumpkin Muffins
Skillet Cornbread
Sweet Dinner Rolls

Spice Mixtures:
Magic Dust

Baked Chicken and TJ Batsmati Rice Medley

My mom used to make this for us growing up and I would always ask for it. I adapted the recipe by using TJ's rice medley and chicken stock. 

Ingredients: 
Chicken Thighs or drumsticks (skinned) 4-5 depending on size
Montreal steak seasoning
1/2 a large sweet onion - sliced
Pats of butter
2 3/4 cups Chicken broth or stock
1 1/2 cups Trader Joes Batsmati Rice Medley

Here are the ingredients - so simple!

Directions: 
Preheat oven to 400 degrees. Use a dutch oven or pampered chef deep dish baker. Add 1 1/2 cups batsmati rice medley to the bottom of the baker. Pour chicken broth over rice medley. Add 1-2 pats of butter to the rice mixture and sprinkle with steak seasoning. Place chicken thighs/drumsticks over rice mixture. Sprinkle with more steak seasoning. Add sliced onions then 4 pats of butter (see picture below). Cover baker and cook for 1 hr or until chicken is cooked thoroughly. You MUST cover the dish or the rice will not cook properly. Enjoy!

The finished product - liquid absorbed and chicken fully cooked! 

Cinnamon Rolls

This recipe combines using http://allrecipes.com/recipe/vanilla-spice-bread/ and Cooking light's triple play recipe. 

Ingredients for bread: 
1 1/4 cup milk
2 tsp vanilla
1/4 cup light brown sugar
dash of molasses
2 Tbsp white sugar
1/8 tsp cardamom
1/4 tsp ground coriander
2 Tbsp butter
1 1/4 tsp salt
3 cups bread flour
1 1/2 tsp active dry yeast

Cinnamon roll filling: 
2 Tbsp melted butter
2/3 cup packed brown sugar
1 Tbsp ground cinnamon (sometimes I add more)
1/2 cup chopped walnuts

Glaze: 
1 cup powdered sugar
2 Tbsp milk
1/2 tsp vanilla (sometimes I add more, but I like vanilla :))




Directions: Place items in the bread machine in the order specified by your manufacturer. Select dough cycle. Once the dough cycle is finished, roll the dough into a 9 x 13 inch rectangle. Brush the dough with 2-3 Tbsp butter (as needed). Mix brown sugar and cinnamon in a separate bowl. Sprinkle cinnamon sugar mixture over melted butter (leave room to seal the roll). Sprinkle walnuts. Beginning with a long side, roll up dough, jelly roll fashion, pinch seam to seal. Cut into 3/4 inch slides and place on a jelly roll pan (I use my large pampered chef baking stone). Cover and allow to raise in a dark draft free place for 1 hr or until the the rolls have doubled in size (I place them in my small oven on warm cycle). Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Bake for 15-20 min or until the rolls are golden brown. Allow to cool then glaze.

Skillet cornbread

2/3 cup milk
2 eggs
2 jiffy packages
1/4 cup butter
3 Tbsp sugar
1 tsp vanilla

Add to skillet. Cook at 350 degrees for 25 min. Consider adding can creamed corn

13 bean soup

Ingredients: 1 package of 13 or 16 beans, 1 14 oz can diced or crushed tomatoes, 32 oz chicken stock, 1 smoked ham shank, 1 med onion diced, 3 garlic cloves diced, handful of sliced carrots, 1 tsp chili, 1 tsp crushed red pepper, 1 bay leaf, salt and pepper to taste. Directions: 1) soak beans overnight 2) place all ingredients in slow cooker. Cook on high 8 hrs or low 10 hrs. * I added the carrots in 1/2 way through cooking so they weren't as mushy