Easy Gumbo

I recently watched The Princess and the Frog. It was a very cute movie, and it put me in the mood for gumbo! Here is a super easy and delicious recipe.

Ingredients

• 1 tablespoon olive oil
• 1 medium onion, chopped
• 1 medium green bell pepper, chopped
• 5 stalks celery, chopped
• 2 cups chicken broth
• 1 cup brown rice
• 4 (15 ounce) cans black-eyed peas with liquid
• 1 (10 ounce) can diced tomatoes and green chiles
• 1 (14.5 ounce) can diced tomatoes
• 2 cloves garlic, finely chopped

Directions

1. Heat the olive oil in a large saucepan over medium heat, and cook the onion, pepper, and celery until tender. Pour in the chicken broth, and mix in rice, black-eyed peas with liquid, diced tomatoes and green chiles, diced tomatoes, and garlic. Bring to a boil, reduce heat to low, and simmer 45 minutes, or until rice is tender. Add water if soup is too thick.

Comments:

This recipe makes a TON. So if it's just two of you, invite some friends over, or cut the recipe in half. I only used 2 cans of black eyed peas and added some smoked sausage. This really made the meal for me. You can't have gumbo without meat! I also forgot to buy a bell pepper, and I used garlic powder instead of garlic. It still turned out pretty good! Also, if you are a working mom, this recipe could easily be put into a crockpot!

Serve with cornbread and eat lots of beignets for dessert!

Boston Cream Pie

The title of this dessert makes it sound difficult, but it is actually very simple. I loved this! I almost ate the whole thing myself!

Prep time: 10 minutes
Ready in: 1 hr 15 minutes

Ingredients

• 1 (3.4 ounce) package JELL-O Vanilla Flavor Instant Pudding
• 1 cup cold milk
• 1 1/2 cups thawed COOL WHIP Whipped Topping
• 1 round yellow cake layer (8 or 9 inch)
• 1 (1 ounce) square BAKER'S Unsweetened Chocolate
• 1 tablespoon butter
• 3/4 cup powdered sugar
• 2 tablespoons cold milk

Directions

1. Beat pudding mix and 1 cup milk with whisk 2 min. Stir in COOL WHIP. Let stand 5 min. Meanwhile, cut cake horizontally into 2 layers with serrated knife.
2. Stack cake layers on serving plate, spreading pudding mixture between layers.
3. Microwave chocolate and butter on HIGH 1 min.; stir until chocolate is melted. Add sugar and 2 Tbsp. milk; mix well. Spread over cake. Refrigerate 1 hour.

I made this recipe as written, and it was divine. The only suggestion I have is when making the chocolate frosting is to do everything SLOWLY. I made the mistake of dumping everything in the bowl at the same time and I ended up with a clumpy runny mess. So I remade it, but this time I added the sugar 1/4 cup at a time, and the milk 1 tbsp at a time--alternating. Does that make sense? I know you know what I mean.

To cut the cake in half, I used thread instead of a knife. It came out much cleaner and faster than it would if I used a knife.

Make this one! You'll love it! I guarantee it.