Slow Cooker Creamed Corn

Silky, buttery Slow Cooker Creamed Corn - the easiest side you’ll make this year and a perfect carry for that potluck, holiday or church supper.

An easy corn side dish that tastes like home.

Every table needs at least one dish that doesn’t demand attention - the kind you can start early, forget about for a while, and trust completely. For me, that’s this Slow Cooker Creamed Corn.

It’s humble, comforting, and quietly irresistible, the sort of side that people spoon onto their plate “just to try” and then circle back for a second helping.

This one is a bit of a cross between two recipes I saw on TikTok - one was called "None Left Corn" from kristencreativekids and the other is based on multiple copycat recipes for a Ritz Carlton's Creamed Corn recipe that's been floating around the web for a while.

Longevity Vegetable Bean Soup

A hearty vegetable and bean soup with big flavor and simple ingredients. Nourishing, flexible and perfect for easy weeknight cooking.

Longevity Vegetable Bean Soup

Every now and then, I stumble on a recipe that has good bones but needs a little coaxing to come alive.

That’s exactly how this soup started - as a clipped recipe for Dr. Greger’s Live Longer Vegetable Bean Soup - a weight loss soup - that promised nourishment but was a little lacking in flavor to my liking.

So I did what any Gulf Coast cook would do: I layered in flavor until it felt like home!

Gulf Coast Lenten Eggs and Rice

A simple Gulf Coast Lenten classic, made with warmed leftover rice, buttered eggs, and easy add‑ins with leftover veggies. Humble, comforting, and rooted in Mississippi and Louisiana Catholic tradition.

A Dish Rooted in Gulf Coast Catholic Life

Along the Mississippi and Louisiana Gulf Coast, Lent has always carried its own rhythm. Fridays meant no meat, but nobody went hungry.

Why Eggs and Rice?

Catholic families often relied on simple, meatless meals during Lent. Rice was inexpensive, filling, and always on hand. Eggs added protein, and leftover vegetables stretched the meal even further.

Over time, the dish became a quiet Lenten tradition, not celebrated, not written down, but remembered in the rhythms of family life. It was the kind of meal you made because it was Friday during Lent, you were Catholic, and you had leftovers.

This easy sheet‑pan dinner layers fresh green beans, tossed with olive oil and bold Italian seasonings, with cooked and crumbled Italian sausage and a silky “cheater Alfredo,” baked under a blanket of melted cheese. It’s weeknight‑friendly, family‑approved, and perfect as a hearty side or a full meal.

Sheet Pan Green Beans with Italian Sausage

This was another one of those recipes that passed through my timeline on social media video shorts.

For someone who isn't particularly active on social, that seems to happen a lot because those little Facebook reels that are featured in our timelines seem to draw me in. I don't do videos and doubtful I will although my eldest grandson, soon off to college already (how does that happen so fast??) tells me I need to.

I told him that since most of the videos I see appear to require me to be cute, in full hair and makeup, bejeweled and with highly decorated and maintained fingernails, well... don't hold your breath! 😂

Nonetheless, I sure do seem to get alot of inspiration from those short videos here lately!

Whole kernel frozen corn and creamed corn, paired up with a thickener and shredded cheese for a quick and easy, cheesy creamed corn your family will love.

Cheesy Creamed Corn

I realize we're on the waning side of in-season summer corn, so while you might just find the last of some fresh corn at the market, as I write this it's September and we're heading into fall.

Think about it. September.

Meaning Thanksgiving and Christmas are right around the corner and this is a great side dish for either of those holidays. Others too and, it works well with a slow cooker! I'd say worth a bookmark.

Fresh asparagus, trimmed, tossed with extra virgin olive oil and seasonings and air fried.

Air Fryer Roasted Asparagus

I love asparagus and I especially love it roasted and let me tell you, if you haven't tried it in your air fryer, you don't know what you're missing.

Roasting really brings out the sweetness in vegetables and intensifies the flavor and the air fryer is just another great option.

Fresh green beans, trimmed, cut and blanched, prepared with onion, garlic and toasted almonds and finished with lemon, salt and pepper.

Green Beans with Almonds

Green beans are a very common vegetable side in this house because even my veggie adverse hubby, known here as The Cajun, will eat them!

I have to give some kudos to the man though, because since I've been blogging food, he has gotten a bit more adventurous with trying different veggies and other dishes that, frankly, he once would not touch. Typically if I put it on his plate, he'll try it and many times, says how good it was!

Shrimp and Pasta with Vegetables (Primavera)

Linguine pasta in a cream sauce with a mix of vegetables and shrimp.

Shrimp and Pasta with Vegetables

This dish came about when I found quite a few mixed bags of frozen vegetables up in my freezer that I had bought for something very specific that I had intended to make - but forgot about. That happens to me alot!

And I know, you're gonna say "now Mary. That's pasta primavera!" Well, yes, to a certain degree, it is!

Pasta primavera is an American dish of pasta in a cream sauce with fresh vegetables, typically fresh spring vegetables, and the primary difference here is that instead of those typical fresh vegetables, I used those frozen ones.

Waste not, want not, and plus, it shaves off a little time!

A cabbage casserole made with the trinity of southern vegetables sauteed in bacon drippings and butter, chunks of cabbage, diced tomatoes and topped with shredded cheese and buttered breadcrumbs.

Cabbage Creole Casserole

I love cabbage. My husband? Well, not so much. I honestly don't know what is wrong with him! Just kidding y'all, but let's just say that I'm the lover of veggies in this family, not him.

Seriously though, 99% of the time when I buy a head of cabbage, I keep it pretty simple making either a simple boiled or classic fried cabbage, two of my top cabbage favorites. Even still, I am always trying new things with it too.

Yes. Even if it means that I'll be eating on it for a week, while I still have to think about what my hubby is gonna eat too! 

Fresh green beans, slow stewed Southern-style all day, with fatback, salt pork or bacon and potatoes, prepared in the slow cooker.

Slow Cooker Fresh Green Beans

I love green beans!

Well, truth is I love vegetables in general really, but green beans are my number one most prepared side dish, because they're an easy, tasty side dish and thank goodness my veggie adverse husband eats them too.

They are my in a hurry go-to side when I need to add something green to a plate of protein and carbs and they're much quicker than whipping up a garden salad, although in reality, my hubby thinks a plate of torn up iceberg lettuce qualifies as a salad!

Cabbage, tossed with salt pork and onion and smothered down with a little chicken broth. Simply seasoned, satisfying, comfort food.

Smothered Cabbage with Salt Pork

I love cabbage. Any way really, but most often when I pick up a head of cabbage thinking I might prepare something new for the website, most of the time I go with the simple fried cabbage I love so much.

It's actually pretty close to this version, though bacon based, and for some folks, as much as a full pound of it!

Carrots and sweet potatoes, tossed with olive oil, salt and red pepper flakes and oven roasted.

Roasted Carrots and Sweet Potatoes

I love roasted vegetables, and this is the time of year - when you don't mind turning on your oven - to get your fill of them!

Roasting really brings out the natural sweetness and enhances the overall flavor of vegetables and you just can't beat the ease of preparation.

Soup Meat Vegetable Beef Soup

A rich, hearty mixed vegetable beef soup, made with The Bouilli of a soup meat roast and bone broth.

Soup Meat Vegetable Beef Soup with Bone Broth

In case you missed my previous post for The Bouilli, this is the Beef Vegetable Soup that I made after preparing the initial meal of "boiled meat with juices," served with rice.

In short, Creole Bouilli refers to the preparation of a beef roast that is slow-braised (you don't really want to boil it) for several hours, completely covered in liquid, and to which I added some seared beef bones.

While you can use any leftover roast for this soup, of course, the outstanding flavor of The Bouilli makes a knock your socks off soup. To learn more about The Bouilli, tap that link and learn all about it! 

A delicious corn casserole side dish, made with a good seasoning base of bacon and drippings with onion and bell pepper, a light roux, and just a touch of sour cream along with some Rotel diced tomatoes with green chilies.

Rotel Corn Casserole

I just love corn and I especially love the versatility of it!

Don't get me wrong - I love it pretty good right from the cob, unadorned, with the exception of some butter and salt, of course, and there are a lot of ways to prepare it just for that. One of my top favorites is the no-shuck, no silking, 4-minute microwave method, especially when I need just an ear or two for another dish.

Of course, fresh corn on the cob is best at its peak and in season, but it's now available year-round, and though you pay a little more for it, I still find it to be pretty tasty even though it's having to do a bit of traveling. I also enjoy both frozen and canned corn, and you'll find a wide variety of recipes using all of those right here on my website.

A hot corn dish, Veracruz Corn may be served as either a side dish, great alongside your barbecue, or as a hot corn appetizer with crisp tortilla chips. Filled with goodness of fresh, off the cob corn, marinated in a fiery blend of Southwestern seasonings, tossed with veggies and then dressed with a chipotle aïoli and cheese, and passed under the broiler.

Veracruz Hot Corn Dip

I based this corn dish off of one that I saw in Eva Longoria's cookbook, Eva's Kitchen: Cooking with Love for Family and Friends. It sounded a little like maque choux, but with some spicy flair, which it most certainly has!

Veracruz corn was a popular dish on the menu at the now shuttered Beso Steakhouse in Hollywood, owned by Longoria, and though I believe it was considered a side dish on the menu, I really enjoyed it best as an appetizer, served hot with some crisp tortilla chips.

Fresh asparagus, oven-roasted with an olive oil and lemon vinaigrette. Top with cheese and buttered bread crumbs for a gratin.

Oven-Roasted Asparagus

Asparagus is my number one spring veggie. Yes, I know that it's available year round these days, but out of season it's not the best in my little ole humble opinion. The spears are often tiny and tough, and not nearly as flavorful as when they are at peak and in season in April and May.

It's very easy to cook also, with my number one favorite being a butter-steamed skillet method, followed by oven roasted. Air frying is really good too!

Fresh coin cut carrots, steamed in the Instant Pot, then tossed with a honey based butter glaze.

Instant Pot Honey Glazed Carrots

I tell y'all what. I am sure enjoying my Instant Pots {affil link} and I've used them an awful lot. To be fair, I have also enjoyed the other brands of electronic pressure cookers that were born before the IP brand was all the rage, all of which I still have, but what I'm saying is that you just cannot beat the ease of preparation and time savings with this appliance.

Thickly cut slices of summer squash, tossed with extra virgin olive oil, salt and pepper, and a mixture of dried herbs, then grilled.

Grilled Squash with Herbs

I hesitated to share this "recipe" at first but then I thought hey, the first time I ever wanted to grill squash, I had to look up "how to grill squash" because I wanted to do it right, so hopefully it will be helpful. There is always somebody, somewhere just learning to cook.

Besides y'all. Doesn't that just look scrumptious? It's really quite simple, but along the way I've discovered a couple of helpful tips.

Unbundled Green Beans with Brown Sugar Sauce

Fresh green beans, blanched, tossed with bacon and onion, then baked in a brown sugar sauce.

Unbundled Green Beans

No doubt at some point you have seen or made bacon wrapped green bean or asparagus bundles. Marinated with either a brown sugar sauce or a seasoned olive oil vinaigrette, then wrapped in bacon and broiled, baked or grilled, they are indeed delicious, but pretty time intensive to make. This recipe gives you the flavor, in a casserole form, without so much work.

Oven roasted chunks of carrots, tossed with olive oil, seasonings, cayenne, balsamic vinegar and honey.

Honey Roasted Carrots

One of the best ways to bring out the flavors of vegetables is to roast them and carrots really shine. Bring them beyond the typical oil, salt and pepper with a few special enhancements and you've got a dish that is fit for your holiday dinner table.