A simple dish of lightly seasoned pasta with potatoes, onions and peas. Simple, filling, comfort food and one of my year-round favorites, but a great option for Lent too.

Pasta with Peas and Potatoes

Lent has arrived, so I'll be sharing some very simple, non-recipe "recipes" over the next couple weeks to add to my list of Lent-friendly meal ideas. Some you will likely be familiar with already for Lent, others may be a reminder of recipes you've forgotten about.

Most of them, like this one, actually come from the Depression-era, when meals were simple, cheap, filling and meat free. They are actually meals that I eat throughout the year, especially if I'm on my own for dinner.

This chicken and dressing casserole is an old school well-loved dish in the South. It goes by many names - Poulet de France, Poulet de Normandy, Poulet Chicken or simply Poulet - made with cooked chicken, stuffing mix, milk sauce, topped with cream soup, and finished with cheese.

Chicken and Dressing Casserole

I have mentioned here before that once upon a time I did the Once a Month Cooking (OAMC) system {affil link} where you spend one weekend essentially cooking meals to freeze for the month. I did it with a small upright refrigerator freezer too and I loved it. The internet was a different place back then and nothing like it is now, so everything occurred on bulletin boards and forums.

Anybody else remember when AOL, Prodigy and CompuServe were the top three ways to the internet and you could only access them with a dial up connection, meaning that you had to tie up your home phone line? There was no such thing as a smartphone in those days.

Boy oh boy am I datin' muhself there.

Inexpensive, filling and belly warmin', large lima beans have always been a favorite bean in the south, and now, they are made easy with the Instant Pot!

Instant Pot Large Lima Beans

Beans are a popular meal down here, and we eat them year round in the south. Heck, red beans and rice dinners are practically a religion down here along the Gulf Coast, and a diner staple every single Monday of the year, all year long.

Even with slow stewing on the stovetop, these beans don't require a lot of tending to, but factor in the Instant Pot, or whatever electronic or stovetop pressure cooker you favor, and they are done with little prep and in no time. I don't even saute the veggies - though you certainly can.

Chicken wings with a zing! Meaty chicken wings, coated with a lightly spicy rub and marinated in the fridge for an hour or up to overnight, baked and tossed with a simple, classic buttery hot sauce or tossed in a wing glaze.

Deviled Chicken Wings

I love chicken wings! I'm constantly playing around with them, trying different seasonings and different cooking methods - baked, air fried, smoked, grilled, slow cooker, and yes, even in one of those microwave Rangemate grills! {affil link} Each of them provides a little different feel and texture and benefits, but I've yet to run across a wing I didn't like.

A simple soup, made from tiny butter beans, lightly seasoned with onion and celery, thickened with a puree and finished with a sprinkle of sliced green onions. Easy and delicious!

Butter Bean Soup

Among the varieties of southern beans and peas, butter beans are right at the top. In addition to their creamy buttery texture and taste, they are a powerhouse source of low fat, high protein fiber, rich in iron and B vitamins too.

They're certainly popular in the south and a lot of folks start planting them in the early spring for a plentiful summer crop. I hope that you put some up in the freezer, because this soup is fantastic! No worries if you didn't though, because they're widely available year round in both dried and frozen forms too.

A bone-in turkey breast, oven-braised in chicken stock with aromatics, in a covered pot and pictured here with a baked sweet potato and my Super Creamy Macaroni and Cheese.

Braised Turkey Breast

It's rare that I will cook a turkey or chicken without brining it first. Although I use an in oven thermometer {affil link} these days, there has been many a time that I thought I had that timing down perfect, only to result in an overcooked, tasteless and dry bird. It's not hard to do given how poultry is bred today. Those thermometers are a godsend, especially with roasting any meat.

A brine gives a little extra insurance against that, whether you're using a thermometer or not, as well as infusing some salty goodness into the meat. That said, since this turkey breast was going to be cooked with a braising method, I decided to give it a try without either. The braising process does wonders to meat and I was delighted with the result!

Heaven on a Cracker or a Chip - Bacon Cream Cheese Dip

A super easy dip, made with cream cheese, Monterey Jack cheese and mayonnaise with green onions, finished with a bacon and Ritz cracker topping and warmed in the microwave. Simple and divine!

Heaven on a Cracker - Bacon Cream Cheese Dip

New Year's Day food is just about played out in the house. I made both my black-eyed peas and the cabbage with sausage and tomatoes, plus the rice of course, in my Instant Pot! Well, Instant Pots because I had three of them going!

Yesterday though, The Cajun and I were enjoying the opening of NFL playoffs (quite exciting they were), so I thought I would make a dip I've been wanting to try forever and kept forgetting about. It's a variation of a recipe from one of the Sweet Potato Queen's books {affil link}, that she calls Heaven on a Cracker, and it is rich and delicious.

Perfect as an appetizer for entertaining, these fluffy, gooey, cheesy, Green Chile Cheese Squares also fit well for a brunch or buffet, and they're good at room temperature or served warm.

Green Chile Cheese Squares

These little cheesy squares are a favorite around the holidays down here. Always have been.

There are so many iterations of them now, that no two are alike either, so if mine don't look the same as your recipe, that's why. Some of them are flatter, more cheesy and gooey, others are more cakey, and yet others very souffle-like made with many eggs. Heck it's even been turned it into a casserole, so it can be served either way, as a finger food or as a side dish for those nice brunches. How many squares you get, depends completely on how you cut them!

One thing I can tell you is that they are rich and addictive, so try to share them because, you know... there's lots of cheese and well, you know all about that whole cheese thing, right? They are delicious! My preference is to eat them warm or at room temperature, though they're pretty good cold too.

Cheeseballs make great party appetizers and the chipped beef version is exceptional. Made with dried beef, green onions, horseradish, Cajun seasoning, Worcestershire and parsley, then rolled in more dried beef and parsley.

Chipped Beef Cheese Ball

Okay y'all... we're going old school today, in the name of cheese balls and this cheese ball in particular! Along with the pineapple one, this has always been one of my favorites in the family of cheeseballs. I don't know why I got away from making them really, but I'm glad I got back to it. They make great party food!

Typically these were made with all of the chipped beef in the cheese ball, and finished with a roll in fresh chopped parsley, but I think that it looks nicer with some of the beef on the outside as well, and it's a pretty good indicator of what kind of cheese ball it is to your guests too.

Just remember, all cheese balls are best made 1 to 2 days in advance whenever possible to allow the flavors to all meld together, and they are also best when allowed to come to room temperature before serving too.

A vegetable casserole, made with whole and creamed corn and a mixture of vegetables in a custard-style milk and egg sauce.

Scalloped Corn Casserole

Just like corn casseroles, there are a lot of variations on scalloped corn. Some automatically add cheese, some eggs. Others don't. I can't tell you which is more "authentic" than the other, so let's just say that this one is likely more of a Deep South version and a happy medium!

Not quite a standard corn casserole, creamed corn, corn pudding, or a corn spoonbread, but I guess that it falls somewhere in between all of those.