Jumbo shrimp, tossed in a seasoned olive oil with lemon zest and lots of garlic, topped with a panko and Parmesan crumb topping and baked.

Sheet Pan Panko Shrimp

These are almost sheet pan scampi or garlic shrimp meets oven fried shrimp, without all the hassle of dipping and battering. The inspiration for this dish came from Marlene Koch's cookbook, Eat What You Love Everyday {affil link} and it works well as both a main dish or an appetizer. The Cajun and I weren't that hungry, so I left the tails on and we ate this as an appetizer. They were amazing!

Spaghetti Recipe Roundup

When folks think of spaghetti, they typically think of the classic spaghetti in meat sauce or with meatballs. It's definitely a favorite, easy to make and easy to teach, and even though it's the version I make most often, I also like variety!

I've put together a collection here of some of my favorite spaghetti recipes, all right here on DeepSouthDish.com, for when you're looking not only for the classic version of spaghetti, but maybe something a little different.

Seasoned and seared pork chops, simmered with tomatoes, onion and sweet bell peppers.

Creole Smothered Chops

These are just so tasty, it's hard to believe that they are also simple and easy.

They aren't really "smothered," as in the sense most folks think about with that word - all saturated in some kind of gravy or sauce. It's more of a light smother of veggies.

Shrimp and vegetables, sauteed in a garlic butter sauce and tossed with pasta.

Garlic Butter Shrimp with Pasta

Recipes like this one have been widely shared on social media the past few years, typically made on its own without pasta. That's pretty good for a snack or party food, but I'm all about the main dish, so of course I had to write my version to include pasta!

It's pretty similar to a shrimp scampi actually, with some subtle differences, enough so that it sets it apart for me to consider it as a separate post from my scampi, plus I've included some additional variations in this one too.

A hearty, one-pot Italian-style meal, made with bone-in chicken thighs, Cajun andouille, potatoes, tomatoes and white beans.

One Pot Italian-Style Chicken Stew

This is a good and hearty, one-pot, Italian style stew, though "stew" is really a loose interpretation here. It's hearty, but not thick and rich as we think of stews to be, but rather a bit lighter, making it fully appropriate any time of the year.

I based my recipe on a bit of a combination of MarkCharles Misilli's One Pot Italian Chicken from the cookbook Easy Everyday Favorites and Jacques Pépin's Chicken Bouillabaisse in his cookbook Fast Food My Way {affil links}, since I find them to be strikingly similar.

A casserole of cubed rye bread, shredded corned beef, sauerkraut and Swiss cheese finished with a savory egg custard.

Baked Reuben Casserole

I know that some of you make a New England Boiled Dinner of cabbage, root vegetables and a full corned beef brisket for holidays like St. Patrick's Day, but I'm a cheater. The Cajun doesn't care much for any of that stuff, so I take a shortcut to get the corned beef and cabbage I want, and he eats leftovers. I've been making it that way for years, using shredded deli corned beef or the canned stuff, and I love it, so it suits me just fine.

That said, I'm guessing some of you have been consuming Reuben sandwiches from the St. Patrick's Day leftovers, something that I also enjoy occasionally, but my husband can also do without. This casserole is yet another way to use some of that leftover corned beef. Almost a strata, except that it's tossed instead of layered, and sometimes referred to as a savory bread pudding, it's apparently a pretty common recipe around the net, though I hadn't made it myself before. The recipe that I patterned it after is from the Taste of Home cookbook, 201 Recipes You'll Make Forever. {affil link}

Classic American-style stuffed cabbage leaves.

Stuffed Cabbage Rolls

I don't really know when it was that I fell in love with cabbage, but I do love it. I can't recall one single instance where my Mama ever even fixed it, but I've certainly made it plenty myself!

My favorite way to eat it is what we in the south call fried cabbage, though it's not really "fried," at least not in the sense of the word that folks automatically think of as fried in the south. It's more of a sauté and braise, or even smothered really. I love it!

Cabbage rolls though?

A smaller batch of classic jambalaya, made with the trinity, rice, shrimp and smoked sausage.

Skillet Jambalaya

There are rice with protein dishes in just about every region of the country. Chicken Bog, Red Rice and Pilaf are some of the top southern favorites, but in my part of the south, it's all about jambalaya.

Whatever version you know, they all involve rice, vegetables, protein - and often a variety of proteins - and mostly made in huge batches, intended to feed a crowd, making it perfect for Mardi Gras.

Sometimes a gal just wants some jambalya for herself!

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.