Fresh green beans, quickly skillet blanched, then stir fried with sweet onion, garlic, a hint of brown sugar and herbs.

Skillet Green Beans

I love green beans. They're easy to grow, but even if you don't grow them, they're readily available and reasonable, and you can even buy them in the middle of winter these days. It's one of the few vegetables The Cajun will eat, so we eat them in one form or another pretty often.

As to cooking them, let's face the truth here. If you are from the south, you, probably, like me, aren't super fond of crispy green beans, unless, of course they are battered and fried. You, like me, likely rather love the slow-stewed green beans that cook down forever.

Hot Roast Beef with Gravy - Instant Pot

An open-faced hot roast beef sandwich, made with a rump roast and served with white bread, homemade mashed potatoes and topped with gravy.

Instant Pot Hot Roast Beef

Who remembers a hot roast beef? You don't hear much about them these days, but basically, it's an open-faced roast beef sandwich, served over plain or toasted white bread, with a scoop or two of homemade mashed potatoes... and plenty of gravy. Typically a leftovers meal, I had a very specific craving for one, so I had to start from scratch and make a roast!

One of my favorite things to cook in a slow cooker are roasts, but I've really fallen in love with using my multi-cooker/pressure cooker for them. Instead of taking 3 hours on the stovetop, or even longer in a crockpot, you can have a fork tender chuck or rump roast on the table in about an hour.

A quick and easy homemade cheeseburger and macaroni skillet dinner. Better than the box!

Homemade (Hamburger Helper) Cheeseburger Macaroni Skillet

If you've followed Deep South Dish for any length of time, y'all probably already figured out that I do love me a quick and easy skillet meal, especially on these hot summer days.

This one is no exception, but back when I was a young, young bride, I sure relied on that handy dandy boxed pasta meal. It was quick and easy after working all day and I actually liked the way it tasted. The lasagna one was a personal favorite.

A sour cream, cream cheese and Ranch based dip, filled with spicy Fire 'n Ice pickles. Serve with kettle or ridged potato chips, pretzel chips or veggie sticks, made from celery and carrots.

Fire 'n Ice Pickle Dip

The sound of football has returned to my house. Doesn't matter that it's only preseason to my husband because by now, he is totally jonesing for a game of any kind. Course, the Saints opener could certainly have been better... but it is what it is, and they won.

If you've been around the blog for very long, y'all probably already know by now how much I love pickles. I mean how many people have one of these in their fridge for no reason except they eat a pickle just about every day?

This one pot skillet meal starts with a butter roux based gravy, cooked with the trinity of veggies, chicken is tossed in and the dish spooned over steamed rice.

Skillet Cajun Chicken and Gravy

Most times when folks think of a chicken and rice dish, it's the classic version where they are baked together in a casserole form, and it's delicious no doubt. We love it! But even though kids are mostly already back in school down here, it's actually still summer, and skillet meals are definitely a go-to.

I especially love this one because it utilizes already cooked chicken and cooked rice. I always have cooked chicken in my freezer because when you use a FoodSaver sealer, (I love mine!) it keeps it so nice and fresh and free of freezer burn for a pretty long time.

Having already cooked chicken in the freezer sure is a big-time saver and comes in handy for those hurry-up meals. Rice is so common here with meals that it's not at all unusual to have some leftover. It's also super easy to make in your Instant Pot.