Easy slow cooker jambalaya

Enjoy this easy jambalaya, delivering all the spicy Creole flavor you love but made effortlessly in your slow cooker.

Did I ever tell you that I lived in New Orleans for a while? (Yeah, like you're surprised anymore by the number of places The Ninj has lived...)

Let's just say it was a nice place to visit. :-)

But the food. Oh my gosh, the food. It's the only place I've ever lived where I gained more than 10 pounds really, really quickly. Because the food. Oh my gosh, the food.

In fact, I had never even eaten jambalaya until I lived in New Orleans. And I certainly had no idea the awesomeness that I was missing! Jambalaya is now one of my all-time favorite comfort foods -- and not just because of the smoked sausage.

Yet, as with long-cooking rice dishes like risotto, I never really made jambalaya a lot at home because it was too time-consuming.

Not so anymore, thanks to the slow cooker.

Shrimp burgers

Healthy baked shrimp burgers are an easy way to get that summery, eating-at-the-beach feeling without leaving home.

Are you familiar with shrimp burgers? If not, be prepared to become a fan.

My obsession with shrimp burgers started during a family beach vacation on the North Carolina Outer Banks. Based on a local's recommendation, we got some shrimp burgers from the famous Big Oak Drive In in Salter Path, adjacent to Emerald Isle.

Oh boy. Talk about summer on a bun.

Being The Ninj, of course, I decided I needed to try to recreate these beauties at home. After years of trying lots of recipes and variations both by me and my mother-in-law, who is a much better cook than I am, we gave up. Somehow, neither of us could find the right mix that would give us the flavor we wanted yet still hold together well enough to be eaten as a burger in a bun.

Until now, that is.

Now, mind you, the flavor of these shrimp burgers is a little different than those of Big Oak fame, but I don't care. Not so long as I can have a beloved shrimp burger that won't crumble into a mound of individual shrimp pieces after the first bite. Plus, mine are just a wee bit healthier.

The funny thing is, the original recipe that inspired my shrimp burgers wasn't really intended to be a burger at all but a shrimp cake. Plus, it called for frying the cakes in quite a bit of oil. And you know I'll never fry when I can bake or roast to make a recipe healthier while also keeping my stovetop clean.

Win win.

Shrimp and avocado tortilla salad

Boiled shrimp, fresh veggies, baked chips and a yogurt dressing help make this cold shrimp and avocado tortilla salad a healthy meal that's quick to prepare.

Remember how I told you there might be a preponderance of quick-and-easy recipes on the blog following my move from Vermont to Kentucky?

Oh, looky looky: Here's one of those recipes now.

While other bloggers are already posting about pumpkin lattes and apple cronuts, I remain loyal to seasonality. Last time I checked, it was still August and still summer, so no pumpkin yet here, thank you very much.

In fact, it's still hot -- very hot -- unseasonably hot, lucky me -- here in Kentucky, so the last thing I want to think about is slow-roasting pumpkin flesh.

What I want is salad. Cool, crisp, not-a-lotta-cooking-involved salad. Salad that I can enjoy with a crisp white wine in a sweaty glass while dining al fresco on the porch, listening to the lazy buzz of the cicadas and tree frogs. Moving made me feel that I'd missed out on some of the lazy days of summer, so I'm keeping it going as long as I can.