This recipe originally came from the Land O ‘Lakes cookbook but of course I tweaked it for my family’s taste.  This is what we serve on New Years Day each year.  Serve it with corn bread.

Ingredients:

2-4 cups  black-eyed peas, cooked (or more)
1/2 -1 cup  long grain rice, cooked
1/4 cup  butter (or margarine)
4 slices  bacon, cut into 1-inch
1 onion chopped
10 oz. pkg frozen chopped spinach, thawed and drained or 4 cups fresh spinach.
1/2 teaspoon  salt
1/4 teaspoon  hot pepper sauce
1 cup  cheddar cheese, shredded

Directions:

1) have cooked black-eyed peas and rice ready.

2) in skillet melt butter, cook bacon and onion in butter, cook over medium heat.  Add spinach, stirring occasionally until spinach is warm and tender.

3) stir in black-eyed peas, rice and remaining ingredients (except cheddar cheese).

4) continue cooking stirring occasionally until heated through.

5) stir in cheddar cheese.

Helpful hints

I really like making this in the morning then putting it in the crockpot on low all day.  You may need to add a little liquid so it doesn’t dry out.

Also I tend to add A LOT more black eyed peas than what’s called for.  I usually make a big batch of homemade black eyed peas and keep in in the freezer for when I get a craving but in a pinch I use 2-3 cans of black eyed peas.  You can add a little or a lot of each ingredient depending on how you like it.

This is a great way to use up that container of rice leftover from Chinese take out 🙂

For my large crockpot, I double or triple this recipe