Smoked Sausage & Black Eyed Pea Stew

This a slow cooker meal that is perfect for hurried nights. It uses ingredients that I have on hand to make a great tasting take on traditional hoppin' john. I use a large bag of frozen black eyed peas, but you can sub canned ones in this recipe  if you have them on hand . 4 cans would be the right amount. This cooks up to a nice stew and is perfect with corn muffins on the side.

Smoked Sausage & Black Eyed Pea Stew
Ingredients
1 large bag frozen black eyed peas ( or 2 small ones)*
2 cans Rotel tomatoes
1 medium onion, chopped
1 green pepper, chopped
2 cloves garlic, minced
1 can beef broth
1/4 tsp fresh black pepper
1/8 tsp salt
1 lb beef smoked sausage , sliced
2 bags of boil in bag rice,cooked per package directions
* you can substitute  bag of frozen black eyed peas with 4 cans of black eyed peas

Directions
1. In a slow cooker , add all the ingredients except the rice. Stir to mix well.
2. Cook on low 6 -8 hours or high 4-6 hours . ( Times will vary depending on your slow cooker)
3. The last 30 minutes of cook time, add both bags of rice and stir well into the stew.
4. Cook for 30 minutes longer, or until the rice is hot.
5. Serve warm with cornbread.