Throw the following things in a slow cooker, in more or less this order:

• 2 lbs of chicken. If raw, cut into pieces; I like to just throw full frozen breasts in and cut/shred them up after a couple of hours
• 1 package (12 oz) of cooked chicken sausage
• 1 can (28 oz) of diced tomatoes
• 1.5 cup of chicken broth
• 1 chopped-up green pepper
• 1 onion
• 2 ribs of cut up celery
• a bunch of garlic (to me, this means ~5 cloves)
• 2 chopped jalapenos (substitute habanero if you’re brave)
• Seasoning (to me, this means some salt, pepper, red pepper, garlic powder, chili powder, dried basil or parsley, or whatever else I can find
• (a little bit of white wine if you’re into that)

Cook on low for ~8 hours, give or take an hour. It’ll smell amazing.

THEN, throw in about 2 lbs of uncooked, peeled/deveined shrimp for about 20 minutes or until they’re pink. You can also just cook them in a pan and toss them in separately. I mean, whatever you want, it’s jambalaya.

Pour all of that over some brown rice and get to eating. Makes enough for at least several meals for the week.

Cost: Your shrimp and chicken are the big cost drivers. You can cut the shrimp if you want, but jambalaya without shrimp is just sort of chicken & sausage stew. It costs me about $30 at my local grocery store, but for the number of meals you get, it’s a total deal.