Hoppin' John Chowder

I have been wanting to make this recipe for a while now from the Southern Living Slow Cooker Favorites book.

WOW what a delicious meal. Even Adam said 2 thumbs up!

Hoppin' John Chowder
In a slow cooker combine the following:

1 diced onion
1 diced pepper (we omitted)
2 14 oz. cans diced tomatoes with chiles
1 sliced smoked sausage or kilebasa (I used turkey)
4 cans black eyed peas, undrained (I drained mine to eliminate some salt)
Garlic Powder
Salt (omitted)
Pepper (omitted and replaced with Penzy's Cajun Seasoning)
1 can beef broth

Let cook on low for 6 hours.
After 6 hours (or a little sooner - i did this with about an hour left) add 1 1/2 cups of minute rice to the mixture (i also had to add some extra water here). Let the rice cook and then serve.

I served this with the ChiChi's corn cake stuff that you can get the bagged mix for in the mexican aisle at the market.