Cream of Chicken

Goopy lumpy mystery gunk in a can. No thanks. I'll go with goopy lumpy stuff that I made. There. Now I can sleep at night.
This makes about twice as much as I would need per recipe so I just keep the rest in the fridge (or you can freeze it) until the next recipe that calls for a can of cream of (fill in the blank).

Ingredients:
1 1/2 cups chicken broth (water + bouillon)
1 1/2 cups milk
Seasonings to taste (salt, onion powder, garlic powder, parsley, pepper, etc.)
3/4 cups flour
Opt: Butter (1-2 Tablespoons, or more)
(you can keep this "low fat" and it will work fine, but the butter adds so much flavor. How much I use depends on the purpose I'm making it for. If I'm adding it to something already very flavorful, I may not use butter at all.)
Combine chicken broth, seasonings and butter, if using, in saucepan and heat to boiling. Whisk remaining milk with flour in bowl. Add a bit of hot broth mixture to milk/flour mixture to warm it, then pour it slowly into pan while whisking to avoid clumping. Keep whisking as mixture returns to boil and thickens. Remove from heat. It will thicken a little more as it cools.
You can use this in place of canned or as a base or addition to sooo many recipes. I threw a few scoops of this in my potato soup tonight. It's not exciting on it's own, though.

Cinnamon Rolls

I often use Rhodes frozen rolls for these. But sometimes I make up a nice fluffy white roll dough. Enough dough to make about an 10x15 rectangle. (that's a compete guess, actually) I used about half a 36 count bag of rolls, so about 18. You just thaw out the rolls and mush them together.

Ingredients:
1/4 cup brown sugar
1/4 cup white sugar
Dash salt
1 T cinnamon
3/4 cup melted butter

Directions:
Mix ingredients together to make a paste. Roll out dough onto rectangle and spread paste, covering entire surface except about 1/4 inch on the end that you will roll it up. Roll up the dough making the shorter end your length, if that makes any sense...make a nice, even, fat roll. Don't roll too tight, but not loose either. Cut into about 1 inch rolls, place in greased pan, covert and let rise. Bake at 325-350 until lightly browned.
Top with glaze.
Glaze:
Whisk together:
2T softened butter
2T milk
1/2 teaspoon vanilla
Dash salt
Enough powdered sugar to make a glaze.

Oatmeal Flax Muffins

(recipe adapted from here)
I have been looking for the perfect base recipe for different add-ins and I think I just found it. I like a flavorful, hearty, chewy and almost healthy muffin (but not quite...). None of those white fluffy things that people call muffins but they're really cupcakes.
This time, I threw in dark chocolate chunks and craisins. Mmmm, perfect! The original recipe called for blueberries. You can add whatever you like.

Ingredients:
1 cup rolled oats or old fashioned oatmeal
1 cup buttermilk (or regular milk + 1 teaspoon vinegar)
3 tablespoons unsalted butter, melted
2 eggs
2/3 cup brown sugar
1 teaspoon vanilla
1 cup flour
4 tablespoons ground flaxmeal
1 teaspoon baking powder
1 teaspoon baking soda
3/4 teaspoon salt
1 cup add-ins of choice (chocolate, craisins, berries, etc)

Directions:
Preheat oven to 375°. Grease a 12 cup muffin tin.
Combine the oats and buttermilk in a mixing bowl. Let the oats soak for 15-20 minutes. Add the melted butter, egg, brown sugar, and vanilla. Stir by hand until just combined.
Add the flour, flaxmeal, baking powder, baking soda, and salt. Stir again until evenly moistened.
(Whatever I'm adding in, I like do push them in by hand into each muffin cup to make sure they are evenly distributed. You can also pour them batter into the bottom of the cups, then stir them into the batter and pour the rest in. Or just mix them all in if you don't care if they're even.)
Bake for 13-15 minutes.

Basic Brownies

I figured I had already posted this one, but couldn't find it, so here it use. A simple, quick, yummy brownie recipe. Sometimes I add chocolate chips or m&ms or something to the batter.
Ingredients:
1 1/2 c. Sugar
3/4 c. flour
1/2 c. Cocoa (some types of cocoa are not as strong as others. I've added an extra scoop depending on type I use. Taste the batter. Try for a "dutched cocoa, though.")
1/4 t. Baking powder
Heaping 1/4 t. Salt
2 eggs, beaten
1 teaspoon vanilla
1/2 cup oil
1/4 cup water

Directions:
Mix dry ingredients.
Add wet ingredients all at once and mix lightly. Pour into greased pan (mine is like 8x11 or something. I actually use the "magic brownie pan". Love it.)
Cook in preheated 350° oven for 20-25 minutes. Do not over cook.

Red and White Lasagna

Lasagna is something I play around with. I switch up the cheeses, add veggies or not, change the sauce. But this is the most common method. I really like the creamy white sauce to mellow out the tangy tomato sauce. This recipe makes 2 square pans, so I freeze one (uncooked) for later.

Ingredients:
Prepared spaghetti sauce
Prepared white sauce
1 tub (16 oz) cottage cheese
1/4 cup parmesan cheese
2 cups grated mozzarella cheese
1/2 t. Italian seasoning
1 package no-boil lasagna noodles (I like Barilla brand)

Instructions:
Prepare both sauces. Mix the cheeses (leave about half cup mozzarella cheese for the top) and seasonings in a bowl. (note: if your tomato sauce is extra runny, add an egg to your cheese mixture, it will hold everything together.)
Spray either 2 8x8 or 1 9x13 pan with oil. Spread 1 scoop of red sauce on bottom. Layer twice: noodles, cheeses, red sauce, white sauce. (alternate direction of noodles for each layer to add stability) on third layer: noodles, red sauce, white sauce, remaining mozzarella cheese, a sprinkle of parmesan and a sprinkle of more Italian seasonings.
Cover with sprayed foil and bake until noodles are tender (check it at 30 minutes). Do not over bake. Noodles will get mushy. Remove foil and bake additional 5-10 minutes.

White Sauce

I use this sauce for everything from lasagna to soups and enchiladas to casseroles. It's a great base to add whatever flavor you're going for. It starts with equal amounts of butter and flour, add milk and salt and you're done!
Ingredients:
4 T butter (half a stick)
4 T flour
2 1/2 cups milk
1/2 -1 t. Salt
Directions:
melt butter in sauce pan. Whisk in flour and cook about 1 minute. Gradually whisk in the milk, going slow at first to avoid lumps. Cook over medium heat until it boils, stirring regularly. Boil for about 1 minute then remove from heat. Stir in salt to taste (start little..) and use in recipe.
Note: sometimes I want my sauce thicker. Then I add an extra 2 T of flour. This makes it a little harder to get smooth, but you just have to be patient and whisk well while adding milk.

Crepes!

We LOVE crepes. You can put anything in them, it's so fun trying out different fillings. There are some tips you need to know to get them right if you've never made a crepe before. So read carefully.
Ingredients: (makes approximately 12 crepes in 8 inch pan)
2 eggs
1 cup milk
2/3 cup flour
1 1/2 teaspoons oil or melted butter
Pinch salt
Optional:
1 t. Vanilla
1 T. Sugar
Directions:
Mix all ingredients together with whisk. If desired, you can refrigerate batter for an hour or overnight, but I don't. Batter will be very runny. Heat non stick pan to medium high. I use an 8 inch Teflon frying pan. Because it's so non stick, I don't need to grease it, but if they stick just grease very lightly. For my 8 inch pan, I use a 1/4 cup measuring cup filled about 3/4 full and that makes a perfect thickness. You want the crepe to be very thin. Almost paper thin.

When you pour the batter in, hold the pan in the other hand and quickly swirl it around the pan to just barely cover the whole surface, making a nice thin circle. The batter will probably have a few tiny lumps from the flour, but that's ok. They will cook out. Cook on one side for about a minute or two (notice how the crepe changes as it gets cooked through. Practice will tell you when you need to flip.) I use a rubber spatula to get under the crepe then grab it with my fingers to flip. Cook in other side 30 seconds to a minute. you don't want it to brown, really. Maybe just a little. It will get a little crisp on the edges. Perfect. You're done!
Filling ideas:
Berries (fresh or frozen, cooked)
Other fruit
Nutella
Powdered sugar
Pie filling
Whipped cream
Puddings
Anything you want!
Savory: eggs, cheese, cooked veggies

Lemon Pasta with Chicken and Spinach

A quick, easy, light meal.  Pretty good.
Adapted from melskitchencafe.com

Ingredients:
Cooked chicken
12 oz pasta, cooked (I used angel hair)
4 cloves garlic
2 T butter
6 cups chopped spinach
1/4 cup chicken broth
Zest and juice of 1 lemon
Parmesan cheese

Instructions:
Cook garlic in melted butter. Add spinach and chicken broth and cook until spinach wilts (about 3 minutes). Add pasta. Add in lemon zest and juice and cooked chicken. Serve immediately and top with fresh grated parmesan cheese.