Here's my go to cheese sauce recipe. I use it for a lot of recipes, mac n cheese, chicken divan, and anything cheesy.
3 tablespoons butter
2 tablespoons flour
1 cup milk
1 cup cheese, cheddar usually or a cheddar/american blend is very yummy
1/2 teaspoon salt
Make a roux by melting butter then adding flour. Then add milk, cheese and salt. Stir until thickened. When making mac n cheese cook 2 cups pasta.
A Fabulous Spinach Quiche
http://allrecipes.com/Recipe/Spinach-Quiche/Detail.aspx
A replacement for Creamed Soup is on this page. I made this and froze about 4 to use later. When I make it I know exactly what's in it and it probably has less sodium.
http://www.kitchenstewardship.com/2010/01/27/once-a-month-cooking-prep-cream-of-casseroles/
No-rise Pizza Crust- a homemade pizza crust that doesn't take all day to make
1 packet active dry yeast
1 teaspoon sugar
1 cup warm water
1 cup whole wheat flour
1 1/2 cups bread flour
2 Tablespoons olive or vegetable oil
1 teaspoon salt
Preheat oven to 450. In a bowl or mixer bowl dissolve yeast and sugar in the warm water. Let stand 10 minutes. Meanwhile get ready the other ingredients. Stir in flour, salt and oil. Beat or mix by hand until smooth. Let rest for 5 minutes. Turn dough into a greased pizza sheet. You decide how big and thick you want the crust. Add your favorite ingredients. Bake 12-15 minutes or until done. Let pizza cool 5 minutes before cutting.
Chicken Alfredo with spinach- so easy, though next i think I'm going to try to make the sauce. The sauce masks the spinach flavor pretty well, so don't be scarred if you don't like spinach. It's extra nutrition.
3 chicken breasts, cut into strips
italian seasoning, maybe a little garlic salt
spaghetti noodles- I use whole wheat
frozen chopped spinach (it comes in blocks or bags, I use half a block or a few handfuls if in a bag)
1 jar alredo sauce
heat a tablespoon of vegetable oil or butter, cook chicken and sprinkle with a little italian seasoning and garlic salt. Meanwhile, boil the noodles, when I think the noodles are about halfway cooked I add the spinach to the noodles then allow to re-boil and cook until the noodles are done, drain. When chicken is done, mix everything together and add as much sauce as you want.
Homemade Granola Bars- on this page she breaks down the cost. You save a ton of $$ and you get to control the nutrition that goes into it. I added 1 cup walnuts, 1 cup chocolate chips, peanut butter and 1 cup craisins. This really made A LOT, I froze half of them and they thawed just fine.
http://www.kitchenstewardship.com/2009/06/16/recipe-connection-homemade-granola-and-granola-bars/
Shepherd's Pie- So far I've only made this once. It has some "hidden" veggies in it. I have to admit Elijah didn't like this, but we did.
http://www.passionatehomemaking.com/2009/02/shepherds-pie-revised-updated.html
I also try to make one nice breakfast every week to eat the leftovers throughout the week. This week I made blueberry waffles. Here's that recipe (adapted from Cathy Gourley's waffle recipe):
4 eggs
2 1/2 cups milk
3/4 cup vegetable oil
2 1/2 cups whole wheat flour
1 cup all purpose flour....................Consider that it's 3 1/2 cups of total flour if you don't want to use whole wheat flour or less use all all purpose.
4 1/2 tsp baking powder
1 1/2 tsp salt
1 cup frozen of fresh blueberries, next time I'm going to try also adding some mashed banana.
Mix together wet ingredients- eggs, milk, oil, then mix together dry ingredients. Then mix them all together. Try to get out all the lumps. Then fold in the blueberries. Then use on your favorite waffle maker. We have a belgian waffle maker and it makes 12-14 waffles. I freeze the left overs and then when i want to use them I let them thaw for a few minutes then toast in the toaster oven until nice and hot. YUM! For us, 1 belgian size waffle is enough, sometimes with an egg or sausage on the side for some good protein. Real syrup (not that corn syrup stuff) makes it so much better and healthier!
Chicken and Chicken Soup combo- A very cheap combo to serve in the same week
Monday- I put the crockpot on high for 5 hours with 1 whole chicken, an onion, a little garlic, pepper, and 4 chopped carrots. Our family can eat as much chicken as we want and still have plenty left over for tomorrow. I made mashed potatoes as a side dish and ate the carrots from the crockpot as our veggie. I saved the broth and the leftover chicken for tomorrow.
Tuesday- Chicken Soup I'm kind of an "eyeball" cooker, meaning I just eyeball it a lot. I'll use the chicken broth from yesterday and depending on how much I got from yesterday might add some canned low sodium broth if i need more. Then I'll add the chicken leftover from yesterday, carrots, noodles (which will cook while the soup heats up) I bought whole wheat rotini, because they didn't have whole wheat egg noodles and add about a tablespoon of poultry seasoning, and 1/2 tablespoon salt. Served with homemade bread toast. We'll see how we like it.
Bread- our favorite honey wheat bread for the bread maker
1 cup water (70 degrees to 80 degrees)
1/4 cup vegetable oil or butter
2 tablespoons honey
1 teaspoon salt
1 cups bread flour
2 cup whole wheat flour
1 (.25 ounce) package active dry yeast
Directions
1. In bread machine pan, place all ingredients in order suggested by manufacturer. Select basic bread setting. Choose crust color and loaf size if available. Bake according to bread machine directions (check dough after 5 minutes of mixing; add 1 to 2 tablespoons of water or flour if needed).
I've started soaking our whole wheat flour. I read some sites that said it helps you digest it better and helps you absorb the nutrients better. It's not hard and does make a softer bread. The night before I make bread I soak my 2 cups whole wheat flour in the 1 cup water and 2 tablespoons of lemon juice (the acid is what breaks down the phytates to help you). Then in the morning, or after about 12 hours i put it in the bread maker with the rest of the ingredients and wha-la!
Good Eats Meat Loaf- from one of our favorite food network chefs, Alton Brown
• 6 ounces garlic-flavored croutons
• 1/2 teaspoon ground black pepper
• 1/2 teaspoon cayenne pepper
• 1 teaspoon chili powder
• 1 teaspoon dried thyme
• 1/2 onion, roughly chopped
• 1 carrot, peeled and broken
• 3 whole cloves garlic
• 1/2 red bell pepper
• 18 ounces ground chuck
• 18 ounces ground sirloin
• 1 1/2 teaspoon kosher salt
• 1 egg
•
For the glaze:
• 1/2 cup catsup
• 1 teaspoon ground cumin
• Dash Worcestershire sauce
• Dash hot pepper sauce
• 1 tablespoon honey
Directions
Heat oven to 325 degrees F.
In a food processor bowl, combine croutons, black pepper, cayenne pepper, chili powder, and thyme. Pulse until the mixture is of a fine texture. Place this mixture into a large bowl. Combine the onion, carrot, garlic, and red pepper in the food processor bowl. Pulse until the mixture is finely chopped, but not pureed. Combine the vegetable mixture, ground sirloin, and ground chuck with the bread crumb mixture. Season the meat mixture with the kosher salt. Add the egg and combine thoroughly, but avoid squeezing the meat.
Pack this mixture into a 10-inch loaf pan to mold the shape of the meatloaf. Onto a parchment paper-lined baking sheet, turn the meatloaf out of the pan onto the center of the tray. Insert a temperature probe at a 45 degree angle into the top of the meatloaf. Avoid touching the bottom of the tray with the probe. Set the probe for 155 degrees.
Combine the catsup, cumin, Worcestershire sauce, hot pepper sauce and honey. Brush the glaze onto the meatloaf after it has been cooking for about 10 minutes.
Will take about an hour.
Recipes coming soon:
Smoothies
Chicken Divan
Salmon Cakes
Whole Wheat Blueberry Crumb Muffins
