Ashley’s Favorite Sauces: Quick and Easy Cheese Sauce

This one tiptops the list of easy sauces; all done in a glass measure (my mother’s standard is a two-cup, my favorite is my four-cup) in just a couple minutes in the microwave.

Ready to cover brococli or cauliflower for your picky eaters in no time FLAT!

I’m using it for macaroni and cheese today, which is a lot more usual in my household. I double the recipe I’m writing down below for a full pound of pasta. Double the quantities, that is! Do NOT double your cooking times or you will have a MESS in your microwave, no matter how large your cup-measure. 😊

BASIC CHEESE SAUCE

1 cup milk

2 T margarine or butter

2 T flour 

1/2 C shredded cheddar cheese 

*NOTE on the flour for us gluten-free-ers: nut flours do NOT work to thicken sauces. I love almond flour myself, but it won’t work here. You need a starch-based flour to thicken. I am using white rice flour today.

Heat milk in the microwave for 2 minutes on Power 7. Set aside.

In 2 cup glass measure, melt butter 45 seconds. Stir in flour; microwave one minute. Whisk in warm milk until no lumps remain. Microwave on High 3-4 minutes or until boiling, stirring once during cooking.

Stir in cheese until melted. Let stand several minutes before serving (it should thicken while standing).

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Edited.

Your gluten free flours are touchy, celiacs and gluten-intolerant-ers. 

My rice-flour thickened my sauce to wallpaper-paste consistency while standing, sure enough. It’s happened before. I’ve never figured out why it does sometimes, because other times it does great: they’re TOUCHY, best word I can come up with.

So, just in case? I’m editing to tell you how to fix some common GF flour problems.

To thin down a cheese sauce that’s too thick: get out some more milk and your whisk. Whisk extra milk in, a little at a time, until it’s where you need it.

To thicken a cheese sauce that hasn’t: more cheese is the tastiest solution. Whisk in more shredded cheese and stick back in the microwave for a bit to melt it.

A tablespoon or so of cornstarch, stirred into a quarter cup of milk, and then whisked into your sauce  will do it too. Heat to boiling after whisking in.

Teriyaki Chicken and Broccoli Stir Fry

Stir fries are awesome if you’re trying to cut calories: just skip the rice and you can eat a whole pile of dinner that’ll satisfy YOU and any diet you can name!

Load them up with any veggies you care to name. 😊 Stir fry meats are almost always lean meats: chicken breasts, beef, or boneless pork chops all work well cut into stir fry strips.

You can use a skillet, but really a good wok is a MUST if you’re going to be stir frying often. I personally like the IKEA woks; my parents picked me up a new one at IKEA today, because I’ve used my current one so much the non-stick coating is coming off. $9.99: spending a bundle is not required to add a wok to your kitchen!

CHICKEN AND BROCCOLI TERIYAKI 

1 lb chicken breast, cut into stir fry strips

6 cups broccoli florets

Teriyaki sauce

https://myashleyetc.blogspot.com/?m=1

1/4 cup sliced scallions

2 T sesame seeds

Coat a wok with pan spray. Cook chicken over high heat until no longer pink. Add broccoli; stir until bright green and tender crisp.

Add teriyaki sauce. Cook over high heat until thickened and chicken and broccoli are glazed, about two minutes. Stir in sesame seeds.

Serve over rice; garnish with scallions.

Ashley’s Favorite Sauces: Teriyaki

Another favorite sauce this week: a Teriyaki, for you gluten-free-ers! 

I know most of you can just go buy a bottle of teriyaki, but keep in mind, some of us can’t. And this is better and healthier for you anyway! 

If you need it GF, make sure you are using GF soy sauce!! Tamari is usually the easiest brand to find, around here.

I’ll put up a post on a stir-fry I am using this teriyaki in. Chicken and broccoli teriyaki, but keep in mine you could do any stir-fry with it, or use it as a marinade too.

TERIYAKI SAUCE 

1/4 C Tamari soy sauce

2 T pineapple juice

1 1/2 T honey

1 T rice vinegar 

1 T grated garlic

1 t cornstarch 

1 t grated fresh ginger

Mix together in a smal bowl; whisk until smooth.

Ways to Use That Marinara!

Suggestions on what to do with that huge batch of Marinara you just made!

PARMA ROSA

I dearly love a Parma Rosa sauce, probably more than the marinara alone. I’m tossing this Parma Rosa over fresh steamed spinach, a grilled chicken breast, and brown rice pasta (Tinkanyada).

Use:

A cup of the Basic Marinara

Half a cup Fat Free Half and Half

And half a cup Parmesan. 

*The Parmesan: I use dried or fresh, whichever I’ve got on hand. Today the dried is going in the sauce and it’ll be topped with fresh when I eat it.

STUFFED SHELLS

You know those great big pasta shells? Cook your shells; make a filling out of ricotta cheese, egg, shredded mozzarella, shredded fresh Parmesan, thawed chopped frozen spinach (squeeze the water out), and parsley. Stuff your cooked shells with that, line them up in a casserole dish, and pour marinara over all.

BAKED MOZZARELLA

I love it as an appetizer, either as a dipping sauce for cheese sticks, or poured over slices of fresh mozzarella and baked.

PIZZA SAUCE

Enough said, there. Excellent pizza sauce, tops anything that comes out of a jar!

If you want to try it on my cauliflower crust gluten free pizza, I’m going to try and attach the link:

https://myashleyetc.blogspot.com/2019/12/cauliflower-gluten-free-pizza-crust.html?m=1

LASAGNA OR ZITI

Use it in your favorite lasagna or baked ziti recipe.

THOSE suggestions I have all tried and loved! Here are a couple others from my favorite Cooking Light:

https://www.myrecipes.com/recipe/chicken-pasta-chickpea-stew

https://www.myrecipes.com/recipe/swordfish-with-lemony-red-sauce

https://www.myrecipes.com/recipe/shrimp-fra-diavolo-1

And an addition from a friend, an Eating Well recipe this time!

http://www.eatingwell.com/recipe/255176/meatball-creamed-spinach-skillet/

Ashley’s Favorite Sauces: Marinara

This is a great multipurpose marinara: you can do everything from your basic spaghetti-and-meatballs to pizza sauce to Parma Rosa to... etc etc with it! I’ll put up a post tomorrow on some of the recipes my cookbook has with it, and some of the different things I do with it.

It’s a big batch, this recipe. I make ahead and freeze. It’s SO much better to have a Tupperware of this in the freezer to pull out for dinner than buying a jar of sauce at the grocery!

MARINARA SAUCE

3-4 T olive oil

3 T minced garlic (or to taste)

1 T sugar

2 t salt

3 t dried basil

1 1/2 t dried oregano

1 t dried thyme

1 t freshly ground black pepper

2 T balsamic vinegar 

2 C chicken broth

3 28oz cans crushed tomatoes 

*Ashley Pro-Tip; Mix your sugar, salt, spices, and pepper together in a small bowl before you start. This goes together quick; you won’t have time to measure.

1. Heat oil in a large stock pot or Dutch oven over medium heat. Add garlic to pan; stir until fragrant and starting to brown. Add sugar, salt, spices, and pepper; cook 1 minute, stirring constantly. Stir in vinegar; cook 30 seconds.

2. Add broth and tomatoes. Bring to a simmer. Reduce heat to low; cook over low heat until sauce thickens or as long as you can, stirring occasionally.

*Freezing instructions: I spray my plastic containers with pan spray first, to keep the tomato-stains to a minimum. Ladle room-temperature or chilled sauce into plastic or glass containers and freeze. I freeze in dinner-size increments, so I can pull out just what I need on a rushed evening and stick it in the microwave for a quick dinner.

Serving size: 1/2 cup

Calories per serving: 50

Ashley’s Favorite Sauces: Carbonara

Carbonara Sauce is one of the easiest sauces ever, you’re simply not going to believe it. One of those things I used to order in restaurants all the time, until I got diagnosed celiac, couldn’t eat out, and went hunting recipes!

This is it. 

Eggs.

Parmesan.

Half and half.

Bacon.

*A note on the bacon: I’m using bacon because I’d had some in the freezer. If you’re using bacon, brown and crumble. I usually use diced Prosciutto, if I can find it, an Italian cured ham. (Aldi’s awesome for such things.) Diced ham will also work.

CARBONARA SAUCE

For a pound of pasta:

3 eggs. Beat them up with a fork. 

Add 1/2 cup half and half. Whisk those together.

Add 3/4 cup Parmesan, dried or fresh grated.

Whisk and pour over your hot pasta and crumbled bacon. Stir well - you want to do this while the pasta is HOT, because of the eggs!

Serve hot. 

(You can see I added some frozen peas. A nice burst of flavor for very few calories!)

Servings, per pound of pasta: 8

Calories per serving: 317