Cream of Chicken Soup SUBSTITUTE

In case you didn't know, canned cream of whatever soup is full of nasty things. Yes, that is me being judgmental. Also, in case you didn't know, SO MANY recipes call for this soup! Many of the meals I ate growing up involved such an ingredient (my parents are from Minnesota) and I have an affinity for such creamy meals. I'll post about some of the creamy meals later, but for now I want you to have the recipe for the substitute I use now instead of buying canned! Here are some of the reasons I make my own:

• I know exactly what is going into the mix.
• The mix is fat-free! AND gluten free if you make sure your bouillon is GF (which doesn't matter for me, but does for some of my friends)
• I recycle, and have you ever tried rinsing a can of cream of whatever soup? Gross.
• Cans are expensive. And heavy. And take up room. This mix fits in a container that I can reuse and takes up considerably less room.
• It's DELICIOUS.

I adapted this recipe from One Orange Giraffe, after finding the link on Pinterest. I use my adaptation of the recipe a lot! I only make cream of chicken because it's what I use the most. If I wanted I could add celery or mushrooms or whatever once it's cooking. This is very versatile.

THE RECIPE:

1 c non-fat dried milk

3/4 c cornstarch

1/4 c bouillon (if you have cubes you have to smash them up...I have powdered Knorr bouillon)

4 T freeze dried minced onions (those are the dried minced onions that you find in the spice aisle)

2 t Italian seasoning

1 t pepper

For the equivalent of one can of condensed cream soup, mix 1/3 cup dry mix with 1 1/4 cup water. Cook until thick then add to whatever recipe you're making.

As you see, I make a container that is more than one recipe worth. The container I use holds about 3x the recipe, but I usually double it so I have room to shake it up. Also, you can see that I wrote the recipe and the ratio for cooking it on the sides of the container! I keep this in the cupboard.