Alfredo sauce

1/2 cup butter
1 pkg. cream cheese (8 oz)
1 cup cream or half milk half cream
1/3 cup parmesan cheese
1 Tbsp. garlic powder

Melt butter and cream cheese. stir often to combine. (If it will not combine will it needs to be stirred really fast or use a food processor to save the sauce)

Add the rest and let it sit to thicken.

Serve with noodles and shrimp or chicken.

Enchilada sauce

Enchilada sauce from the store is usually full of unhealthy soybean oil, MSG and a long list of other additives. When I started to look into making it myself I was pleased to learn that it is really pretty simple. I don't think I have hit on the final version yet but I will post my first attempt here as an encouragment to try it yourself.

2 Tbsp. oil ( I used coconut oil, I wonder if butter would work?)
2 Tbsp. flour
1 1/2 Tbsp. chili powder (more if you like it spicy. This amount was good for the kids.)

Make a roux out of these ingredients, i.e. melt oil, stir in flour and powder into a paste.

1 (15 oz.) can tomato sauce
2 cups water or broth
Pinch salt
1 tsp. cumin
1/2 tsp garlic powder
1/4 tsp. onion powder

Add the rest of ingredients and simmer for 15 minutes to thicken. I started this sauce with water and it really tasted watery to me so I added a healthy boullion cube. Next time I would just use 2 cups broth instead.

Another option is if you have too much juice in a crockpot after making a roast. It makes a great base for an enchilada sauce. I will be tinkering with this recipe some more to perfect it but for now, this came out delicious when I made enchiladas with the chicken out of the broth pot mixed with the sauce and wrapped in home made tortillas smothered in more sauce and cheese.

It would be easy to make more of this and freeze it in the right proportions. This makes about enough for 2 batches of enchiladas in a 9x13 pan. Depends on how much sauce you like.