Quick ways to get homemade taste

No time to cook? Get homemade flavor without hours at the stove or a culinary arts degree by following these quick tips.

Hot sandwiches

Hot roast beef or sliced turkey in gravy served over thick slices of homemade bread is real comfort food. With some deli meat and a good stock, you can recreate that cooked-all-afternoon flavor in about 10 minutes.

Open-Faced Sandwiches

Serves 4

Ingredients:

• 1 pound deli sliced roast beef or turkey
• 4 slices Texas toast or other thickly sliced bread
• 1 tub Knorr® Homestyle Stock (beef or chicken, depending on the meat used)
• 2-1/2 cups water
• 1-1/2 tablespoons cornstarch

Instructions:

1. Mix the stock, water and cornstarch in a saucepan until smooth.
2. Heat over medium heat until the mixture comes just to a boil.
3. Turn the heat down and simmer for 5 minutes or until the gravy thickens.
4. Add the meat and warm through.
5. Spoon the meat and gravy over the bread and serve immediately.

Skillet dinners

Those just-add-meat skillet dinners are quick and easy but often lack homemade flavor. Next time, use stock instead of the water called for in the instructions when you make the dish.

Condensed soups

Rather than reconstituting those condensed soups with water, use chicken or beef broth to add a homemade flavor. Even canned cream soups benefit from the addition of stock. Try using beef broth instead of water in canned tomato or mushroom soup. Chicken stock adds a more delicate flavor to canned soups such as split pea, cream of asparagus and cream of broccoli.

More ideas for quick, homemade flavor

• Simmer frozen meatballs in beef stock to add a deeper flavor and homemade taste.
• Make a quick gravy to serve with rotisserie or fried chicken from the deli with 1 cup chicken stock, 1/2 cup milk and 1 tablespoon cornstarch. Mix the ingredients and microwave for a few minutes until the gravy thickens.
• Use equal amounts of spaghetti sauce and beef broth to make a base for minestrone soup. Add canned or frozen green beans, carrots, kidney beans, onions, green peppers and fresh tortellini from the refrigerated section of your grocery store. Simmer until heated through, about five minutes.
• Love French dip sandwiches? Make them at home in minutes with thinly sliced roast beef from the deli, crusty rolls and hot beef broth. Heat the meat up in the broth, lay it on the heated rolls and serve with the hot broth for dipping.

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