Carrie:

If you are attracted to the convenience of the slow cooker's "dump and go" canned cream of whatever certainly works well. However, there is no denying that when using canned soups taste is significantly sacrificed for said convenience.

While the blogger here will get no arguments from me that a freshly brewed roux(rhyme intended!) is indeed the best of both worlds, nor does making a roux take significantly more time than opening a can of soup; I have found that a powdered bulk cream of whatever soup on hand is convenient, and tastes fresher than the canned version. Of course, it also goes without saying that I can control the ingredients for health, such as using nonfat powdered milk, quality dried mushrooms and of course the salt.

Now, I only make bulk cream of mushroom soup because of an extreme dislike of the cream of celery soup. I also like mushrooms with a hobbitlike fanaticism, so I never make the plain variety of this, and always add dried mushrooms to my mix.

Here is my modified recipe with instructions for its uses.
I am sure you could find others using ye olde google.

Instant Cream Soup Mix
2 c. of nonfat powdered milk
3/4 c. cornstarch
1/4 c. instant chicken bouillon
1 tsp. onion powder
1/2 tsp. dried thyme
1/2 tsp. dried basil
1/4 tsp. pepper
1 tsp of kosher salt(or omit it all together and use the season to taste when cooking the recipe)
1/4 c. of assorted dried mushrooms

Combine these and store in an airtight container.

To use for soup: combine 1/3 c. mix and 1 1/2c. water. Bring to a boil while stirring often. Add a vegetable for more flavor, such as diced celery (for cream of celery soup), or some sliced mushrooms (for cream of mushroom soup), or some diced broccoli (for cream of broccoli soup).

Use as a substitute for half a 10-3/4-ounce can of condensed cream of chicken, mushroom or celery soup. For half of a can of soup, in a microwave-safe dish, whisk together 2/3 cup water or milk for extra creaminess and 3 tablespoons soup mix, I heat it in the microwave for three minutes, but am also guilty of just dumping in the crockpot and whisking it vigorously.

Coincidentally, my wife just make a wonderful tuna casserole last night without soup! You just need to find yourself a recipe for "white sauce". My wife does not seem to have her recipe online yet so I cannot post a link to it.

I'm having leftovers for lunch at work as I am reading this :-)

If you brown the chicken, and any root vegetables that might be in the recipe (onions, celery, carrots), then sprinkle up to 2T of flour over the recipe and cook on medium-high for 2-3 minutes, add some liquid (dairy or stock or water), cook for another few minutes until the flour begins to thicken the moisture, then proceed with the rest of your recipe, you will have the equivalent of condensed soup made in the pot. My mother and grandmother only switched from that method to condensed soup when condensed soup became so cheap (and even then my mother tended to stick with the old quick method rather than using the canned soup - or - making a separate roux).

Thanks for the powdered soup recipe kitchengoddess...I never thought of making that! I have problems digesting MSG, so I usually have to skip any recipes that called for condensed soups...which is too bad because they are usually the quick and simple recipes that I need! But I will give the DIY powder mix a try since it seems just as simple other than the initial prep!

Thanks kitchengoddess! What a great idea!