What to do with all that WIC?

[sarah_bella1050]

I've been thinking a lot about what to do with WIC food and I was wondering what other thrifty moms do with theirs? Here's some of the stuff we do:

Yogurt
Orange Julies (milk, ice, oj concentrate and vanilla)
Smoothies (baby spinach, milk, and O.j. conc. and frozen berries)

(I've always wanted to make jelly from all the fruit juice too)

[ewp11100]

I was pretty good about using everything in one way or another excpt for the juice. We still have tons of juice but now we have the added problem of too much milk. When policies changed in Oct. they no longer offer a "all cheese" package. Being that my husband is the only one consuming cow's milk I have tons. The kids can handle cheese but not milk and I can't handle any. I need to find something to do with the milk. Is Yogurt hard to make? Any other ideas for milk? Juice? We make a lot of popcycles in the summer, but it's a little cold for that now.

[BetsyS]

Yogurt is really easy to make. I use Alton Brown's method with a heating pad and a stock pot. http://www.foodnetwork.com/recipes/g...ipe/index.html (I omit the honey, and if I use whole milk, omit the dry milk powder).

You can also make ricotta out of the milk, but I've never tried it. You use lemon juice added to heated milk. Which, I have to say, sounds really cool!

[dancebaraka]

a pregnant friend of mine was having a problem getting thru all that milk & we came up with a great idea~ get goat's milk for soaking in. goat's milk baths are deeply healing & nourishing...
just add a quart to a warm bath

[terese17]

I trade any extras I have to my sister for babysitting, or I take items down to homeless shelter in town. We get way too much baby food. It's ridiculous.

[leavemealone]

I don't know what to do with six gallons of milk per month. There are five in our family, but only three get WIC, but we still get six gallons per month. Crazy amount if you ask me. I have been having a lot of milk and protein powder and making a lot of instant pudding. Not the best, but at least it uses some of it. I may give away a gallon b/c I don't think we can use it before it goes bad.

[EarthyMamaofDaisy]

I made ricotta once, but then they took away the whole milk even for underweight kids with prescriptions for it and now I'd have to buy cream to make it with the 1% milk. We make smoothies with the juice. Tuna noodle casserole with the tuna and milk and you can crumble crushed corn flakes on top. You can crush flake cereal and use it in place of flour in muffins.

[jessaroo]

the milk actually saves us the most money because we can make 4 qts of yogurt per gallon. I use the yogurt to eat with granola and in all of the baking.
I also make ricotta when I have cheese cloth.

[luv-my-boys]

makey yogurt and then freeze it in those freezer pop molds....YUMMM frozen yogurt. Way better than ice cream.

Not sure if they still can but you can trade off some milk in place of more cheese which is easier to use up even in foods like homemade mac/cheese,tuna noodle casserole or even plain old cubed up cheese.

[basje]

I'm in ca on the tofu/soy package

First off I've found it easiest to do all my WIC shopping at once and use the checks for the whole month.

I get the shelf stable soymilk (because out of the two options it 97% organic) and although I don't go through all of it every month, I just add it to my food storage and rotate through. I am going to start making soy yogurt which will use up a lot of it. But I also use it for shakes (with the frozen organic berries I buy using the produce check).

I get mostly frozen organic veggies and fruit from the produce checks so I don't have to worry about anything going bad, and its more expensive than getting fresh, which I buy with food stamps or out of my own budget.

I only get as much of the cold cereal (I go for the multigrain cheerios because it has the least amount of sugar and highest protein) as I will eat in a month opt to get the rest of the allowance in hot cereal (split between malto-meal and oatmeal). I eat those foods three times a week for breakfast and also for baking ruffians and cookies (recipes on the box). You can easily make your own granola from the oatmeal too.

I've started getting the concentrated frozen juices because I am bothered by not being able to find any WIC approved juices in glass or bpa free and that has helped so much with the storage issues. The frozen juices can also be scooped out a spoonful at a time and used as marinade bases and boost flavors in smoothies.

As for the dried beans, I really like making lentil loafs and bean burger patties. Both of which I can make in large batches and freeze for quick/easy re-heating later. I get the dried beans because of the BPA in canned foods and they do well in food storage as long as you rotate them.

I get a crapton of tofu, which I get both silken and (mostly) extra firm. I use the silken for pudding bases, Alton Brown's "Guilt-free Caesar" dressing with silken tofu, puréed as a flan, quiche filling or mousse and blend it up with marinara sauce for added protein. The firm stuff, I freeze first off the bat to improve the texture making it more meaty and then thaw as I need it. I make tofu scramble breakfasts on weekends, marinate it in strips and bake for dinners and sandwiches flavored a million ways. I'll cube it and add to soups, crumble it atop anything that I would use cheese like salads or casseroles. I'll also fry it up which isn't the healthiest but tastes so good.

If you get the dairy milk I would recommend making cheese with it. It's super easy and tastes so good. You'd need to also buy some heavy cream to add if the milk is non-fat and whatever herbs you want to favor the cheese with of which there are a million delicious combination.

As for the other stuff, eggs, peanut butter, ect. I use them up every month. I find that I having leftover tofu, cereals, and soymilk is useful in supplying my food storage in the event that I can't afford groceries in the future, and it feels good to be prepared. If I didn't want to do food storage I would trade with other families for things I would use (ie how 'bout some coffee and tp you buy in bulk for a few gallons of milk?) or donate what I won't use to the food bank.

[BethSLP]

Just had to comment that I think its really unethical to take a bath in goat's milk paid for with taxpayer dollars to help those who need it. Why not donate it to a food bank or trade or do any other of the great suggestions on here? WIC is there to help those who need it, not for a spa treatment.

Sorry if that's harsh, but I bristled when I read this thread and saw that.

XOXO
B

[peaceful_mama]

My kids NEED the goat's milk for allergies. It's four times the price of cow's milk. (one quart is the price of one gallon cow's milk)

PLEASE don't be getting it just to BATHE in it.....when they spend too much money on certain things, they tend to disappear.

We NEED this not to disappear and I know of a few other kids who have NEEDED it too.

[dancebaraka]

wow. i hear your frustration. my understanding, although i'm not sure b/c i'm not on wic, is that it is illegal to trade or donate the food. honestly, my dear friend is going thru such a hard time, i feel like goat's milk baths are lovely for her instead of getting tons of milk that she ended u throwing away once it soured... of course, i do hear your concerns but i trust that mama's on wic are able to make choices for themselves & don't owe any of us anything... they are taxaying citizens, too. just my 2cents.

[prothyraia]

Originally Posted by dancebaraka

a pregnant friend of mine was having a problem getting thru all that milk & we came up with a great idea~ get goat's milk for soaking in. goat's milk baths are deeply healing & nourishing...
just add a quart to a warm bath

*wince*
I have to weigh in here. WIC is a program to help meet nutritional deficits in women in children. I don't feel it's entirely ethical to use it for bathing, no matter how wonderful it is. You don't *have* to use the entire package; if someone can't use up that much milk they can just not *get* that much milk. It's not about "omg, don't waste taxpayer dollars, we're paying for it so we get to tell you what you should do with it!", it's about being sensitive to the fact that those resources could be used to help another family who does need and could use the help. I'm on WIC, and I think it's entirely inappropriate to use food that's been given to you and that hungry people could eat in your bath.

(this means no spending the new veggie checks on avocado and bannana facials, too! )

[prairiebird]

holy cow. I wanna live where some of you guys do! We don't have any options for goats milk even with allergy issues, and we don't have a tofu option. Our fruits and veggies cannot be organic, even the frozen or canned.


I'm finding that I'm inundated with tortillas now. I've started baking chips with them because it'll use a lot of them up.

[prothyraia]

And to go back to the original question: I cannot *stand* drinking milk. We made tons of yogurt (which is super easy) and some mozzerrala (which is more involved). I also try to find recipes for baking and sometimes dinner that use largish amounts of milk. Most of it gets turned into yogurt, though. I am sad that they cut down the amount of cheese we can get. (the veggies are nice, though!)

We get concentrated juice, and the kids do drink it but I water it waaaay down. I also toss a splash into seltzer water for myself to drink. Helped me give up soda It also lasts foreeeeever, so if nothing else I stick it in the back of the pantry somewhere and we can continue to use it up a little at a time until the kids are in their forties

The rest of the stuff we use up pretty quickly.

[tanyam926]

nak

we cant drink pasteurized milk (raw milk is fine) and i used to get the more cheese pckge. now i make kefir w/the milk and use it for smoothies.

[griffin2004]

if you're getting more than you can use -- or are able to get things you don't want -- can't you just NOT buy it? if you don't use your allotment, do you lose it the next month?

[leavemealone]

Yes, you can just not buy it, but you don't get it the next month. It's buy it or lose it. That said, of course if someone can't use a certain product, then they probably shouldn't get it. I don't think that I will always get all the milk/eggs unless I can think of some more ways to use them. I do find that I have a lot of brown rice, but my family will eat that and it that stores for a while and won't spoil the way the milk/eggs will spoil. If I used the whole grain allotment for bread, that might go bad before we can eat it all so I often get brown rice instead.

[living_organic]

I use the milk in recipes...you can use it to make gravy, or a white sauce for pasta or a white sauce for recipes like creamed chicken and peas.

We never have extra cheese in this house...but I have used the milk to make cheese.

Use the extra juice to make jelly.

Rice and Beans store for forever if kept dry and airtight.

We really don't have much unused on WIC now that they added fresh produce and whole grain items...much less juice. I like it much better now.