So much milk!!!

[newmamalizzy]

We just started getting WIC, and I'm so grateful I don't want to waste a single morsel. BUT - for two adults, it sure is a heck of a lot of milk! I really want our WIC food to help reduce our normal grocery bill rather than just being extra, so I need to be able to integrate the milk into our meals. We usually have oatmeal for breakfast because it's more filling than cold cereal, so the milk has to fit into dinner, but for the life of me I can't think of food that use a lot of milk aside from baked mac and cheese and tuna casserole. What can I make with all this milk? Even better, what can I make with milk that I can freeze or save for the future somehow?

[dogmom327]

Pudding, yogurt, smoothies.

[treeoflife3]

I prefer my oatmeal with milk hehe.

take up baking and making more things from scratch. Having brownies after dinner or making from scratch pancakes is pretty awesome. scrambled eggs are yummier and go further made with a touch of milk.

or, see if you can get cheese instead of milk. I know it is an option although I'm not sure how it works. They definitely do give a lot of milk. For my 17 month old, they give three gallons of whole milk a month. the three of us can't drink that much. we aren't fans of store bought cows milk so we only use it in things save for the rare glass with something rich (or spicy in my case)

[mamadelbosque]

I ran into that when we got wic too... honestly, I just rarely got all the milk they gave us. At one point I was contemplating trying to learn to make cheese but it honestly sounded like a huge hassle and not really worth it.

Yogurt is fairly easy to make, as is pudding and they both use up a goodly bit of milk. And as noted above, you can always just make oatmeal w/ milk instead of water - makes it more creamy!!

[cristeen]

I always make oatmeal with half milk, half water.

Tapioca or rice puddings use a fair bit, as do custards, which i eat for breakfast. Yogurt is a good use for it, if you'll eat it. Cream soups can use a good amt also. During the cold weather, i enjoy a cup of warm molasses milk before bed.

You can also make paneer (cheese), yogurt cheese, cream cheese, etc. They're all simple cheeses not requiring a whole lot of work or equipment.

[FaithfulOne]

If its fatty milk (at least 2% but homo is better), you can make alfredo sauce and freeze it.

Homemade cheese sauce (also freezes well)
definately yogurt

[Yulia_R]

Not saying that it is healthy (I personally don't think that pasterised milk is good for you period), but russians are really big on cooking grains IN milk. For example, if you cook old fashioned oatmeal, you put two cups of milk for one cup of oatmeal and cook the oatmeal in this milk (simply use milk instead of water). Pretty much all grains can be cooked in milk. Rice/brown rice cooked in milk is also very tasty. Just add a bit of honey or sugar.

[pixiepunk]

kefir is an easier way to ferment the milk than making yogurt, so that might be something to look into also. i use kefir (and the whey i strain out of it) to soak grains before making things like pancakes, and the whey especially gets used to soak lots of grains like rice before i cook them.

in addition to pudding, as someone else mentioned, custards use up a lot of milk (and eggs - very high in protein for a sweet treat).

i also agree about finding out if you can get some cheese instead. i know WIC will cover cheese, in the grocery store i normally shop in they have items labeled that are covered by WIC and there are a number of cheeses. it seems that especially until you have a child old enough to consume some of the milk that cheese would be a reasonable alternative if allowed. and if all else fails and you really aren't consuming all the milk you're allowed, perhaps you could pass some of the milk along to someone else you know who could use it? it seems a shame for it to go to waste.

[Callimom]

Yogurt and yogurt cheese are easy to do.
Can you get cream instead to make butter?

You can bake with it, freeze it to make smoothies, use it in cream soups, salad dressings, puddings etc. Here's a list of recipes using milk.

Good luck
Karen