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Tuesday, November 10, 2015

When a gallon of milk is just too much for our family


I didn't think this would happen so soon. I got a Woohoo kind of deal on milk last week (really, it says so right on the price tag). It was 99 cents a gallon, and I also received the senior discount, bringing my price to 89 cents. I bought 5 gallons. I froze 4 of the gallons, right away. Then we started in on the 5th gallon. In the past, the fact that the milk was 2 days just before the sell-by date wouldn't have been a problem for us. But last week, one of my kids caught a nasty cold, and doesn't drink milk with a cold. Another kid is still drinking a higher fat content milk. And, I don't drink cow's milk. So, it was up to my husband and one daughter to consume a gallon in a matter of days. I made a batch of granola, to encourage some of the family members to use up this milk. Obviously, though, we fell behind in our milk consumption. Here, we were, November 9, 4 days past the sell-by date. Time to make haste with the milk!!

So, what was I to do?


Well, how about a batch of pancakes and a small batch of vanilla pudding.


Remember all of those apples?


How about a batch of apple muffins.


Then a couple of glasses of milk poured for dinner. Notice, the glassware doesn't match;-)


And what was left, about 1  1/2 cups, was put into a container for the freezer, for future pancakes.

What else could I have done with the milk (it's skim, so it wouldn't work very well for yogurt)? This isn't an idle question, as the very same set of circumstances could exist next week, when I thaw one of the other gallons.

24 comments:

  1. Usually, there' not a problem with too much milk around here--even if it's just my husband drinking it. However, the last few times I've gotten milk from Aldi's, it's gotten old long before it should. I'm trying it one more time, then buying it somewhere else even if it does cost more.

    After pudding, the next things that come to mind that use a lot of milk are white sauces and ice cream.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Hi live and learn,
      My mother and grandmother used white sauces on vegetables, often. Years ago, before my dairy problem, I did the same. And you're right, that's an easy way to go through milk. One of my favorite white sauce/veggie combinations was steamed potatoes and peas, in a white sauce. I haven't made that in years. I think it's time for that to show up on one of our menus again (I can just pull my veggies out of the pot before adding the white sauce).

      Delete
    2. Iinteresting that Live And Learn has been having problems with Aldi's milk--I just recently started buying their milk again due to a similar problem with their milk.

      My milk solutions are the same as yours, although I might have bribed family members to drink it by turning some of it into chocolate milk.

      Delete
    3. Hi Kris,
      That's really great idea, to just turn a quart of it, or so, into chocolate milk. I think it would get drunk as snacks, if I did that.

      Delete
  2. What about adding a small amount of your heavy cream to it and then making yogurt? Also, homemade mac and cheese....mmm. Though that takes cheese as well. A biscuit and gravy supper or weekend breakfast?

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Hi Cat,
      I may give that a try. I could figure the amount of heavy cream to add, to approximate whole milk. I did that at dinner last night, adding heavy cream to the skim milk, for drinking, to make it close to whole milk.

      Delete
  3. In my family biscuits and gravy. The biscuits use 2 c. of buttermilk, but I just add vinegar to the milk for that and my recipe for the gravy uses 3 c. of milk. Alot if milk, but so good for a lazy dinner. Cheryl

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Hi Cheryl,
      Is the gravy like a sausage gravy? I hadn't thought of that. But I think my recipe for sausage gravy does call for milk. It would make a good Saturday breakfast, or easy supper.

      Delete
    2. Sorry, yes it is sausage gravy. Cheryl

      Delete
    3. Great! And I have sausage at the moment! Thanks!

      Delete
  4. I'd save it to make a white sauce , I have used it to soak ( does not need to be a heavier cream)bread when making hamburgers. I also frequently freeze any sort or cream or evaporated milk in straight sided canning jars,for butter chicken or other recipes adding a cream/ dairy product( usually heavier fat)
    I save and then do an Internet search for recipes using that ingredient.
    Teresa

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Hi Teresa,
      Freezing some, in amounts needed for recipes is a good option, for sauces and soups, later this fall.

      Thanks for mentioning using wide-mouth glass canning jars for freezing (straight-sided containers). Those jars with shoulders below the opening can crack upon freezing (expansion).

      Delete
  5. I would have done exactly what you did and probably even a couple of batches of waffles and freezing them for a quick pop in the toaster at a later date. That takes buttermilk but I also just use milk/vinegar.

    I just bought two quarts of reduced price egg nog. Do you think I could freeze that or will it get funny when I thaw it later?

    Alice

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Hi Alice,
      waffles would be nice to have for later. I froze soy egg nog a year ago, and it came out perfectly fine. I had it in the freezer for almost 1 year, before taking it out to drink.

      Commercial dairy egg nog should freeze well (according to several websites). If you're unsure if you'll like how it turns out frozen, pour about 1 cup into a container and freeze overnight. Then thaw in the fridge the next day.

      Delete
  6. I vote for potato soup pull a little of the potatoes and veggies out out for yourself and use the almond milk to make it creamy. Homemade hot chocolate,waffles,homemade sweetened condensed milk I just google for a recipe and put milk and sugar i n heavy bottom sauce pan cook very low heat until reduced by half you can add butter at this point if you want to put in jars let cool put in frig or freezer. You can also put in a crock pot.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Hi Patti,
      Potato soup does sound good. And especially since i now have some cream that I could add to it!

      Yes! I've done this to make sweetened condensed milk, before to make those layer bar cookies (we call them Magic Bars). I just heated the milk/sugar in a heavy-bottomed saucepan over very low heat, stirring often. Worked like a charm. I'll be doing that again this holiday season.

      Delete
  7. Certainly could use a milk deal here!! My dad mentioned recently that he loved the mashed potatoes which we froze in portions for him, and now that we need milk, there are no close dated discount sales anywhere. The last gallon of milk was bought at Kmart for 50c which I froze in large cottage cheese containers. We made a few corn and clam chowders, and some mashed potatoes with the milk. My husband at first didn't like seeing the freezer space taken up with milk, but after enjoying the chowders immensely doesn't mind freezing milk again. In fact, he's the one checking the dairy case at Kmart just in case there is another markdown lol Since buying fresh milk at a discount, I can't bring myself to buy dry milk powder which I assume will be more expensive.

    YHF

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Hi YHF,
      And I can't bring myself to pay full price for milk, ever now!
      Powdered milk is more expensive, here, too. With exception to the 55 lb bags sold at Cash & Carry. Those make approximately 55 gallons of milk. I've bought them before, but they aren't fortified with Vit. D, and with lack of sun here, that concerns me. But I now keep a little bit of powdered milk on hand, as I can make smoothies and bump up the nutrition by adding powdered milk to the liquid milk.

      That 50 cents a gallon price is amazing! I would have bought all I could that day.Frozen chowders are another good suggestion. It would give us a ready-made entree in the freezer, as well as use up milk.

      Delete
    2. I didn't know you could freeze chowders, thanks!!

      On the note of freezing leftovers for a ready-made entree in the freezer, I've decided that we should do that as a general rule, with our entrees. Knowing in advance that whatever is not eaten can be frozen for a quick, convenient bite later will prevent me from overeating. Somehow, I'm wired to think the food will go to waste so eat up lol

      YHF

      Delete
    3. YHF,
      I thought you were saying that you froze chowders!!
      Hmmm, now I'll have to give this a try, to see. It could separate, but when I've had frozen cream soups separate on thawing, before, they come back together upon reheating and stirring. With any fish/seafood dishes, though, it's best to only freeze in single-serving portions.

      Delete
  8. You can make a double batch of chowder and put in the freezer before adding
    flour or corn starch to thicken just add the flour when you reheat or it separates
    and is kinda goupy not really a word :)
    Patti

    ReplyDelete
  9. We had some milk go bad recently, so we've made a lot of pancakes, scones, muffins, biscuits, etc. Now we're out of flour!

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. I didn't think about scones, but those will go into the next set of "extra-milk, baked" items.

      Delete

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