I decided to make my own rice milk, once again. I'm using the rice milk for any cooking and baking requiring milk, and in a half and half blend for drinking or pouring over oatmeal. This seems to be working well, and will get me through, until I once again find milk on markdown, or the new month's budget begins.
So far, rice milk has worked very successfully in biscuits, quiche, French toast, and bread pudding. And as for drinking, the family seems fine with this blend, knowing that it's temporary.
As I'm using this homemade rice milk in savory as well as sweet dishes, I've left out the vanilla and cut back on the sugar. I've been making 1 quart of rice milk (using a quick version of this recipe -- soaking overnight, and only straining once) every 3 days for the last week. It's working for us, and getting us to the next month. with just 1 quart of dairy milk left. (I have managed to "stretch" 1 final gallon of milk for over a week now. I usually go through 2 gallons per week.)
I still may buy 1 gallon, if I feel I have to. I hate paying the regular price on milk! And, if I have a choice, there's beef on sale this week, and I'd really rather buy beef than milk, if I have to choose. We do have plenty of cheese, and a quart of whole milk yogurt in the fridge, so no one is suffering from lack of dairy, here.
The really great news, for me, in this situation, is I've been cutting my own soy milk half and half, with this rice milk, and I like it better! With the soy milk, I get Vit. D and calcium fortification (I could always take supplements, but this is handy for me, to just drink my vitamins/minerals). With homemade rice milk, those "extras" aren't there. But maybe a compromise on half soy/half rice milk would work for me, in the future, save some money and give me a product that I enjoy more.
How about you? Do you "sweat it" when you're about out of milk for a few days? Could you go a week without milk for yourself or your kids? Do you think I'm doing something neglectful by not buying more dairy milk this week? Just curious about your thoughts on this.
