Ideas for using up the extra milk

Parent Cafe
1

<p>Now that I have only one kid living home instead of two, we have trouble finishing a full gallon of milk before it goes bad. Yes, I could buy a half gallon… but usually the cost is nearly as much as a gallon.</p>

<p>It would be a healthy idea for me to drink more milk, and I’ll try. But it will encourage unhealthy consumption of cookies…</p>

<p>So far I’ve used these ideas: </p>

<ul>
<li><p>eat more cold cereal for breakfast</p>

<ul>
<li>make instant pudding (I discovered the is sugar-free ones are pretty good)</li>
</ul></li>
</ul>

2

<p>I highly recommend making instant pudding or finding other occasions to drink milk. Milk is a good substitute for soda at mealtimes, especially if you are eating spicy food.</p>

3

<p>It’s very easy to make your own yogurt and you don’t need any special equipment. Turn your oven to minimum heat (usually 200 degrees); as soon as it gets there, turn it off. Meanwhile, heat a big bowl of milk to lukewarm, put in some yogurt with live culture, cover loosely with foil, and put it in the turned-off oven overnight. If it hasn’t thickened much overnight, take it out, stir it, reheat the oven to 200 degrees, turn the oven off, and put the bowl back in to sit longer. When it’s thick and sour enough, put it in the fridge. Yogurt keeps longer than fresh milk does.</p>

4

<p>Several breakfast recipes use a lot of milk - French toast, waffles, pancakes, breakfast casseroles. I usually make ‘breakfast for dinner’ because morning is too rushed.</p>

5

<p>Smoothies (especially when the weather gets warmer) – I toss a cup of milk, some frozen fruit and a scoop of protein powder in the blender and let 'er rip. </p>

<p>Chai is also great, and easy to make. I like to use cardommon pods, cinnamon sticks, and cloves for flavoring.</p>

6

<p>Do you like oatmeal? Use milk to make it instead of water. </p>

<p>My potato soup recipe uses milk. I’m sure there must be other soup recipes w/ milk.</p>

7

<p>You can freeze milk pretty sucessfully. Just leave enough room in the container for some expansion. </p>

<p>My mom buys a quart, and freezes a pint, since she only uses milk in her coffee and wouldn’t use up a whole quart before it goes bad. </p>

<p>You can make milk “ice” cubes, and either thaw them to use in baking or whatever, or use them in a glass of (unfrozen) milk to make it reeeealllly cold and yummy.</p>

8

<p>Great idea, PackMom! My new favorite food is steel-cut oatmeal – it’s sooo much better than regular rolled oatmeal. The recipe I follow is to use 3 cups of water to 1 cup of oats and to finish it off in the last 10 minutes with 1 cup of milk (to make it creamy).</p>

9

<p>Making real pudding is pretty easy-- and MUCH better than instant. Thats been a longstanding tradition in our house. Extra milk = Chocolate pudding!!</p>

10

<p>oooh! Real hot cocoa! This is the weather for it! (This is from the Hershey website)</p>

<p>Ingredients
1/2 cup sugar
1/4 cup HERSHEY’S Cocoa
Dash salt
1/3 cup hot water
4 cups (1 qt.) milk
3/4 teaspoon vanilla extract
Miniature marshmallows or sweetened whipped cream (optional) </p>

<p>Directions
1 Stir together sugar, cocoa and salt in medium saucepan; stir in water. Cook over medium heat, stirring constantly, until mixture comes to a boil. Boil and stir 2 minutes. Add milk; stirring constantly, heat to serving temperature. Do Not Boil. </p>

<p>2 Remove from heat; add vanilla. Beat with rotary beater or whisk until foamy. Serve topped with marshmallows or whipped cream, if desired. Five 8-oz. servings. </p>

<p>**VARIATIONS: Add one of the following with the vanilla extract: **</p>

<p>SPICED COCOA: 1/8 teaspoon ground cinnamon and 1/8 teaspoon ground nutmeg. Serve with cinnamon stick, if desired.</p>

<p>MINT COCOA: 1/2 teaspoon mint extract OR 3 tablespoons crushed hard peppermint candy OR 2 to 3 tablespoons white creme de menthe. Serve with peppermint candy stick, if desired. </p>

<p>CITRUS COCOA: 1/2 teaspoon orange extract OR 2 to 3 tablespoons orange liqueur. </p>

<p>SWISS MOCHA: 2 to 2-1/2 teaspoons powdered instant coffee.</p>

<p>COCOA AU LAIT: Omit marshmallows or whipped cream. Spoon 2 tablespoons softened vanilla ice cream on top of each cup of cocoa at serving time.</p>

<p>SLIM-TRIM COCOA: Omit sugar. Combine cocoa, salt and water; substitute nonfat milk. Proceed as above. With vanilla, stir in sugar substitute with sweetening equivalence of 1/2 cup sugar. </p>

<p>CANADIAN COCOA: 1/2 teaspoon maple extract. </p>

<p>MICROWAVE SINGLE SERVING: Combine 1 heaping teaspoon HERSHEY’S Cocoa, 2 heaping teaspoons sugar and dash salt in microwave-safe cup or mug. Add 2 teaspoons cold milk; stir until smooth. Fill cup with milk. Microwave at HIGH (100%) 1 to 1-1/2 minutes or until hot. Stir to blend; serve.</p>

11

<p>I have the same problem (funny, back when 3 kids were at home we went through a gallon a day…) Since the gallon is often the same price as the half gallon, I get the big one - I have noticed that at our local store they seem to turn over faster so the gallons usually have a longer expiration date.
So, if you have used more than 60 or 70%, you have covered your cost and can pour out the rest with no guilt.</p>

12

<p>Mix it with Tazo Chai to make a great Chai Latte to get your morning off right! Buy the ready made Chai mix that comes in a paper carton (kind of like chicken broth comes now).</p>

13

<p>Mac and cheese!!</p>

<p>Quiche</p>

<p>Pudding</p>

<p>Cereal with milk</p>

<p>Rice pudding</p>

<p>Scallop potatoes (or even mashed)</p>

<p>Ice cream (well…ice milk)</p>

<p>Milkshakes or smoothies</p>

<p>Cream pies (you can make most with milk)</p>

<p>Creamed soups</p>

14

<p>All good ideas. I am a daily skim milk drinker - one glass a day for sure; occasionally more.</p>

<p>I just want to attest that freezing milk DOES work, leaving head room as described above.</p>

<p>I only need to do it when we are about to travel. Just pop the bottle of milk in the freezer and defrost upon return. Truly no diminishment in flavor etc. Since I’m a milk lover, I’d be sorely disappointed if it “didn’t taste right” after freezing. But it does!</p>

<p>And, colorado_mom, I hear you on the cookie problem! In my next life I’m going to be one of those people who just can NOT seem to keep the weight on. Then I will have milk and cookies at least thrice daily :).</p>

15

<p>Ahhh, it was the chai suggestion that made me realize my problem:
I really don’t like any milky, creamy stuff except plain skim milk. Other than drink it or pour it on my Wheaties, none of the above suggestions sound good. My quirk, the rest of you go for it.</p>

16

<p>mmm I love a glass of iced cold milk every day. I also drink milk when eating spaghetti/lasagna.</p>

<p>Milk with cereal, creamed chipped beef, potato soup, potatoes and peas with milk and butter,
homemade mac and cheese and of course, dipping oreos :)</p>

17

<p>We just started buying organic milk (we drink skim). It has a much longer shelf life than the ‘regular’ milk.</p>

18

<p>ditto just freezing the milk or making pancakes. And if you make a lot of pancakes (or waffles), you can freeze those, too. Even if the milk is sour, you can still use it for pancakes.</p>

19

<p>Any “Cream of . . .” soup can be made with milk. It’s less creamy, but it’s still tasty and it’s better for you. I use broccoli, asparagus, carrots, wild rice, whatever-random-veggies-are-in-the-bin, etc. (Confession: I sometimes add a bit of cream as well.)</p>

<p>We also make a really yummy egg casserole (it’s like like a quiche, but with bread instead of a crust) that takes quite a bit of milk.</p>

<p>Meatballs/meatloaf use milk.</p>

<p>I’ve also made home-made paneer which turned out pretty well.</p>

20

<p>Make a basic white sauce. Add cheese or seasoning for whatever you need. All my kids learned to eat vegetables with a cheesy sauce - easy to make.</p>