LOTS of milk and juice to use!

Platinum Member Joined: Oct 14 2009 Posts: 5867

I can't figure out how this happened; usually we have a little backup stash of WIC stuff but over the course of the month it turns out to be around the right amount for us. But somehow right now I have about 10 bottles of milk in the freezer and maybe 5 orange juices in the fridge! Let's not talk about proper use of government assistance here; like I said it's usually the perfect amount and anyway it's after the fact, it's already in my fridge. This probably means DD and I haven't been drinking enough milk - oops.

Anyway I need some ideas of what to do with all this because frankly my fridge and freezer are stuffed, no room for leftovers, and there's going to be more coming next month (which starts now for us actually)!

We could make a lot of smoothies only I never have that much extra fruit. And we don't love smoothies that much. Homemade orange-juice-flavored ice cream?! Without raw eggs, please? Creamy milchig orange soup?!

Ideas and recipes pretty pretty please!

(Oh, and we're on WIC for a reason. No exotic/expensive ingredients, please. I'm not going to buy a whole cow so I can make 5 orange juices worth of beef l'orange or whatever)

You can just freeze ice pops with the juice, and I once found one or two recipes online for very plain ice cream with basically just milk, but you have to blend it a few times after freezing I think? And it does come out a bit like milk ice, but it's delicious. You could make your own yogurt but I think you need specialized equipment.
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Platinum Member Joined: Oct 14 2009 Posts: 5867

I doubt I could do yogurt, most of it is lowfat milk.
Maybe I'll try the blender ice cream thing. That should take care of maybe one milk and one juice. 9 milks and 4 (5? I don't even remember. I can't see that deep into my fridge anymore) juices to go, with another something like half a dozen milks and 2 juices coming within the next two weeks. Yikes. I wonder what happened, I can't figure out any major changes in our eating/drinking habits that could explain why I usually have maybe one backup juice and one or two freezer milks at a time and suddenly now have so many. There have even been times when I RAN OUT of milk and juice before doing the next shopping. This is weird!

Maybe add chocolate to the milk and it will go faster? IDK.

Here are some of the recipes I had found when I was looking to use up my own milk: Smile

Vanilla Ice Cream (Ice Milk)
Orange Milk Sherbert

Lots of people just give away the extra to neighbors or family. I also like to make some use of it all, but sometimes it's not worth making yourself crazy.

Platinum Member Joined: Oct 14 2009 Posts: 5867

I will probably find people to give a bunch to. In the past I've sometimes given away one or two, but never had this much extra. I'm just worried that such a huge surplus means we're not getting enough calcium and such in our diets (the juice I don't really worry about. I guess we just prefer our fruits fresh. But we do need strong bones and teeth!)

Active Poster Joined: Jul 01 2011 Posts: 26

Pancakes,puddings, chocolate milk...

Platinum Member Joined: Oct 14 2009 Posts: 5867

Heyyy pudding is a nice idea! Haven't done that in ages! My pancake recipe only uses 1 cup of milk and makes enough pancakes for the whole family and then some... so, tasty but not really going to empty the freezer or build our bones.

Gold Member Joined: Aug 19 2011 Posts: 1977

I find orange juice is always handy to have for use in pareve cakes (see the infamous strawberry shortcake recipe somewhere on here).

Biscuits. Make lots and freeze. Pancakes - freeze initially in a single layer then pack all together in ziploc - easy breakfast or lunch.

Yogurt is SUPER easy and can be done with lowfat milk. Google it. You do need some plain yogurt as started You can make paneer, an awesome Indian cheese by boiling a gallon of milk then adding 3/4 c white vinegar or lemon juice. Google also for that recipe. My kids like to eat the curds but you could add them to pasta or anything you want.

Whenever I make pudding the milk just dissappears, you can also make pudding pops (my filter doesn't let me find it right now, but there is a recipe with no jello in it, only butter, vanilla, milk eggs (but you cook it!) and cocoa). They are delicious!

Most of my cake recipes call for orange juice as the liquid and I never have any on hand!

I wish I had a better idea for the orange juice though...I will keep thinking!

Silver Member Joined: Aug 03 2010 Posts: 512

make creamy macaroni and cheese with lots of milk.
whenever I make that I seem to get through a liter really fast...

Gold Member Joined: Jan 16 2012 Posts: 1590

you can for sure freeze milk, not sure about OJ but I think probably

Gold Member Joined: Apr 29 2010 Posts: 1026

You can totally make yogurt. It's so easy, and you don't need anything special to do it.

Take however much milk you want (I use a half gallon) and heat it until just before boiling. Let it cool to warm (like a baby bottle). Add in a tablespoon of yogurt with live active cultures. Put THE CONTAINER OR POT OR WHATEVER SOMEPLACE WARM. I put it in the oven (with a pilot light, so a bit warmer than the room) for a while, like 12-16 hours. Take it out, cool in fridge, voila, YOGURT! It not as thick as store bought but delicious with some honey or jam mixed in. We also use it for smoothies.

You can make it with any kind of milk, whole, fat free, whatever.

Sorry about the weird caps issue. My button was stuck.

Diamond Member Joined: Sep 17 2009 Posts: 3917

If you have the freezer space you can freeze both. Otherwise cream cycles or however you spell that.

Gold Member Joined: May 12 2008 Posts: 1282

I give my extra wic stuff to chesed 24/7. they always need milk for the hospitals. call them.
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Freeze the orange juice in 1 cup increments. Then grab one when you're making cake and defrost so you can add it to the batter as the liquid (can be used instead of milk or water in recipes calling for that).

Start incorporating the milk into your everyday meals. Use it in your omelet mixture (so good). Make a thick soup and when it's done, add some milk to thin it and make it deliciously creamy. Start making pancakes. Farina. Oatmeal. Make a pasta salad dressing or vegetable salad dressing with mayo, seasonings, and thinned out/made creamy with milk. Milk makes everything so much better. Serve tall glasses of cold chocolate milk. Make a glass pitcher of iced coffee flavored milk. .
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Gold Member Joined: May 12 2008 Posts: 1282

Edited can't delete via mobile bec the suggestion was already suggested

Active Poster Joined: Sep 01 2009 Posts: 97

fruit smooties
cut bananas, add sugar, ice put in blender add milk my children love it
you can do this with any fruits

also rice and milk. cook rice add milk and sugar. mix slowly in low flame
add cinnamon. its delicious

Platinum Member Joined: Oct 14 2009 Posts: 5867

Thanks for the suggestions! Keep em coming! Does anyone have specific soup recipes that go well with milk? I only have one that actually calls for milk, and I tried experimenting with a couple of others but it didn't go that well. Plus we're not so into soup in the summer anyway. Fall is coming but then again there's a month straight of Shabbos and Yomtov and we're very traditional about having fleishig Shabbos and Yomtov meals... sigh.

Would love to know if anyone has a recipe for those pudding pops In the Kitchen suggested. It sounds good.

Silver Member Joined: Jan 29 2012 Posts: 739

[quote="ra_mom"]Freeze the orange juice in 1 cup increments. Then grab one when you're making cake and defrost so you can add it to the batter as the liquid (can be used instead of milk or water in recipes calling for that).

This is a really good idea!

Platinum Member Joined: Oct 14 2009 Posts: 5867

Yeah I thought it was a cool idea too except the problem is my freezer is overstuffed, plus I rarely make cakes. I only make that kind of thing for Shabbos and I alternate with cookies and other recipes that don't call for juice.