Stretching My Food $$ - Milk

 

Milk is one of those things I don’t purchase very often.  I don’t drink milk, but I do use it for cooking or baking and on a very rare occasion I may put some on a bowl of cereal, which I don’t eat very much.  When I do buy milk I buy whole milk and then I divide it up and freeze it in various size containers to have on hand when I need to use it.  Freezing milk in various size containers helps me to have milk on hand without waste by having a carton go bad because I didn’t use it up fast enough.  Through trial and error I find that 50/50 milk and water freezes the best and maintains its texture nicely.  I’ve never had any luck with frozen cream as it changes the texture too much for my liking.

 

When my children were young I’d buy whole milk and cut it 50/50 with water.  It tasted better than 2% or 1%, certainly better than skim, and it had the perfect consistency.  Not one of my children just drank a single 8 oz. serving of milk at a time.  They’d grab a big glass and fill it to the brim so I never had to worry they weren’t getting the nutrition from the milk and they were getting extra water in their system which they also needed.  I still cut my whole milk 50/50.

 

One thing I do buy on a consistent basis is a quart of cream each month.  I enjoy fixing myself a large keto coffee every morning to enjoy around 10:00.  I call it my “coffee break” and I really do look forward that big cup of coffee each day.  With my current $50 grocery budget should I be I be devoting so much of my budget, nearly $6, to cream?  Some might argue that is foolish or suggest I buy half and half, which I have thought about, but honestly, I’m good with it.  It’s my luxury item.  I’d rather just go without something else and keep my cream on the shopping list.

 

Another thing I discovered quite some time ago it that an empty cream container is never truly empty.  The inside of the carton is covered with a thick layer of cream so when I get to the end I add about a quarter cup of water and shake the carton to rinse off all of that residue from the sides.  What is left is the consistency of half and half and tastes wonderful on a bowl of cereal or oatmeal.

 

In my LTFS I keep powdered milk, powdered buttermilk and powdered cream.  I don’t particularly care for the flavor of those items as they are but they work very well for cooking and baking.  If I just need a little bit of milk or cream for a recipe I’ll use that rather than using my fresh cream or frozen milk.

 

A gallon of whole milk with last me months and months, a quart of cream about one month, less if I use some of it in a recipe.  Right now I’m able to supplement with dry milk and dry cream options to extend my need for fresh milk so I have yet to put any on my shopping list this year.  I also still have some frozen 50/50 milk in my freezer.  Do you buy much milk and do you do anything to “preserve” or extend its shelf life?  Do you ever buy the shelf stable milk?