Stretching Milk

I know this is a bit of a departure from our beginning instructions but it is something I have been doing the past couple of weeks and it needed mentioning . . .

One of the things that we stored back before 2000 was powdered milk.  Believe it or not, I got into one of those stored containers just two weeks ago.  The powdered milk was stored in a mylar bag within a 5 gallon bucket.  There were oxygen absorbers in the mylar bag and this particular mylar bag was hand ironed shut by me - this would probably make for its own post sometime!!  Anyway, we don't drink a huge amount of milk at my house but enough.  Probably the biggest consumption of milk is what I cook with, so this was my plan . . .

My children DO NOT like powdered milk and they DO NOT drink powdered milk!  And thank the Lord up to this point they have not HAD to!!  But I figured I could stretch my gallon of milk twice over if I simply used powdered milk for my cooking.  So I got a quart jar and placed one cup of powdered milk into it.  I first added about a cup of cold water and stirred with my whisk.  Then I continued to add water periodically placing the lid on it and shaking it well, alternating stirring with the whisk.  This mixture can be lumpy, but eventually the lumps dissolve.

I have been using this mixture for ALL my cooking - pancakes, bread, soups, quiche, muffins, etc.  I am sure I have saved myself two gallons of milk in the last two weeks.  May not seem like much, but at $4.79 a gallon that is $19.16 savings per month and $229.92 per year.  Of course, I already had the milk on hand - I can't even remember how much we paid for it in 1999 - but currently powdered milk from my source is about $112.00 for a 55 pound bag.

I guess I will try to keep up with how long it takes me to go through this 5 gallon bucket and see how my savings measure out.  I'll try to remember to keep you posted . . .