With food prices on the rise, it can sometimes be tough to be able to afford high quality foods. For example, organic milk is costs between $6 and $8 a gallon here.
Then, there’s the whole debate on whether you should buy and consume skim milk or whole milk, or land somewhere in the middle.
While I’m not going to touch on our personal milk choices today (or health benefits one way or another), I do want to share a tip with you that can possibly help you think about your own milk choices.
Think about this:
- Skim milk is watered down milk with powdered milk added to it.
- 1 % milk has less water than skim milk, but still contains added water.
Why pay for water?
If I can purchase a gallon or half gallon of 2% or whole milk for the same price as an equivalent volume of skim or 1% milk, I’m paying for water!
In an effort to save money where we can, and buy healthy products for my family, we’ve started purchasing smaller quantities of higher quality milk and then adding our own water to achieve the desired milk-fat percentage.
So far, we’re loving it. This means Frog Prince can have his desired percentage of milk fat, and I can have mine too.
For cooking, this method has worked out wonderfully. Adding water to the milk stretches it a bit further in dinner dishes, allowing us to enjoy a higher milk-fat serving with granola or baked oatmeal, or even in ice cream!
Have you ever thought about this before? Or, added water to your higher-fat milk?
This post is linked to: Kitchen Tip Tuesday
Awesome write! I'm on weight watchers and hate buying 2 kinds of milk for home. Now I don't have to. Ty
ReplyDeleteThat's exactly what I do. After reading a couple of years ago about powdered milk (and possible health issues with that) being added to lower-fat milks, I started buying only whole milk and adding water to it. (I usually add about 20 oz per gallon). My family never noticed a taste difference, although when they caught me doing it once, they flipped out..."GROSS!!" they yelled. But now they're used to it. :)
ReplyDeleteI never heard of that, but it's a great idea! Back when the type of milk that was on sale used to be 1/2% & 4% one week and 2% the next, my mom would by 1 gallon of each of the whole & skim and mix them to approximate 2%; cheaper milk with the right "texture" for our tastes. Now that a typical milk sale is "all varieties," we don't have to do that anymore. --Merri
ReplyDeleteI had no idea that powdered milk was added to skim! How much water do you add then?
ReplyDeleteIt depends on how "thin" you want your milk. With 1 C whole milk, I've been using 1/2 C milk, 1/2 C water - especially for baking. With 2% milk, I do about 3/4 milk, 1/4 water.
DeleteHope that helps!
I have never thought about doing this! I buy 2 gallons of skim milk a week, plus Almond milk for me, and that gets pricey! I am so going to try this, but will have to keep it a secret from the kids :-)
ReplyDeleteThis is a great idea, but...please be aware you are diluting the amount of calcium (and other nutrients) in the milk as well. Most skim milk has the same nutritional profile as whole milk (with the exception of less fat and calories), so you are diluting these as well. I wouldn't recommend doing this if your children are drinking it!
ReplyDeleteThe calcium does not matter as humans cannot absorb calcium from pasteurized milk.
DeleteIn our area the price of whole milk is significantly higher than skin and 1 and 2% fall somewhere in between. So I'm not sure it would be worth it. My three year old still drinks whole milk (even though the official AAP recommendations say she should drink 1% or skim). Plus I like using whole milk instead of cream in a lot of recipies. It's lower in fat but still produces the creamy texture in soups and some baked goods.
ReplyDeleteI've found that I love whole milk in recipes rather than cream too!
DeleteI found this post very interesting as I'd never heard of doing this before. Do you and Frog Prince drink a lot of milk? My family of 4 barely gets through a gallon of skim milk in 10 days.
ReplyDeleteWith the holidays coming up, I thought it would be a great idea to buy whole milk and add water. There are many recipes that call for whole milk, and it really makes a difference, but we never drink whole milk.
We don't drink a lot of milk here; the only way I really drink milk is from the milk booth at the state fair ;-) We do use it on cereals & baked oatmeal, and use a lot of it for cooking. We've started buying half gallons of whole or 2% and then adding water to stretch it.
DeleteMy mom always would make up a gallon of powdered milk and mix it with a gallon of whole milk to stretch it, and I did also when we had kids at home. I like your idea of just adding water, especially, as you say, for cooking! Great post!
ReplyDeleteDo you do this with just whole milk? Or 2% too? What is the ratio? Just 50/50?
ReplyDeleteAlso, do you save an old container so you have one to mix it in?
I need more details please. :)
Hi Jenn--
DeleteI do this with whole & 2% milk. The ratio depends on how "thin" I want the milk. For cereals -- we do about a 50/50 ratio with whole milk, and a 75/25 with 2% milk. For baking I use roughly the same, although depending on the recipe I may dilute the milk to 40/60 or 30/70.
I hadn't thought of a container to mix it in! We usually just pour it into a measuring cup and measure it on the spot -- but saving a container would be a great idea.