Confession: I did not use all of my WIC vouchers last month. I was overwhelmed and didn't utilize the available items. What's worse, is that I continued to spend money on "necessities" such as graham crackers, animal crackers, frozen waffles, chicken nuggets, macaroni and cheese, etc. For the past few weeks I've been making a very conscious effort to provide a variety of meals using WIC approved items. Each month I receive four produce vouchers (good for $8 of and fresh produce), and eight food vouchers. The food vouchers are slightly different because Maddie and James have soy milk and Amelia and Jackson have cow's milk and cheese. Each week I use a produce voucher and two food checks.
Using the three checks pictured above, I selected the following groceries last week:
I challenged myself to come up with seven different breakfasts and lunches for the kids using only the items above. The only exception was that I included a jar of peanut butter. (I alternate buying a jar of peanut butter one week and four cans of beans the next week.)
Breakfast
- Cereal (soaked in milk), watermelon, cheese cubes
- Omelet (scrambled eggs with green pepper and cheese)
- French toast (bread dunked in milk and eggs), strawberries
- Banana egg pancakes (whisk 1:1 ratio of banana and egg), watermelon
- Toast with peanut butter, strawberries
- Eggs in a basket, strawberries
- Cereal, banana, scrambled egg
Lunch
- Grilled cheese, watermelon
- Quesadilla (tortilla with shredded cheese and green peppers), black beans
- Peanut butter and banana sandwich, dry cereal
- Egg and cheese sandwich (on toast), watermelon
- Black bean and cheese enchilada (rolled up tortilla, add seasoning seasoning)
- Cheese quesadilla, pinto beans, watermelon
- Dry cereal, watermelon, cheese toast
Drinks
The babies drink strictly soy milk or water. Four half-gallons of soy milk do not last a full week. We decided to give all three of the triplets soy milk since they exchange cups freely and Amelia is the only one who tolerates cow's milk. Unfortunately, we only have soy milk vouchers for Maddie and James, so we end up having to buy 6-8 cartons of soy milk each month. I am allowed much more cow's milk, but I do not select it since we would never drink it before the expiration date. Jackson drinks mostly diluted juice, along with the occasional cow's milk and plain water.
Dinner is always whatever we eat. Jackson can be picky at times so we keep bowtie pasta and chicken nuggets on hand at all times for meals he won't eat. The trio eat well and rarely refuse any food.
We get WIC too. My girls have low iron, so about three times a week I make them a big batch of soup from dried lentils, brown rice, homemade chicken broth, frozen spinach and vegetable juice. They love it and they seem to feel better. I recycle the leftovers into casseroles, curry, chili and whatnot. It goes over pretty well.
ReplyDeleteSince we are a family of lactose intolerant extended breastfeeders, I use the crockpot/cooler method to turn the cow's milk into yogurt. I know that sounds insane, but it's really only about two minutes of actual work and about fourteen hours of faith. The girls eat yogurt and Cheerios for breakfast and yogurt popsicles as a snack. They also like to snack on hardboiled eggs, frozen blueberries and bits of bread with homemade cheese (also another WIC milk project.)
We struggle to use all of our coupons too. And we still buy things like meat, more eggs, pasta, jam, peanut butter and a lot more produce. We found this discount coop called Bountiful Baskets which helps to keep the cost of healthy food low. You can buy a laundry basket of produce from them for less than $20. They are a national program, so you can check their website and see if they are in your area.
Wow! Thanks for the thorough response. You sound like a wonder woman in the kitchen! I've never even heard of crockpot yogurt, so I'll have to check that out. The Bountiful Baskets sounds like a great organization. Unfortunately, there don't seem to be many on the east coast and none in NC.
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