WIC

We know some people who are both young, and un-experienced cooks. They are soon to have a baby and qualify for wic... but were a little concerned with their limitations from the WIC menu... time for my favorite thing to do... research

Here's some really great things I've found to make the tight budget not seem quite so unfriendly.

Cooking with WIC

CA Dpt Public Health

Food Stamps Cooking Club

Military Wives Saving - Cooking with WIC Week 1 - Week 2 - Week 3 - Week 4 - Week 5

The Bean Book

You don't have to give up the good stuff.

My husband is lactose intolerant, almost severely so. I love ice cream - but feel guilty buying the delicious treat for just myself.

Then I realized his grandma left us an ice cream maker... and cow's milk is no longer the only choice.

So I went on a hunt for Chocolate - Coconut Ice Cream. OMG! I am so glad that I did.

We tried a Gnowfglins recipe for our first try... sorry, I didn't take any photos of this experiment. I used 2/3 cup of cocoa powder and everything else to the recipe. A little bit of user/mechanical error caused it to freeze a little too hard - but the taste was perfect.

Some other recipes I discovered on my searches can be found at...

Kitchen.m

The Nourishing Gourmet

Living Well On Less

Love and Olive Oil

I also did a little bit of math... while I really enjoy Coconut Bliss ice cream from my local freezer section... it costs over $6 for 1 pint... Making my 2 quart batch... I spent just a little less than double that amount. (2 quarts = 4 pints)

Family Cabin

We just returned from a trip to see the family cabin. I've been a part of this family officially for a little more than a year and half... but on an unofficial part for just about 7 years. This is my first time to the cabin. We've been invited before, but some people don't like other people's driving... *sigh*.

It's a rustic, hand cut and built shelter up in the mountains south-east of Chico, (closer to a little town called La Porte) an area known as Strawberry Valley... but even still a ways up the hill from there.

It's wired for a generator - but if you don't bring one with you can have batteries or gas light.

The first floor has a table, a small futon and the kitchen. It's roughly 12' x 10' or so.

Second floor is really just a narrow set of ladder/stairs climbing through the rafters to a place for laying out a bed or sleeping bags.

There was a smallish amount of snow on the ground still, in a pocket mounds

And a creek running just behind. Super cold water so don't fall in.

Best part, while Sacramento was experiences temps in the 90's... we were chillin' out in the 50's. Looking forward to our next trip, this time hopefully with lots of family in attendance for Labor Day weekend.