Wednesday, May 15, 2013

5 Recipes to use up all the WIC Juice (okay, probably not ALL the Juice)

Half-awake I stumbled down the stairs early this morning with Sylvan on my hip.  He had requested a trip to the bathroom.  As much as I wanted to just roll over and tell him - "You are wearing a diaper.  Just pee in it." - I figured that would counter the daytime potty training efforts.  So I stood up, picked him up and we went to the bathroom.  He went right back to sleep and I stared at the clock: 4:30.  I might as well get up.
By the time the Ivory and Sylvan both joined me down stairs I had put the finishing touches on G is for Garlic, and was tediously painting rows of kernels on I is for Indian Corn.
By 9:00 we were mixing up our second batch of Whole Wheat Pretzels and were two loads of laundry into the day.
By 11:30 I was parking my bike under the tree and Ivory helped me unload the groceries (WIC run!) out of the bike trailer.
By 1:00 Sylvan was down for a nap, my list is half checked off (the laundry is hung) and I am trying not to lose steam.

Back to the pretzels:  They are one of my favorite things to make that use up some of that juice we pick up at the store when we use our WIC vouchers.

I have two juice rules in my house:
1. I never offer juice.  I only give it on request.
2. White grape, purple grape and the apple juice gets watered down.  Adding water to the grape juice makes it fizz up momentarily and the kids love, love it.

These rules mean that I usually have a backlog of juice on my pantry shelf.

Here are my favorite uses for all that juice:

1.  Whole Wheat Soft "Pretzels"(uses apple juice)


2. Butternut Squash with Apple Cream Soup (uses apple juice)

1 butternut squash (WIC item)
  • cut in half and bake at 350 degrees Fahrenheit for about 45 minutes.  let it cool and then scoop out the insides, set aside until needed
3 Tablespoons butter
4 leeks (white and pale green part) chopped (or a large onion) (WIC item)
2 carrots, diced (WIC item)
2 apples, peeled, cored and chopped (WIC item)
  • saute over medium heat for about 15 minutes, add the squash
1 1/2 teaspoons dried thyme 
1/2 teaspoon dried sage
3 1/2 cups chicken broth
1 cup apple juice (WIC item)
  • add the spices, broth and juice and bring to a simmer
  • cover and cook until the vegetables are tender, about 30 min
  • let cool slightly and then puree half of the soup.. 
1/2 cup of milk (optional) (WIC item)
  • stir in half a cup of milk
Make the apple cream sauce:

1/2 cup of apple juice (WIC item)
  • reduce the 1/2 cup of apple juice over medium heat until 1/4 cup remains
  • whisk the reduced juice into 
1/2 cup of sour cream or plain yogurt
  • serve the soup with drizzle of the apple cream

3. Full of Fruit Cupcakes (uses frozen apple juice concentrate)


4. Molasses and Orange Waffle Sauce (uses orange juice)

1/2 cup molasses
1/4 cup brown sugar
1/3 cup orange juice
1/4 cup butter
1 tablespoon orange zest (optional) 
  • combine all the ingredients in a small sauce pan and heat, stirring until the mixture is smooth and well blended.  Serve warm over whole wheat waffles 
and last but not least is one of our favorite summer time treats:

5. Orange Creamsicles (uses orange juice concentrate

Well, Sylvan is awake and Ivory and he are throwing themselves off of the sofa.
On to the rest of the day's list: tracking down a white sheet, setting up the projector, washing those pesky dishes and starting dinner.  Weeding the strawberry patch and planting sunflowers are on my list, but will probably not happen today.  There is always tomorrow. 

Previous WIC related recipe posts:

3 comments:

  1. Yum! It's fun getting creative with items received through WIC. My favorite thing to use WIC juice for was a simple splash of juice added to water, giving the water just a bit of flavor. It helped my husband lose 15 pounds!

    ReplyDelete
  2. If I did in a day what you do by 11:30, I'd be exhausted and proud.

    ReplyDelete

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