Right now in our household we receive WIC and are eligible for free school lunch. For some reason it surprises folks that I have such a large family and that two, we a very selective in what we eat. One of our favorite WIC meals is our pancakes. Recipe below…….
Rice Flour Pancakes with WIC items- 
WIC Items: 1 large egg, ½ cup yogurt (made from your milk, see first page), ½ cup milk
Non WIC Items: 2/3 cup brown rice flour, 1/3 cup cornstarch, 1 teaspoon honey, 1 teaspoon baking powder, pinch of salt, 2 tablespoons melted butter.
Tools: Skillet, stove top, bowl, spoon, teaspoon, measuring cup
Sift the flour, cornstarch, baking powder and salt in a large bowl. Mix egg with butter and yogurt; stir in milk. Pour the liquid ingredients into the dry ingredients and mix until just blended. Fry as you would regular pancakes on greased skillet for about 2 minutes each side or until golden brown. Then eat up!
WIC (Woman Infant and Children) is a governmental grant program. It provides* food to help moms make “healthier” food choices by specifying offering monthly vouchers for whole grains, cheeses, peanut butter, beans, milk, eggs, fruits juice, cereal and veggies. While I’m not a fan of everything they offer/exclude, it helps us feed our family.
I used formula for 3 babies, but the rest I breastfed. My over all experience with WIC has been okay. I just hated missing my appointments. When that happens, I just know that the next appointment will not be for another 3 weeks. So I try to keep my dates on a calendar in my bathroom so my husband can help remind me. I also loathe selecting the wrong items from the grocery isle. Every store differs some how in grains, brand of milk, fruits types- it’s nerve wrecking! There was a shopping guide issued with the vouchers, but they change so much, it useless most times. But when you tally it all up, WIC works for us!
Since I have more knowledge on the WIC program, I’ll share with you my top 4 tips for benefiting from the free program:
- A hand up is not a hand out! I was not raise on public assistance. and did not want to raise my children on it as a married woman… a veterans wife. BUT we are in different days now. I have a large family, my husband is disabled and I refuse to nutritionally starve my family because of pride. When my children are big, they will remember fun in the kitchen and yummy, healthy meals. Not we were hungry all of the time.
2. Cook those beans! At one time,I couldn’t make a decent pot of meatless beans to save my live. But thanks to Pinterest and a bunch of smart friends we are eating veggie based burgers, more soups, and flavor happy beans more frequently!
3. Grow your own produce. You do not need a bunch of space and a super green thumb. It will help your food budget immensely.
4. Don’t waste it. When my children took the school lunch ,they used to throw so much of it away. I couldn’t get too upset with them because I used to do the exact same thing with the WIC milk. It was shameful and I felt really bad about it all. What we do now makes more sense. The kids take their own lunch from home, and I ask my nutritionist to reserve some of the milk for someone else.
WIC VOUCHER
While WIC does help improve the diets of some moms. I would love to see demo classes offered to moms as they sign up. I think more moms will eat better with some type of culinary skills to take in the kitchen with those free groceries. I also think they should revisit the juice, peanut butter, and cereal category. But that’s just my simple minded opinion. Gotta go now, Ya’ll have a great weekend!
Jabela
More on Public Nutrition Benefits
- WIC is a “discretionary” grant program
- WIC’sfairly limited list
- WIC Works Resource system
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Maximizing and Eating Healthy with WIC
- RECIPES – Here’s one
- Here’s another one
- Another one!
- Last one – I promise!
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QC Supermom 