Last week I took my first vacation with the girls as a single mom. And, of course I could not just do the normal thing and book a nice hotel with a pool... I got the grand idea that myself and 4 little girls (mine PLUS a friend) would work out just fine. Camping. Did you catch that? With four children... and myself?
The packing alone was enough to drive me mad. Thankfully we were only doing 3 days and 2 nights. But I am the type to go all out , real deal camping. I use a propane camping stove and make my coffee in a tin can... cook hobo pockets over the open campfire, hot dogs on a stick... roughing it for real.
One thing that is hard about camping is still eating fairly healthy. Keeping up on the fruits, veggies, dairy while avoiding the processed foods. So when Milk Unleashed contacted me about reviewing their shelf safe milk, I though this trip was the perfect opportunity.
Shelf safe is any of those juice carton-types of milk you see on the shelf that do not need to be refrigerated. The most common one we have around here are the Horizon Organic which I always see at Target, Shaws and Hannaford.
But, previously when I saw milk being sold warm on the shelf, I was a bit freaked out. So I did my research. These milks have no additives or preservatives, they are just basically super heater to super pasteurize them, and then put in these paper based boxes which keep out any light, bacteria, etc that may spoil milk.
If you know my family, you know that we keep the milk industry in business. We have been known to go through a gallon of milk in one day. And I do not allow soda and only very limited juice, so we really needed this milk option for our trip.
It was perfect! I was able to pack a bunch of the cartons in with my dried goods, no need for cooler space. The cabin we had had a mini fridge so we we able to refrigerate a few as we needed them. I also discovered that I could freeze a few and take them to the river with us and when it was time to picnic, they were nice and cold.
The girls loved them. The plain milk ones tasted just like our normal 1% does and they were excited I let them have the flavored milks too. All the flavored milk I was provided (from Hersheys to Horizon) did not have any high fructose corn syrup, which is the one reason I do to let the girls have other flavored milks.
I was actually so enthralled with this whole boxed milk idea that I came home and bought some to keep in the pantry. I am forever running out of milk and this is a great back up. I will also be adding them to the girls lunches so that they can have organic milk (which our school does not provide) I can just freeze them the night before and they will be perfect at lunch time.
I did notice that Horizon has some coupons available if you are interested in trying it. I could not suggest it more highly for your summer beach trips, camping, hiking, picnics. I am clearly ultra-pasteurized milks newest and biggest fan.
Oh, and here's a link to my previous tips and traveling with kids. I will be providing a few more posts on what activities we had to keep us busy, what other types of things a crazy mom with 4 kids and tow may pack for a getaway in the woods and maybe more.
(I was provided lots of milk from milk unleashed, which my family gladly drank and I gladly shared an opinion on.)
