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Milk vs. Water in Bread, and Limits on Screen Time at Chez FG

Every Monday, I answer a few of the questions that my readers send me. If you have a question you’d like me to answer in a future Q&A post, just leave me a comment here or email me (thefrugalgirl [at] gmail [dot] com) and put Q&A in the subject line. I look forward to hearing from you!

In one of your recipes, you put that you can use water in place of dairy. Does it change the texture at all if you use water ?

I’m curious, because milk is so expensive. We buy 4 gallons a week for my almost 19 year old son. He’s a milk-aholic.

-Dorthey

Yep, you can always sub water for the milk in bread recipes. It does affect the texture a bit, though. Bread made with water will not be as soft or fluffy as bread made with milk, the crumb won’t be as fine, and it will go stale faster as well.

Basically, the texture will be a bit more like my French bread than my hamburger buns.

fluffy homemade hamburger bun

Another option is to use reconstituted powdered milk when you’re baking. Just mix it up according to the directions on the box (usually you put 1/3 c. of dry milk into a measuring cup and then add enough water to make 1 cup.)

I love the “Reader” pictures! Do you even own a TV? If so, how do you keep the kids from watching it or playing video games all day instead of reading? I’m really impressed that this day in age you have managed to raise your kids this way. Kudos to you as parents!!

-J. R.

Yep, we do have a TV.   Actually, we have two!   There’s one in Joshua’s room (hooked up to the Wii), and one in our office.

Notably, we have no TV in our living room.   Having the TV in a more out-of-the-way spot helps us to only watch when we really want to (like when we watch a movie with the kids, or watch a show together).

Basically, it forces us to be intentional about TV-watching.

(Well, that and not having cable.   It’s not as tempting to plop down and search through Netflix/Amazon Prime offerings as it is to channel-surf!)

We’re not completely opposed to TV/video games, though.   Our kids get an allotment of screen time per day (30 mins on weekdays, an hour on weekends, with a timer set to keep track of it).

When they’ve used it, they’ve used it, and it’s up to them to fill the rest of their time in screen-free ways.

reading on the couch

We do make exceptions sometimes, like if a friend is over or we watch a movie together as a family, but mostly we stick with it.

And things like using the internet for a drawing or craft tutorial do not count toward screen time.

So, we’ve got technology in the house, and we let our kids use it, but we have limits.

puddle jumping

I monitor the screen time of the younger two, but we’ve slowly moved to having our teenagers (Joshua and Lisey) police themselves a bit more as part of the gradual letting-go we’ll try to do as they move toward adulthood.

Certainly, once our kids leave our home the limits will be up to them, but we hope that the somewhat minimal screentime habits will stick with them.

Full disclosure: My kids do complain of boredom sometimes, mostly in the summer, and when they do, I try to provide them with suggestions (Do a puzzle, draw, do a craft, play a card/board game, play outside, have a tea party, bake something, paint, read, etc.) rather than just doling out more screen time.   Screen time is easier than all the other stuff I listed, and unless the screen time option is removed, many kids will just default to it and won’t read/do puzzles/draw, etc.

making houses out of cards

Oh, and also I try to always have a good supply of books around for the kids to read.   I can’t expect them to spend a bunch of time reading if I don’t provide books, so we always, always have a bunch of stuff checked out from the library.

P.S. In case it wasn’t clear, I’m sharing what works for our family and I am not trying to say every family should operate this way.

_____________________

How do you handle screen time at your house?   And how do you help your kids find screen-free activities?

 

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Rahel

Tuesday 5th of August 2014

I grew up without a TV and although I hated it at times I am very grateful for this now. Now we do have a TV, but I don't watch every day and if I do, it is usually a movie or documentary. I observe that I am much more creative, have much more interests than many people around me that grew up with TV and watch TV every day. I try to keep my kids away from the TV too. They do watch TV- usually on the weekend for around 1-2 hours alltogether. We don't track time. So the kids play outside or have to find something else to do by themselves or with my help. And yes- the are bored at times and it is important to me to let them get over boredom themselves.

Tarynkay

Monday 4th of August 2014

We learned very early not to complain of boredom. My mom would just say, "Only boring people get bored" over and over like a broken record. My dad though would say, "Oh, really? You must not have enough work to do. Here, I have a list. First you can go and clean out the garage..." It was very effective. My son is only two and a half and thus has not yet complained of boredom, but I am going with my dad's strategy when he does. So far, we allow an occasional episode of Daniel Tiger or Sesame Street, maybe a couple of times a month.

Please keep in mind that I am the mother of one single boy under the age of three, but so far, the key seems to be keeping electronics out of sight. I am sure that this will change drastically as he gets older. But right now, if I am on my phone or computer all day, he naturally wants to do that, too. So I try to limit MY screen time to after he is in bed, or during his naps.

D.

Monday 4th of August 2014

The screen time issue is huge for me. While we only have one TV, and it's in the living room. The kids are obsessed with TV/computer/kindle. Not sure what would be an appropriate time limit for them. Plus, how does it work when they watch TV or play a computer game together? I've gotten huge push back from them on screen restriction and my dh is not entirely on board.

Heather @ My Overflowing Cup

Tuesday 29th of July 2014

We use powdered milk almost exclusively. Sometimes I use evaporated milk in soups or sauces to make them more creamy. I definitely prefer half and half in my coffee, but powdered is so much more economical. I buy a really good brand that is low heat and non-instant so the flavor is much better than the standard brands. However, I agree that any powdered milk would work well in breads. I am impressed with the way you manage the screen time for your children. Thanks for the post!

Janknitz

Tuesday 29th of July 2014

I quickly learned that for a kid in public school "Have you finished your homework?" could have shades of meaning when it was a criteria for tv time. So, the rule in our house has always been NO tv during the school week, 2 hours on weekends, and our kids learned to make good use of the DVR to see what they wanted to see in those hours. During the summer it's more liberal than that.

But my kids both have Kindles and iPods, and this summer the TV has hardly ever been on--everyone is reading. The highlight of our big family car trip was a visit to Powell's bookstore in Portland--4 story building with thousands of square feet of new and used books. Our "souvenir" of the trip was a grocery bag full of books, and everyone was thrilled.

Oldest daughter is entering her senior year of college but she still follows the no tv during the week rule during school time.

Kristen

Wednesday 30th of July 2014

That's not just limited to public school kids...mine sometimes have sort of fuzzy answers for the, "Have you finished your chores?" question. Ha.

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