Cheap breakfast ideas? Healthy if poss

[female18-]

What do you and your children eat at breakfast on a tight budget?

[Gunter]

oatmeal from the bulk bin is anywhere from .69 to .89 cents a pound. just add water or soy milk to it plus it's healthy and warm! frozen blueberries are a fave at my house, too.

[smocklets]

whole wheat pancakes or waffles (just use a regular recipe, substitute ww flour, and use applesauce for 1/2 the butter)

[BetsyS]

We also like eggs in a frame. Lots of names for this, but it's an egg fried in a piece of bread.

Eggs (at $2/dozen)-17 cents each
Bread ($2/loaf)-10 cents slice
Butter ($2/lb)- 7 cents/tablespoon

So, that's breakfast for about 34 cents.

We also like grits (with cheese or not), oatmeal, warm cornbread with honey, and pancakes. Leftover bread becomes french toast. Yum.

[dharmamama]

Homemade yogurt with fruit.

dm

[superstella]

I'll second the oatmeal, we eat a lot of that. Especially now since it's cold out, a nice hot bowl of oatmeal with maple syrup in the morning with a nice cuppa hot tea... K, I have to go cook breakfast now .

[HydeParkB]

• Oatmeal (add cinnamon sugar, applesause/shredded apples, berries, dried cranberries, raisins, mushed banana, etc.) We buy the giant box at Costco.
• Toast with butter (my preference) or jelly (DD's preference)
• Fried egg on toast
• Bananas

I also make breakfast burritos for DH and I, and freeze them. Tortillas, eggs, whatever cheese is available, peppers from the freezer/garden, onion, sausage (homemade or bought on sale). We might add other veggies if they make sense.

I wrap each in plastic wrap and freeze. Then to reheat put on a plate covered with a towel/napkin and microwave for two minutes.

I'd guess we get about 12 burritos out of $3.50 worth of eggs, tortillas, sausage and cheese. The other stuff we just add as we have it in abundance. They sell breakfast burritos in the machines at work for $1.50 a piece.

[normajean]

I second what everyone else is saying-homemade pancakes, waffles, eggs, hot cereal, etc. You can make cracked wheat cereal or when I was a kid we ate cooked rice with milk & cinnamon a lot.

I also like a crispy corn tortilla, with a fried over easy egg on top. Add a thin slice of cheese & melt it under the broiler, and top with a bit of salsa.

[Katie Bugs Mama]

French toast--I use one egg and bit of milk for each slice of bread. I don't know the exact cost, but it's not much and it gets a lot of protein into dd, who would never eat a whole scrambled egg or dippy egg.

Rice pancakes--left over rice mixed with egg and fried in a bit of butter. Yummy and filling.

[Marcee]

We eat irish oatmeal often. It is cheap and easy to toss in the Crockpot.

[Piglet68]

I love oatmeal but my kids won't eat it. I make homemade whole wheat waffles or pancakes with flax seed and red beet puree (my kids don't eat veggies either so I have to sneak them into their food!). I also make French Toast or Dippy Egg with toast, or "egg sandwich" (fried egg on toast).

[mum4boys]

Baked Oatmeal



¼ c. oil

½ c. sugar

1 egg

1 ½ c. oatmeal

1 tsp. Baking powder

½ tsp. Salt

½ c. milk





Cream oil, sugar and egg together. Add all other ingredients and mix. Pour into a greased 8-inch square cake pan. (I double it and put in a 9 X 13 pan) Bake at 350 degrees for 25-30 mins.

Serve with milk. Makes 4-5 servings.

When I make this I double it but use only half the sugar which I use a mixture of brown sugar and white sugar. I cream the white sugar and before baking at the brown on top. This refrigerates well.



Variations: Add ½ cup raisins, ¼ cup nuts and ½ teaspoon Cinnamon. Line bottom of pan with sliced apples

[~Megan~]

Oatmeal is good and filling, super cheap.
Eggs are one of the cheapest sources of proteins and I think are quite healthy. They can be fussed up with bits of cheese, leftover meats, and veggies too.

[celestialdreamer]

Our weekday breakfasts are usually eggs, oatmeal, homemade pancakes, or some combo of one of those 2. I usually add a handful of frozen berries to the oatmeal or pancakes or we have sliced apple/pear, since those are all available at reasonable prices right now. I buy the giant box of old fashioned oats at Costco which is cheaper than the bulk bins near me. I do utilize the bulk bins for many other things though. I add a little bit of sugar to my pancake batter and we usually don't have them with syrup because it is expensive and too much sugar IMO.

If you get bored with oatmeal you can always check out the bulk bins for other grains to have for breakfast, like millet, brown rice, etc. I sometimes add some raisins or seeds (pumpkin or sunflower usually) to our hot cereal for a change instead of frozen berries. Bananas and milk are good additions too, but we can't have either of those here.

[phatchristy]

Oatmeal
Waffles/Pancakes
Toast/occasionally biscuits (make your own!)
Muffins (I make my own, freeze)
Eggs

[rainbowmoon]

oatmeal
muffins
scrambled eggs (we like them best as sandwiches on bagels or english muffins) I also serve them with potatoes or beans if I have leftovers
pancakes

my kids are totally going to dig the eggs in a frame. going to try that one this week!

[rainbowmoon]

btw how do you make grits? what do they taste like?

oh that oatmeal pie is good too! (someone posted it as baked oatmeal) need to make some of that!

[SugarAndSun]

I can't honestly think of an expensive breakfast. I always think of breakfast as the cheapest meal. We make pancakes, oatmeal, or French toast. I only eat the oatmeal though so if we make the others I eat pbj on a tortilla. I also make a green smoothie every morning.

[KariM]

We generally rotate a cooked cereal (oatmeal or cream of wheat) with eggs. We occasionally add in pancakes or waffles (cooked from scratch in a big batch and then frozen to have a convenient supply on hand), and once in a blue moon we'll have sausage or bacon.

With the cooked cereals we usually add in dried fruit (apples, dates, or raisins) and nuts for those of us without nut allergies.

We're pretty much a dairy-free household due to DD's allergy.

ETA: If we're in a big rush we'll usually have homemade muffins with fruit to take on-the-go. We always have some fresh fruit or dried fruit in the house and usually have a batch of whole grain dairy free muffins on hand as they're one of my DD's fav snack items.

[DesireeH]

We do oatmeal a lot or Bob's Red Mill whole wheat "cream of wheat."

I also do crepes a lot:
2 eggs
1.5 cup milk
1 cup flour
whisk and put it the pan and pick the pan up and swirl to make the crepe super thin. Makes about 10 and is filling. We put apple butter or Trader Joe organic fruit spread on them. (but you can do PB, berries, whatever)

We do eggs on bread too. In a super pinch...I do "drop" biscuits. Flour, baking powder, and milk...drop big spoonfuls on a cookie pan and bake for 8-10 mins. Butter or gravy or whatever you have can go on them.