Budget Breakfasts

Since we've talked a bit about our budget this week . . . and my friend Sarah asked for my Baked Oatmeal recipe . . . I thought I'd write a little post about a way to save BIG money at the grocery store.

Breakfasts is the #1 meal that we save a LOT of money on, compared to most families.  And, not only are our Breakfasts a lot cheaper . . . they are also much healthier, too.



We save a lot of money at the grocery store by doing one simple thing: we don't buy Cold Cereal.  Not only is Cold Cereal expensive, but the milk to go on it is expensive, too.  And . . . not only is it not the healthiest breakfast around, but it doesn't fill my kids up, either.  If they have a bowl of cold cereal for breakfast, they are inevitably hungry in about 2 hours.

What do we eat for breakfast?

Pancakes
Waffles
Baked Oatmeal
French Toast
Breakfast Burritos
Eggs on Toast
Old Fashioned Oats

And, when we eat Pancakes and Waffles we don't buy a "Pancake Mix".  Oh. My. No.  It is sooo... much cheaper to make your own (and it's not very hard, either).

Here is another recipe for my dear friend, Sarah (and her cute little guy, Isaac, who likes to eat at my house).


October 1, 2008

Perfect Pancakes & Wonderful Waffles

I am always surprised when people buy frozen waffles or a bag of pancake mix, when it is so easy, and much less expensive, to whip up a batch of homemade. Our family eats Pancakes or Waffles 3 or 4 times per week, and the kids never get tired of them. 

8 cups Flour 
1/4 cup Baking Powder 
l tsp. Salt 
1/2 cup Sugar

8 cups Milk (use 4 cups water and 4 cups milk if you are really cutting expenses)
4 Eggs
1/2 cup Oil

Stir flour, baking powder, salt , & sugar together in large bowl. 
Whip together milk, eggs , & oil and beat into flour mixture.

VARIATIONS: Add: Wheat Flour , Cornmeal , Granola , Blueberries, or if your kids like colored and flavored pancakes , just sprinkle in some jello powder .

TOPPINGS: Syrup, Honey, Jam, Molasses, Strawberries & Whip Cream, or, Papa's favorite suprise ... Ice Cream with Fresh Fruit


While this recipe works just fine with regular refined flour, our family much prefers them to be made with our fresh ground whole wheat flour. (We bought a wheat grinder 8 years ago and we LOVE it!) Papa even gets called "Pancake Man" by some of the young adults at church, because of the amazing whole wheat pancakes they ate here at a slumber party years ago.


After 40+ years, our faithful waffle maker bit the dust this past year (it was the one I grew up with). I searched high and low for a quality waffle maker, actually returning one that I had purchased when it made horrible waffles. I finally found a GREAT waffle maker (with BIG waffles for our family) at our Kohls store. We love our 4-square Cuisinart waffle maker.



We have 6 people living at home this year, and we are currently spending less than $500 per month on groceries.  Let me know if you would like more Budget-Wise blog posts and/or Recipes.