Start Where you Are! Saving Money on Meals - BREAKFAST

Recently I saw a post on Facebook where a young mom asked for tips on saving money on meals.  At first, I resisted to comment, knowing that some posts are intended for an inner circle of friends and not from old moms of childhood friends LOL.

Later, I changed my mind.  I am passionate about saving money on meals.  I have walked this path myself when my own children were young and I am a blogger - so have lots of resources all in one place.

I asked this young mom to let me know if she was interested in some frugal blog links. I told her that for me, the places to start were cooking once to eat twice and cooking from scratch.  Those two things make a huge difference rather than buying prepackaged/shortcut meals which really drain the bank account fast.  My young friend told me she works on trying to cook more scratch meals.  It occurred to me that she may think I mean she should make "from scratch" things like baking bread, rolling noodles, or canning garden produce.  But that is NOT AT ALL what I meant.  We all need more time at home with our families and when I had young kids at home, I did not spend time baking bread and canning unless it was something I could do with my kids once they were older and if it was something they wanted to try.  I have posts about things like that but let's save those for another day.  I worked away from home and was gone from home to work 55 hours each week so I know all about being busy.  I had little time but the things I made took little time and worked well for my family.

Today, we are going to focus on GETTING STARTED and HOMEMADE BREAKFAST OPTIONS.

GETTING STARTED:

#1 - You are not alone is this game.

When I first started this journey, times were tough.  I needed more money AND more time.  I sought out frugal, homemaking blogs using key words like "frugal food", "cheapskate meals", etc.  I didn't even have Pinterest back then and using Pinterest will be a great platform to use in your search.

Some of my favorite resources are still these blogs:

• Hillbilly Housewife - specifically this post w/ a bunch of frugal recipes.  If I need a basic recipe like making homemade chocolate syrup (easy and saves $$$ and tastes exactly the same as Hershey's), chocolate pudding, basic muffins - this is where I start.
• Lynn's Kitchen Adventures - Lynn got me started with making Baked Oatmeal and Homemade Granola - two meal options that I use weekly to this day.  Lynn also posts weekly menu plans, has recipe links for the meals, and even gluten free meal plans and recipes.  She is a complete wealth of information.
• The Prudent Homemaker - Brandy has nine kids.  She homeschools and her husband is a real estate broker.  She relies on stocking up her pantry when times are good and then eating from that pantry when real estate sales are down.  Brandy has beautiful pics, stages meals very elegantly and eats every single meal at home.  In addition to her weekly posts, the comments below each post provide lots of inspiration for ways to squeeze out an extra penny.  To Brandy, every penny adds up!  If I get discouraged, I can get lots of inspiration w/ The Prudent Homemaker.
• www.Flylady.net - I used this website to get me organized.  It helped so much!  Even if you only use a few of these tips, just go there and take a look.  It's free and I still use many of them today to keep me organized. Love the launch pad, and small cleaning goals!

#2 - Write down things your family currently likes for BREAKFAST, for LUNCH, SUPPER, and SNACKS/DESSERTS and then try to find some simple, recipes that could replace those things, if they are processed/prepackaged.  Make them while you are making supper or on weekends, and fill that freezer or breakfast table with some easy homemade options.  Sometimes, I just got dry ingredients together for muffins in a mixing bowl and the pan for baking, plus the cooking spray- the night before so that I only had to add liquids, and mix together before my shower. 

BREAKFASTS: 

For my family, the girls ate breakfasts most often of cold cereal w/ milk; poptarts; or granola bars. Basically, they ate sugar covered carbs.  Let's be real here!  LOL.

I replaced cold cereal with homemade granola (as cold cereal with both Perfect Granola and Chocolate Granola), simple muffins for poptarts, homemade biscuits, or just cinnamon toast, peanut butter toast, or cheese toast.  Good stuff, I promise!

#3 - Start small!  Find a few things you will no longer buy but make from scratch.  Like start with those poptarts. Those things are so loaded in sugar and I'm hungry the minute I throw my wrapper away.  You can bake muffins and keep in the freezer for thawing in the micro almost as easy as toasting poptarts.  Muffins make great poptart replacements.

Let's get started with links to what worked for me.  Below are some options that my family loves for breakfast rather than processed sugar loaded carbs.  Here we go!  Ditch the Box!  

MUFFINS:

• Simple/basic muffins - I add-in chocolate chips, blueberries, a grated apple and some cinnamon to a simple plain muffin recipe.  These muffins are also good plain w/ butter or jam.  You can also substitute one cup of flour with oats.  I make these so often I no longer need the recipe.
• Other muffin recipes found HERE on my blog, like pumpkin chocolate chip, chocolate zucchini muffins, banana oatmeal muffins (no eggs), cornbread muffins (like jiffy)  Sometimes, I add hot dog slices for "corndog muffins" and store them baked in the freezer for lunch), and I also make two recipes for surprise muffins (jelly inside).
• Bake any pancake mix or homemade (Perfect Pancakes) in sprayed or lined muffin tins.  I prefer sprayed with no liners so they can be easily popped out and dipped in syrup or eaten on the run.  You could add some slices of sausage link to put these over the top.  For a shortcut, use "Self Rising Flour" and add 1.5 cups of self rising flour to 1.25 cups milk + 1 Tablespoon oil + 1 egg.  Tada!  Pancake batter!

*Remember, all muffins are great baked and stored in a big ziploc bag in your freezer for lots of options for everyone.  They reheat in about 10-20 seconds in the microwave or in lunchboxes by noon.  Muffins also make great snacks!

 Baked Oatmeal

• I learned about Baked Oatmeal from Lynn @ Lynn's Kitchen Adventures.  Baked Oatmeal is not your mom's gray, runny bowl of oats.  It's baked and oats replace the flour so has the consistence of muffins or coffee cake.  Even my non oatmeal eaters love baked oatmeal.  This was a huge hit at my house and saves los of $$$.
• Our favorites are:
• Chocolate Chip Baked Oatmeal
• Baked Oatmeal Muffins
• Banana Bread Baked Oatmeal
• Pumpkin Praline Baked Oatmeal
• There are lots of recipes at Lynn's site for Peanut Butter Baked Oatmeal, Strawberries and Cream Baked Oatmeal.  You name it - its there!  

Freezer French Toast - I take the bread about to get moldy in my pantry and make it all up in french toast.  I place the french toast on a cookie sheet and freeze, then bag it up for reheating in the toaster.  Yummy stuff.  I love that it is crisp and not soggy like normal french toast.

Freezer Breakfast Burritos - Make a big batch for breakfast on the weekend and freeze the leftovers for later.  Let the kids help like an assembly line. Good stuff and you can tailor them to your family's favorite way to eat them.

Homemade Yogurt Parfaits - I love these!  I use my own homemade yogurt and homemade granola, but feel free to buy a quart of vanilla yogurt and some granola and put them together.  Great on the go and so good for you!  They will always be cheaper and better for you than fast food yogurt parfaits.

Homemade Biscuit Donuts - Look mom!  No Cans!  

Bacon - I could not be married to a midwest man without knowing how to be makin' bacon! - Bacon keeps great after cooking in the fridge! Bacon sandwich anyone?

There are literally tons of ideas out there.  

Hope this has made the first step just a wee bit easier.

Enjoy!

Gina