Our Favorite Frugal Breakfast

Now that the kids are home for summer break, our food consumption has gone up. Both kids had been eating breakfast and lunch at school, so feeding them at home is putting a pinch on our pocket book. By cooking from scratch I have come up with some frugal breakfast solutions. Honestly it's more common sense than anything else. After all, muffins cost much less to make than bacon and eggs. Here are some of our favorite frugal breakfast.

Muffins ~ We love muffins! Oatmeal, apple spice, carrot & raisin, pumpkin, banana, the possibilities are endless. It is easy to find muffin recipes to suit every taste.

Cinnamon toast ~ This with a nice cold glass of milk is one of my kids' favorite breakfast. It's a snap to make and doesn't cost much.

Pancakes and Waffles ~ Both of these are frugal when made from scratch. Whip them up in bulk, then freeze for later use. That way you have homemade toaster waffles at your fingertips.

Kolaches ~ These are one of Dan's favorite breakfast. He would often stop and buy them on the way to work. Making them at home and stocking them in the freezer is a much cheaper way for him to enjoy these savory delights.

Breakfast Burritos ~ This is probably my favorite breakfast. We often pick these up on the weekends at a local taco shop, but making them at home is much more budget friendly. You can let your imagination run wild with these and create your own special burrito. I am a potato ham and cheese girl myself. You can even freeze breakfast burritos to have a handy breakfast ready and waiting.

Coffee Cake or Quick Breads ~ On Sunday mornings we often enjoy something like a coffee cake or strawberry bread. They are so good! The kids think they are getting a special treat, having sweets for breakfast.

These are just some of the frugal breakfast we do. You can save quite a bit of money by just not eating breakfast out, staying away from quick fix foods, and cooking/baking from scratch. It takes a little more time, but when done in bulk can work out to be quite convenient. What are some of your family's favorite breakfast?

The Best Peanut Butter Bars

Before attempting to make these delicious little bars, be sure you have plenty of cold milk in the fridge. Milk is the perfect accompaniment to these treats. They are rich, so cut little bars. They are a snap to make and made from ingredients that are often already on our pantry shelves. Fast & frugal, my kind of treat!

The Best Peanut Butter Bars~

2 cups flour

1 teaspoon baking soda

1/4 teaspoon salt

1 cup butter

3/4 cup peanut butter - no low fat or no fat stuff here, good old Skippy and the like is what you need

1/2 cup granulated sugar

1/2 cup packed dark brown sugar

1 teaspoon vanilla extract

1 egg

Cream together the butter, peanut butter, granulated sugar, brown sugar, and vanilla in a large bowl. Then beat in the egg.

Combine flour, baking soda, and salt, mix well. Gradually beat flour mixture into sugar/peanut butter mixture.

Spread batter into a greased 13x9 baking pan. I say batter, but what I came out with was more of a dough that I had to pat into the pan.

Bake at 375F for 15 to 18 minutes. Mine did end up cooking about 8 minutes longer than this, so you might want to check for doneness at 15 minutes and go from there.

When I pulled these out of the oven I added a half a bag of milk chocolate chips (I love after Christmas sales!) and spread them all over. Once they've melted a bit you get a yummy chocolate topping! But, I am quite sure these would be wonderful as is.

Thank You & Taco Potatoes

First, I'd like to say thank you for all the emails, comments, and concern. It's nice to know so many people care about me. :-) I am feeling much better! I still have a slight temp, although it seems to be just in the evenings and when I'm trying to sleep. I am still really fuzzy headed and tire out very easily. I hope that goes away soon! Anyway, thanks for all the well wishes!

My appetite is finally trying to come back and I've been craving baked potatoes. Tonight we had taco potatoes. They are frugal, filling, and quick! All you do is bake potatoes, then fill with taco seasoned ground beef and all the normal taco fixings. You just use the potato in place of a taco shell. They are really yummy!

Tuna: Frugal & Versatile

Tuna 20 Ways

My neighbor Lenore gave me this article out of the paper awhile back and I loved it. I knew that tuna is a frugal pantry staple, but I honestly didn't realize you could do so much with it. We were stuck in a tuna rut - tuna salad and tuna helper are pretty much all we do. I was thrilled to discover some new recipes that the family really likes! We enjoyed the tuna, spaghetti, & lemon, the tuna melt, and all the different things that were stuffed with tuna. So check out Tuna 20 Ways and you might just find a new favorite for your family. I'd love to know what some of your frugal tuna recipes are! Please share any and all of your tuna dishes in the comment section.

Menu Plan Monday

Click the pic below to check out all the great MPM menus!
Today didn't go quite as planned as far as breakfast goes. I'd planned to make breakfast banana splits, but the kids decided to concoct their own smoothie. It was really good!

This week I've included breakfast, packed lunches, and dinner. I hope ya'll enjoy!

Monday

Breakfast Smoothies made with OJ, frozen bananas, and raspberry yogurt and toast

Lunch

Ashley- Cheesy Pretzel Dippers, carrot sticks, frozen fruit cup, strawberry kiwi flavored water

Tristen- Wrap It up Turkey-Veggie Melt, carrot sticks, pretzel sticks, frozen fruit cup, citrus flavored water

Dinner Crock Pot Family Meatloaf, Creamy Crock Pot Potatoes, brussel sprouts, chocolate pudding

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Tuesday

Breakfast Toaster Waffle Sandwich, OJ

Lunch Homemade Pizza Lunchable, carrot sticks, grapes, flavored water

Dinner Chicken Tacos with all the fixings

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Wednesday

Breakfast Peanut Butter and Banana Sensation

Lunch Pollo Loco Chicken Wrap - made with leftover chicken taco meat, baked tortilla chips, apple, milk

Dinner Crock Pot Baked Ziti, salad, french bread

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Thursday

Breakfast Cheerios, milk, bananas

Lunch PBJ sanwiches, frozen fruit cup, pretzel sticks, milk

Dinner Unstuffed Cabbage (crock pot), gingered carrots, salad, bread

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Friday

Breakfast Strawberry Oatmeal Breakfast Smoothie

Lunch Cranberry Tuna Salad Wrap, pretzel sticks, frozen fruit cup, apple juice

Dinner Marlboro Man's Favorite Sandwich, tater tots, salad

Menu Plan Monday

Click the pic below to check out all the other great MPM menus! You might find a yummy new family favorite!We are eating out of the freezer and pantry this week. I am also trying recipes I've never made, so it may be an interesting week! Everything sounds good, so I'm hoping for the best!

Monday: Simple Beef Gravy Supper

Tuesday: Indian Corn
1 lb. ground beef
1 (16oz) can whole kernel corn, drained
1/2 onion, chopped
1 (12oz) jar taco sauce
Brown meat and onion until done. Drain. Add corn and taco sauce. Simmer for 5 minutes. Serve with tortilla chips and sour cream.

Wednesday: Sunshine Casserole

Thursday: Texas Pot Roast

Friday: Frugal Hash

Saturday: The Frugal Gourmet's Sour Cream Meatloaf

Menu Plan Monday

I was having some issues posting, so this is a bit late.

Monday: Our Favorite Pot Roast , mashed potatoes, rolls, strawberry cake

Tuesday: Spinach - Lasagna Casserole , tossed salad, garlic toast

Wednesday: Farmhouse Chicken Dinner , green beans, rolls, chocolate pudding

Thursday: Busy Girl's Supper, salad, homemade bread

Friday: Dirty Rice, mixed veggies, biscuits & honey

Saturday: I am still undecided on this. It is our 12th wedding anniversary, so I want to do something special. Anyone want to share some special occasion recipes with me?

For more menu planning ideas check out MPM. Seeing what everyone else has planned always seems to inspire me.

Menu Plan Monday

Here is my Menu Plan. Be sure to check out all the other great menu plans over at Organizing Junkie.

Monday: Spaghetti Carbonara - This was amazing!

Tuesday: Ham & Cheese Sandwiches

Wednesday: Great White Chili

Thursday: Salisbury Steak

Friday: BBQ Chicken Pizza - I'll be using leftover smoked bbq chicken I have in the freezer in this. I think the smokey flavor will be great!

Saturday: Cream Cheese Black Bean Chicken - I plan to use this as a stove top recipe. We'll see how it goes. :-)

Menu Plan Monday - Using What We've Got

For more menu inspiration, head over to the MPM post on Org Junkie . I love reading what everyone else is eating for the week. I just discovered this site and I love it!

We are having the "week before payday syndrome" here, so we are eating totally from the freezer and pantry this week. My freezer is completely out of frozen veggies, so we are down to the few canned ones in the pantry. Unfortunately, it's about 8 cans of carrots and not much else. I hope for some good veggie and fruit deals this week; if not I'll just have to go pay full price for them. Hopefully it won't cost much to restock.

You'll notice a lot of my recipes this week came from here. I love Hillbilly Housewife so much! These awesome frugal recipes have gotten us through some tough times and some are now family favorites! It is worth checking out!

Monday:
Prairie Land Pot Roast with Grands biscuits

Tuesday:
Stove Top Coated Baked Pork Chops with canned carrots and black eyed peas

Wednesday:
Chicken Tetrazzini with canned spinach, carrots, and crescent rolls

Thursday:
Country Style Steak with mashed potatoes and green beans

Friday:
Pancakes and Little Sizzlers

Saturday:
Pinto Beans instead of salt pork or anything like that, I'm throwing in a big fatty chunk of brisket that I'd frozen for this purpose. We'll have cornbread with this.

Sunday:
Easy Chili made using pork sausage instead of beef. I'll use some of the leftover pinto beans in this as well.

Goulash & Bread tonight

So, I had no idea what we were having for dinner until lunch time, which is not normal for me. I did a pantry raid and this is what I came up with. Hope ya'll enjoy!

Pantry Raid Goulash
1lb. ground beef (last time I used half beef and half turkey)
1 medium onion, diced
1- 29oz. can diced tomatoes
2- 29oz. cans tomato sauce
2- 15oz. cans kidney beans, drained & rinsed
2- 15oz. cans whole kernel corn, drained
1/2 tsp. garlic salt
1/4tsp. pepper
2 cups uncooked elbow macaroni (you can pretty much use any pasta you have, it doesn't really matter)
Cook pasta according to package directions. While the pasta is cooking brown the meat and onion together. Drain off fat. Add the canned ingredients and seasonings; mix well. Mix in the drained pasta. Simmer on low for 25 - 35 minutes.
I normally cook the pasta first in a big pot. When it's done, I put the pasta in the strainer, then use that same pot to finish up the recipe.
I like to serve this with a salad or green veggie and bread.
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The bread I'm making tonight is my own creation. I could never find a recipe that worked real well in my bread machine. So, I messed around a lot and came up with my own. This ended up being parts of several recipes all rolled into one.

Just Plain Bread- for the machine
3 1/2 cups all purpose white flour
1 1/2 tsp bread machine yeast
1 Tbsp honey
1/2 tsp salt
I Tbsp butter or margarine
1 1/2 cups water
Gently mix yeast with flour and place in bread machine. Then add remaining ingredients. This recipe seems to work well using normal or rapid cycles. So, select desired cycle and the machine will do the rest.