Cheap breakfast ideas

[livingthegoodlife]

I'm fed up with buying expensive sugary cereal and I'm looking for alternative frugal breakfast ideas.

We have been having pancakes. I have costed up one batch which made 17 pancakes (drop scones) which feeds our family of five (2 adults 3 young children). Only 16p. I then serve with fruit or a little golden syrup.

We have a small supply of eggs from our chickens.

We also have porridge a lot.

Time isn't a worry but better if it can be prepared the night before.

Open to further ideas please.

Wheetabix

toasted bagels are relatively inexpensive and can be had with an egg, scrambled or poached

Omlette - not for me but some like especially for egg over flow days (we used to have 4 chicks and religiously ALL YEAR we got 3 or 4 eggs per day - we love eggs!!!

Oatcakes - slighly more "healthy" pancakes in that there is wholewheat in there

Plain Yog and fruit

Non sugary cereals although it may take a while for kids to adjust - weatabix or shredded wheat - cheap if buy own brand etc

Beans or egg on toast

Oh you could try overnight oats too with yog and fuit - prepare and leave in fridge to soak

Home made muesli for adults particualrly

Porridge. Supermarket own oats (I can’t tell the difference taste wise) are cheap and a pack lasts a decent amount of time.

I beat up 2 eggs with a big splash of milk. Add oats and stir then leave until the oats have soaked up the liquid. Fry in a little oil a table spoon at a time. They are thicker and more filling than pancakes and work well with fruit or savoury stuff like bacon or sausages. I usually have them on their own with HP sauce!

Good tips, thank you! I managed to get some yellow stickered bagels today so that's breakfast sorted. I wouldn't have thought of that before.

I do make the pancakes with a mix of white & whole-wheat flour. I'm going to Google oatcake recipes.

We eat porridge a lot already!

Omelettes I tend to do for dinner.

The thing with cereals, as well as the sugar, is that the kidsp eat too many bowls full.

I've just thought of one to add myself : eggy bread.

SnugglySnerd

I've never heard of your suggestion. Can you give an idea of proportion of oats to add?

Homemade crumpets

8oz plain flour
7g fast action yeast
7g salt
10floz tepid water (you may need slightly more until the batter is about the consistency of thick cake mixture)
Non stick pan
Egg poaching rings

• Put all of the ingredients into a bowl and mix together.
• Leave the mixture for about an hour - either in the fridge or on the side is fine.
• Grease the egg poaching rings with a bit of butter and put the pan on a low temperature.
• Pour about 2 tbsp of mixture into each ring and cook until little holes start to appear in the top of the mixture.
• Once the mixture has dried out, take the rings off and turn over.
• Cook on the other side for a few minutes until golden.

Serve with warm with lashings of butter. The crumpets are particularly good if you have guests, as you can make the mixture the night before and leave it in the fridge overnight. It's also considerably cheaper than buying a packet of crumpets. It's important to note that these can only be made in a non stick pan and that you do need to cook them on a low temperature so that they cook slowly/dry out, otherwise the middle will not cook. Each time I make these, the cooking time changes slightly as I tend to use slightly more/less mixture in each ring.

They're great at the weekend with bacon/maple syrup. Mmmm I want to make some now.

I've found that if I involve my daughter in making her breakfast more, she's more likely to eat it, even the healthier foods She now east porridge quite regularly and adding some nutella to it making it chocolaty helps too.

Ineednewshoes it's a recipe of my mum's. I don't really know quantities. I just add enough oats so that the liquid is kind of absorbed but still wet enough to stick together in little patties. I'm sorry that's not very helpful. I keep adding them until it looks right. Maybe about 4 handfuls ish.

I eat a lot of overnight oats in a jam jar

Handful of frozen mixed fruits
Top up with oats
Cover in soya milk
Top with pumpkin and sunflower seeds

And eat after about 5 mins or 12 hours...

@snugglysnerd don't you need egg for that recipe? I currently use make pancakes with oats and eggs, but your recipe would be even cheaper!!

@snugglysnerd, sorry, just read back to your earlier post. Eggs are needed I guess

I read a comment on another thread where the op said she doesn't buy cereals. Except oats. So I've started doing the same. I buy only oats now. So much cheaper and healthier.

Lidl Bixies (own brand weetabix, at least as good). £1.89 for a box of 36. It doesn’t get much cheaper than that.

Boiled eggs and soldiers - easy and cheap if you have a supply of garden eggs

Make fruit bread - bread machines usually have a recipe and it’s around 50p per loaf

Soaked oat, ramakin of oats, ramakin of soya milk and a bag of frozen berries fruit from Tesco will last me two weeks & add a banana. Looking at around 10 g of fibre for breakfast and two of your 5 per day. I make up on a sunday night for the week. Frozen fruit in Aldi is cheaper

More good tips. We seem to have settled into a nice routine of porridges, pancakes with the occasional bagels or toast, & boiled eggs.

I'm so pleased not to be buying cereal anymore!

Thanks for the reminder about fruit loaf @ivykaty44 I use my bread maker a lot and also made fruit loaf ages ago, I had completely forgotten about it.

@ivykaty44 your recipe sounds amazing especially if I can get 2 of my 5 a day and fibre. Could you post the recipe here please? I'm a beginner with bread etc so would really appreciate it.

Home mixed muesli. Not so cheap as porridge with the nuts and seeds but it is more satisfying in my experience.

Banana bread
Banana pancakes - just mash 2 ripe bananas with 1 egg and fry like drop scones
Porridge with defrosted frozen berries - we usually have a decent supply of strawberries, raspberries and blackberries we've picked and frozen during the year. Also really nice to use stewed apples with cinnamon on porridge.

I rotate between porridge, banana pancakes and bircher style oats. I make those as follows (for one person):

40g oats
milk to cover the oats (sorry I don't measure it, less then 150ml I think)
large dash of cinnamon
one grated apple
handful of frozen blueberries
dollop of yogurt

I sometimes add honey or chia seeds, but it doesn't need it. I use almond milk and coconut yogurt as I don't eat dairy, but I don't think it matters what you use.

I usually make it at around 2 hours before I eat it, but you could make it the night before too. It's quite a large portion so it keeps me full till lunch.

I should have said that given that you are making it for 5, you can make a bigger batch and hopefully be more cost-effective. It really doesn't need one apple per person and that many blueberries, but as I am only making one portion that's how it works out. You could adapt it to make it more cost effective than the way I described it. (I hope!)