For the last couple of months, snow days have kept my kids at home more than at school.  My grocery budget has had to expand now that I am also fixing them breakfast and lunch, which they usually eat at school.  I have had to come up with some inexpensive meals to have on hand for the kids when they have snow days.  I also like things to be quick as my kids are ready to eat as soon as they get up.  I also like to use these quick, low cost breakfast ideas for the weekend.  Here are some of the breakfast ideas my family enjoys.

Cold Cereal

I like to find cereal on sale and match it with a coupon and sometimes even use the store reward card.  I can usually get a box of brand name cereal for under a dollar and have even found some for free.  That is the big thing that makes this meal seem cheaper for me.  I usually keep milk on hand for my kids to drink.  I also try to serve a fruit with my kid’s breakfast like a banana or apple.  There are several cereal coupon on Coupons.com right now that you could match with a sale or reward card deal.  You can also check the Sunday paper inserts for more.

Oatmeal

A whole container of oatmeal cost me about $3.00 for the generic brand.  There are 30 servings in a container, so that makes this a pretty cheap meal.  I usually add some brown sugar to the oatmeal and my kids seem to eat it better.   I also like to serve this meal with some bananas to help my kids get in some fruits.  I like to make the Old Fashioned Oatmeal and it takes about 5 minutes to cook, so this meal can be made pretty fast.

Pancakes/Waffles

Most kids love to eat pancakes for breakfast. I have a couple recipes my family enjoys.  I like to make a big batch on Saturday when I have more time.  I take the leftovers and place them on a long cookie sheet placing wax paper (I found the brand name at the Dollar Tree) between the layers of pancakes so they will not stick together.  I place the whole cookie sheet in my freezer.  This is called flash freezing.  After they are frozen, I place them in Ziplock freezer bags.  When you are ready for breakfast, you take them out of the freezer and heat them in your microwave.  These are very similar to the expensive frozen pancakes you can buy at the store.  You can also freeze waffles the same way if you want to make those instead. These will save you a lot of time in the mornings.  Here is my favorite recipe for bulk pancake making, I usually double the recipe.

Fluffy Pancakes

2 cups flour

¼ cup sugar

1 teaspoon salt

1.5 tablespoon baking powder

1 large egg

2 cups milk

2 tablespoons melted butter

1 tablespoon vanilla

Mix the dry ingredients with a fork.  Beat the egg. Add milk, vanilla, and mix well.  Make a well in the center of the dry ingredients mixture. Slowly pour the liquid ingredients mixture into the well. You may need to add more flour or water to get your batter to the consistency you desire.  Do not over mix.  The batter should be lumpy.  Place on a skillet (I like to use my long electric skillet) which has been heated over medium high heat and sprayed with butter flavored nonstick cooking spray.  I like to use ¼ cups of batter per pancake.  Those come out great for kids.   Cook until large bubbles form and then flip until golden brown.  Serve and freeze the leftovers.

 My kids go through a lot of syrup and sometimes I just do not have any in my pantry at the time. So I like to keep some homemade on hand. It is cheaper than the pancake syrup at the store and really easy to make. 

 Cheap Homemade Pancake Syrup

 4 cups white sugar

½ cup brown sugar

2 cups water

2 teaspoons vanilla or maple (I use whatever I have in the pantry)

Mix the sugars and water in a pot and simmer for 15 minutes.  Remove from heat and stir in flavoring. Cool and pour in a container.  I keep mine in the refrigerator, but you really do not have to do that.