Meal: Breakfast for Dinner…Pancakes, Scrambled Eggs, Sausage Links
Cost per person (7 people): $1.36
Time: about 45 minutes, only because we had to make so many pancakes
Leftovers: 15 pancakes, frozen for later
Local ingredients: eggs, sausage, milk, butter
Organic ingredients: eggs, sausage, milk

Breakdown of Prices
Pancake Mix: $1.00 per lb. - used about that
Milk: 1/2 gallon used in pancakes and to drink, $2.94
Eggs: 1 dozen, $2.19, used in pancakes and scrambled the rest
Sausage Links: $3.39 for 9 links, used 6 for dinner, browned rest for pizza
Already had in the pantry: Organic Applesauce, Pancake Syrup (non organic, from Aldi’s), frozen orange juice (leftover from our ‘non organic’ days)

Every Monday we have our small group (or Bible Study) over for dinner. The numbers change each week, sometimes 3 or 4, other times 7 or 8. So I regularly have to plan meals for many people (rather than just for 2). This past week we had 7 people coming. So I decided to have “Breakfast for Dinner” - one of my favorite meals growing up. And it was an easy and cheap one to make for so many people. The pancake mix wasn’t organic (though I should learn to make my own some day), but it was bought at my local Bulk Country Store. Nearly the rest of the ingredients were local and organic.

I didn’t really get the timing down right, should have started cooking the pancakes sooner. And our apartment’s kitchen is so small, so even though I had many willing people to help (with scrambling the eggs, making the orange juice, etc.) there wasn’t much room for us all. So we ate 1/2 hour later than I told everyone (I hate when that happens). And next time we’ll know to start sooner and just zap the pancakes when it gets time to eat.

But it was a pretty big hit! Everyone enjoyed it, it was cheap for me, and definitely one I will be doing again. Next time I will try to mix my own pancake mix, and make some waffles while I’m at it.

See more about what my husband and I are doing to live a greener & simpler life at my blog.