Saturday night we went out to my parents’ house (we have the great fortune, these days, of living about 20 minutes from my parents and sisters) for the middle sister’s birthday dinner. Much lasagna and salad was consumed, and the birthday cake took the form of peach cobbler and ice cream from Homeland Creamery. Yum.

However, this means that I have no dinner of our own from Saturday to talk about, so instead, we’re going to talk about breakfast. Breakfast is important to eat, and it’s one of those meals that is so much cheaper to make at home. We tend towards big breakfasts around here (lately, with me being out of school, we’ve been tending towards a big breakfast, smaller lunch, and bigger dinner), but there are quick and easy options too, as well as things you can do ahead to make your mornings quicker.

This week, we’ve eaten for breakfast:

- over easy eggs, biscuits, and sausage
- over easy eggs and toast
- pancakes
- waffles
- oatmeal
- scrambled eggs, sausage, and potatoes

A large batch of waffles, which makes about 15 4-inch waffles, costs about $1.50 to make (comparable with Eggos, and much more tasty. We usually have about half the batch left if I make a large batch.). A batch of pancakes, which makes about 10 4-inch pancakes, costs about $0.60 to make (the waffles take more oil). There is also the cost of toppings, depending on what you like on your waffles and pancakes - we favor peanut butter, honey, maple syrup, and butter - but waffle and pancakes are a pretty economical way to make breakfast. Also, pancakes and waffles can make quick and easy breakfast - make extras, put them into a zip-top bag or container, and freeze them. When you’re in a hurry, pull a couple out, toast them up, and you’ve got breakfast.

Oatmeal is another handy breakfast. Our local co-op sells steel cut oats, regular rolled oats, and instant oats, all for around a dollar a pound. One breakfast’s serving of oats for both of us costs about $0.25 (again, plus whatever we eat on top of it, which tends to be a fairly small amount of butter and maple syrup, or fruit if we have any around, or a little milk and brown sugar if I’m feeling industrious, or cheese, butter, and garlic powder if I want something savory. Even topped, oatmeal is still an incredibly cheap breakfast.) The biggest difference between the three kinds is how long they take to cook. Steel cut oats start with boiling water in a 3 to 1 ratio (3 cups water for every 1 cup oats) and take about 20 to 25 minutes at a simmer. Regular oats, it’s 2.5 cups water per 1 cup oats - combine, bring to a boil, then simmer about 10 minutes, or until they’re a consistency that you like. Instant oats, of course, require no cooking; bring water to a boil and add to the oats until they’re at a consistemcy that you like. Jeff likes his oats a bit more watery than I do, whereas I like them nice and thick. Bulk instant oats from our co-op are much, much better than the instant oats in a package from the grocery, covered in fake flavors and artificial sweeteners. I still prefer regular oats, but the instant ones are good when we’re really in a hurry.

So, pick your favorite kind of oats, set them to cooking before you get in the shower, and you can easily have a hot breakfast before heading off to work.

Scrambled eggs are also easy and quick in the morning; scramble an egg or two per person, cook over medium heat, stirring occasionally, until they’re done - about five minutes or so. Add in a little shredded cheese or vegetables leftover from another meal, and you can have real food in 10 minutes or so. If you want to add sausage to that, it’ll depend on the sausage and whether it’s frozen or not; vegetable sausage cooks up in no time, but pork takes a bit longer, and patties take longer than links. We keep our sausage frozen, so by the time I hack a couple of pieces off of the roll and get them cooking, eggs and sausage has become a fifteen minute proposition. If you add potatoes to that, it will be more like half an hour, but most of that will be inactive time, when you can work on the previous night’s dishes or get dressed. Fried potatoes in the morning are, like most things I fix, pretty easy - microwave as many potatoes as you want for 5 to 10 minutes, depending on the number and size. You want them to be soft but not squishy. Chop them up, and cook them in a pan on medium to medium high with a little olive oil. Season with seasoning salt, salt and pepper, or whatever else sounds good. Let cook, stirring occasionally (but not too often, if you like your potatoes brown and crusty) until they’re as brown as you would like.

Cost wise, our eggs cost us 10 cents each. A pound of sausage is $3.00, and I usually get 10 slices out of it. If we use a pound of potatoes at breakfast, then that makes eggs, sausage, and potatoes about $1.70 and a half an hour of my time for the two of us.

(Last night, we were scheduled for salad, but it was dribbling rain here all day, the kind of gloomy rain that’s no good to go out in. I looked at Jeff mid-afternoon and said “We need to go out to Deep Roots for lettuce and such if we’re going to have salad tonight… want to have breakfast again instead?” We made biscuits and gravy, and it was totally what the weather called for.)