Menu Planning, Breakfast

  Menu planning is the best way to budget your grocery bill.  I've done it with just dinners and with all three meals plus snacks.  All three meals tends to have me slamming my head against the wall frustrated that I can't just write "leftovers" for every lunch and "cereal" or "pancakes" for every breakfast.  So, what to do to prevent total meltdown?  M-F we alternate cereal, pancakes, and toast with Nutella for the boy.  Ok, so not Nutella, but close enough for him.  I alternate it on the schedule knowing that each morning I'll still be asking what he wants.  By alternating with cereal, I mean once a week.  That's his treat, he picks out his cereal (currently it's Krave Double Chocolate - gag.).  Let me tell you, crap cereal once a week is far better than dealing with DH whining - yes, not the boy, DH.  I have to say, he's my biggest hurdle in eating healthy.  You'll notice I make compromises - sometimes more than I should.  Right now, a lot more than I should.  I just don't have the energy to argue, I forgot how tired being pregnant makes you!
  Mostly we're doing toast with Nutella or pancakes.  Chocolate chip pancakes.  Using Aunt Jemima pancake mix.  I know, not healthy.  Again, sometimes compromises are in order.  Boyo used to eat mom's pancakes; ok, PPK's pancakes sans sugar.  Potentially he tried someone else's pancakes and it was over.  So AJ got a bit of a makeover.  The mix is 1/5 AJ 4/5 home made bisquick, I simply omit the shortening.  In almost a year of this, kiddo nor myself have noticed or cared for the lack of whatever shortening is supposed to do.  I'm a total pancake snob.  I also insist on banana chocolate chip pancakes every other time I make them.  It makes me feel a little better inside.  We do a ground flax egg (1T ground flax + 3T hot tap water, I get this together first and let it just sit until I'm ready for it, at which time I give it a quick stir and it's at egg consistency) which saves big $ and gives a boost of heart healthy Omegas.  For bread - again, my kid won't eat home made... seriously, you're killing me smalls.  I looked for the least expensive bread with the fewest compromises that the boy would still eat.  It took a while, and it's not high on my moral scale, but Mrs. Baird's Honey Wheat bread is our best option.  I'd made a honey whole wheat bread in the past (using agave), but the link is dead.  Here's one that looks fairly promising though.  I'd go with regular whole wheat flour, sifted and wheat germ sprinkled on top.  I'd probably also skip the lemon juice.  However, you can make *any* bread recipe you have healthier simply by subbing in some whole wheat flour along with white flour.  You can usually get away with a 1/3 substitution before having to make any major changes.
  Right now the nutritionist wanted me to make sure I got enough protein (which I rolled my eyes at, but I'll play along) so I'm doing toast with pb and green smoothies for breakfast.  DH has home made oatmeal packets at work.  When I get squirrely, I make up some muffins and freeze them.  I have tried overnight oats, maybe it's my lack of ability to heat them but I'm not a fan.  I tend to favor sweet over savory for breakfast, and so does my family, so our choices reflect that.  I menu plan for the whole month, but this is the planner I've found that works best for me.  I simply print out four (which also keeps the fresh foods needed separated, which is exceedingly helpful when shopping).
  So the basic breakdown for breakfast buying is:
2 boxes of cereal (1 for DH on the weekend potential that's what he wants)
1 loaf of bread
1 jar Chocolate Hazelnut spread (making your own is really your healthiest option, but if you don't have a high powered blender, don't bother)
20 bananas
4 bags frozen fruits
1 jar peanut butter
Oatmeal (look for bulk)
Brown Sugar 1lb
Cinnamon
Milk 5 gallons
1 box AJ pancake mix (breaks my heart to buy this)
Soy milk case (Kirkland Organic)
  Pantry staples are:
Kale (freezer, every other month purchase)
Dates (6+ months, they dry out some but are still good)
Chocolate Chips
Vanilla (I actually use rum since we tend to have it in the house, you can see mine is not quite done yet)
Flour
Baking Powder
Salt
Ground Flax seed
Eggs (weekend use only)
Oil
Cocoa Powder
[Hazelnuts if making my own spread]

   So that's the majority of my breakfast staples.  2 boxes of cereal, my husband makes a better health choice but Kellog's is not on my list of brands to buy; soy milk (though we get the case), bread, vanilla (brewing in an old Kirkland vanilla bottle), peanut butter, coco powder, Dateland dates (in Arizona, we pick up when we drive through to San Diego, I really enjoy the Halawi so I'll snack on them as well.  I see cooking ones on the site, may be order only or new), my frozen fruits are mostly covered - you can see peaches and a bit of blueberries, kale (from Costco), milk, "bisquick mix," chocolate chips, and that jar is ground flax.  Oats, brown sugar, and cinnamon are missing.
   Many of the Budget shoppers have a big freezer, we do not.  Maybe one day.  In the mean time, that means I do weekly shopping.  *However,* having just spent 7.5 years in Germany, this may be the best way I've found to shop.  I get fresh produce weekly and stick within my budget.  If you can stick to your list, this may be the healthiest option for you as well.  I shop so little in the middle aisles, that when I need something from them I'm never sure where it is anymore!  We are military, so the commissary is an option for us.  There are things I get there, but there are a lot of things I do not.  Cereal, bread, hazelnut spread (if I'm lazy), frozen fruit, peanut butter, pancake mix, ground flax seed, and baking powder come from there (baking powder mostly because I can't find aluminum free in many places).  I never buy fresh produce there unless I *need* it for dinner that night.  I'll be honest about the ground flax - I buy it there because that's usually where I remember to buy it, I haven't shopped it because I buy it so infrequently and it's already less than $3 for at least a 3 month supply.  Sticking with the breakfast list only, oatmeal and brown sugar come from Sprouts.  Milk, soy milk, cinnamon, chocolate chips, vanilla (should I not have any ready), flour, and salt come from Costco.  If you're lucky your Costco will carry Eagle Mills Ultra Grain flour.  If not, I wish you the best of luck finding anything but ConAgra at a decent price.  I cannot seem to find online where Sprouts gets their bulk flour from.  Bananas I get as need with whomever has them cheapest (which is usually the commissary.  Look for the bagged ones on sale because they're "ugly").  We cannot always afford organic milk or eggs, but depending on what's already sitting in my pantry I try.  Kirkland brand milk is RBST-free, and they are a great company to buy from, so there's those 2 aspects.  We're looking at about $60 of the grocery budget right here - without needing pantry staples, should I need everything on the list.  Sometimes we use less milk, pancakes, oatmeal, brown sugar, bananas, cereal, or even soy milk; so even this can fluctuate greatly.  This is one of the reasons I like shopping weekly or every other week as opposed to once a month.  Things that are about to spoil simply don't get purchased the next week (read bananas).  I did put the soy milk as a monthly buy, it's closer to 2 cases for every 3 months.  So far I'm sitting at $38.27 for breakfast, I still have 3 gallons of milk to buy for a total of about $47.24.  My guess on taxes/surcharge will be to add an additional $5 for a grand total of $52.24.