Breakfast for Dinner 3

My ex-husband came to visit earlier this week.  He had me feeling nostalgic and I told him that while I'm still cooking up a storm, I don't really enjoy making his two favorite dishes: lasagna and sausage gravy over biscuits. The whole time I'm cooking I get flashbacks to being a happily married woman, cooking for my loving husband.  But then I realized, I am now cooking for my loving kids.  The love is still there, so there can still be lasagna.  And sausage gravy over biscuits.  And so, there was going to be gravylicious breakfast for dinner...

But then we had a bit of a medical emergency and didn't make it home until 5 pm today.  Which is when we are usually done with dinner and setting the table. 

 

So if I was going to make this, I had to make this fast.

 

 

These large boxes of Bisquick had been previously priced at $5.99/box.  However, 2 weeks ago they were on sale for $3.99/box.  So I bought 2 boxes  I followed the directions on the box: mix 2 1/4 cups Bisquick with 2/3 cup milk, knead on Bisquick covered board (probably another 1/2 to 1 cup.  If we call it 3/4 cup then we can say I used an even 3 cups of mix tonight) anyway, knead for about a minute, then roll out dough 1/2 inch thick, cut into biscuits and bake on ungreased baking sheet for 8 to 10 minutes at 450F.  Mine took 8.

 

 

My youngest was my helper tonight: he suggested that we "cut them in shapes", but not knowing how they would turn out, we did mostly circles, with a few "hearts".  He "helped" again by "cleaning" the bowl.

 

, While the biscuits were cooking I needed to start the sausage.  This pack was $2.41, and was a little less than a pound.  Since we were in such a time crunch, I put the frozen chunk in the microwave, which half-way cooked it, then finished cooking it in the pan. When the sausage was done, I scooped it out with a slotted spatula, and added about a cup of milk and 2 cups of water.  

 

I would have added "italian seasonings" at this point but I didn't find them in the first place I looked, and I was in such a hurry that I mixed my own by sight: salt, pepper, garlic, thyme, basil, parsley, and a chicken bullion cube. Then I stirred the pork back in and set everything out on the table.

 

 

As a "side dish" I served bananas, which were on sale this week, 44 cents a pound. Two of these were really long, so we broke them in half to serve the four of us.  You might think that's an exaggeration but look at the length of half  the banana shown here:

 

 

 

  Dinner was delicious, but despite the fact that my youngest cleared his plate, he was still upset everytime I said "Eat your biscuits".  Because to him, this is Biscuit:

 

 

Dessert was applesauce, but dinner was so filling that only my youngest wanted any of it anyway.

 

 

He loves applesauce

 

 

So our total tonight is: 3 cups Bisquick (whole box is 9 cups, costs $3.99, so 1/3 box costs $1.33) + 2/3 cup milk ($3.49/gallon = 15 cents) + $2.41 (sausage) + 88 cents bananas (defintely less than 2 pounds but I'm rounding up anyway) + 10 ounces applesauce (32 oz = $2.35 so 10 oz = 73 cents) = $5.50

 

All right, you may now commence with the "big banana" jokes...

 

 



 

 

 

Breakfast for dinner (part 2)

Tonight I wanted something fast and easy.  The kids wanted breakfast for dinner again.  I made somthing a little different than my usual breakfast for dinner, which is normally pancakes and eggs.  Tonight I started with hash browns: I diced 4 medium potatoes (about a fourth of a bag, which cost me $2.99.  I had to buy a brand new bag tonight 'cause I used up the last of my potatoes last Friday.  So, 75 cents worth of potatoes, a dollop of margarine, a bit of water and shake on the cajun seasoning like there's no tomorrow.  Oh, and fry in a pan on medium-low heat.  Keep the skins on for this; just wash them.

The omelettes were simple: lunchmeat ham (bought roughly 20 slices for $2.50 when it was on sale a few weeks back, froze it so it wouldn't spoil.  I used 4 slices in the eggs, so 1/5 of $2.50 means it was 50 cents worth of ham.  A single onion of negligable cost (really, really small onion, about 1 tbsp worth put in the eggs, and the rest put in the hash.) 

A bunch of bananas at 49 cents a pound (we ate 2 as a family and assuming they were REALLY heavy bananas we'll be generous and call it $1 worth of bananas.  Also, bought a bag of cheese at $2.99 and used about a fourth of that, too, so 75 cents of cheese.  Eggs were free for me (WIC item) but since they're normally $1.80/doz, and we used a third dozen (4 eggs) we'll call it 60 cents worth of eggs.  Last, but definitely not least, everyone had a cup of yogurt, since they were 3 for $1, so that's $1.34 worth of yogurt.

So our total tonight was: 0.75 potatoes + 0.50 ham + (negligable) onion + 0.60 eggs + 0.75 cheese + $1 bananas + $1.34 yogurt = $4.94

Breakfast for Dinner (part 1)

Often, when I want something fast and easy, I make some eggs.  Breakfast is a fast, easy meal, and so popular in my house that the kids are usually done eating before I'm done pouring drinks.  There's also so many variations on the theme that I had to label this "Part I" because I'm assuming that I'll be making breakfast for dinner in some other incarnation before long.

First, I made some pancakes; they can always be re-heated in the microwave but aren't as bad if they get cold as the eggs are.  So, as soon as I made them, I put them on a plate in the microwave; the insulation kept them warm.  I mixed up 2 cups of bisquik, but you can make pancakes from scratch with this recipe: Beat 1 egg with 1 c milk and 1 Tbsp vinegar.  Sift together 1 cup flour, 1/2 tsp salt, 1/2 tsp baking soda, 3/4 tsp baking powder, and 1 tsp sugar.  It only makes 5 or 6 large pancakes, so you'll want a double batch if your family eats as much as mine do. 

I should add that I started with 2 cups of bisquik, and ended up going back into the kitchen and making another batch of pancakes.  The bisquik is $5.99 a box when not on sale, and the box contains 9 cups.  I used 4 cups tonight, for a total of $2.66.  Bisquik can be mixed with water (the milk is in the mix) or milk.  I used tapwater (free) and 2 eggs. 

 

Next, I made the bacon.  It was on sale a few weeks ago for $2.50 a pack, so I bought several.  Tonight, I made half of a pack, or $1.25 worth of bacon.

The bacon, also, was placed on a microwave-safe plate and put in my oven to keep warm.

Lastly, I made the eggs.  I mixed 8 eggs (because that's how much my family eats) with some milk.  I just poured it into the bowl after the eggs were scrambled, roughly 1 part milk to two parts egg.  This is how I was always taught to make scrambled eggs.  I don't know, but I think it makes them "fluffier".  I poured the eggs on my griddle and kept stirring them right on the griddle (with a plastic spatula) until they were cooked.  Then I scooped about half of them onto a serving plate. 

To the other half, I added cheese.  You can add whatever kind you want, depending on what kind of "taste" you're going for.  Cheddar, American, and Mozzerella all have very different flavors when mixed with eggs.  I used Mozzerella tonight, because I have this jumbo bag I've been using for a while.  I just sprinkled some cheese on top, put a little water (a teaspoon or so) in an upside-down metal lid, then put the lid down on top.  The water evaporated into steam almost instantly, so the eggs didn't burn while the frozen cheese melted. 

The pancakes only needed nuked about 20 seconds and the bacon was still warm.  The kids drank milk.  I had planned on yogurt for dessert but everybody had seconds of pancakes and then were too full for yogurt.  Since I calculated the cost of the extra pancakes, I won't include the cost of the yogurt in tonight's total.

Speaking of which, 12 eggs = $1.89 and I used 10 = $1.58.  Half a pack of Bacon = $1.25,

and 2 batches of Bisquik pancakes = $2.66.  Add $1 for the sprinkling of cheese on the eggs,

and we have a total of $6.49