Cereal

[Breanna]

Cereal is unhealthy and very expensive. Where I live basic cereal ends up being about ~$4.50 per pound, just for carbs and sugar. But it's so convenient and fast in the morning that almost everyone I know eats cereal, even people I know who are into health foods (those just buy even more expensive 'organic health food' type cereal). For our busiest mornings we eat a cereal that I make overnight, it takes only about 10 minutes of prep and is way cheaper and better for you than cereal from the store. It tastes like Christmas cookies. I thought I would share in case anyone else wants to try.

Preheat the oven to 250 F. Mix 1/2 cup oil or melted butter, 1/2 cup blackstrap or cooking molasses, 4 tbsp cinnamon, and any nuts or dried fruit as desired. Add 8 cups oats, stirring, 1-2 cups at a time. Spread evenly onto 2 baking sheets. Bake 10 minutes, turn off your oven, stir, and return to the oven. Leave in the oven overnight. The next morning put it into a container. This amount usually lasts my family 4 days of cereal breakfasts. If you used oil store it in the cupboard, if butter store it in the fridge.

[M.N. Dalvez]

Or you could just have porridge with fruit, milk and honey. But that does sound pretty decent.

[Breanna]

Originally Posted by M.N. Dalvez

Or you could just have porridge with fruit, milk and honey. But that does sound pretty decent.

I love porridge but my husband hates it lol. So I feel like there's no point to cook up something separate just for me. I'm not a big fan of honey but I love molasses. My husband loves honey and has a drink made of milk, honey, raw egg, and vanilla.

You can make your own vanilla extract or any kind of flavoured extract for baking too. Get a big bottle of cheap vodka and slice up some vanilla beans (cheap from saffron.com). Put the vanilla beans in the vodka and write the date on it. Let it sit in the cupboard for 6 weeks. It will turn black. It's stronger and better than store bought vanilla so you only need to use about half the amount of vanilla that a recipe calls for. Depends on how strong you like the taste of vanilla. It lasts forever, I don't think it ever goes bad. You can do the same thing to make extracts of anything - mint leaves for mint extract, orange or lemon slices for orange or lemon extract, anything really. Anise extract (with fennel) can be used to make licorice. Blueberry, caramel, chocolate. I am going to try making currant extract.

[Karl Radl]

Originally Posted by M.N. Dalvez

Or you could just have porridge with fruit, milk and honey. But that does sound pretty decent.

I've found that a fair-sized bowl of porridge with raisins and some nuts (pecans are a fav. for breakfast) with maybe a little bit of sweetness (which honey does nicely) is a great way to start the day.

Usually have that about two hours before I have my morning coffee.

Another favourite is a quick (but relatively healthy) breakfast burrito, which is two tsps worth of grated cheddar, one egg (with skimmed milk) scrambled egg in a homemade burrito (takes about 5 mins to make [assuming you have pre-made the burrito itself]).