Cheap Breakfast Ideas for Daycare
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With food prices skyrocketing, we are all looking for cheap breakfast ideas for daycare to get a meal on the table without breaking the bank. So planning a daycare menu within our budget is a trick we all need to master.
Profit margins are already slim when running a home daycare, so we have to use all the tips and tricks to stay within our budget. Check out these other ideas for saving money every month in your business:
- Cheap Bean Burritos for Kids
- Dirt Cheap Meals for Daycare
- Daycare Menus, Breakfast, Lunch, and Snack Ideas
- Home Daycare Budget
- How to Stretch Your Grocery Budget and Use All the Food You Buy
- What to Eat to Save Money
If you are looking for inspiration for great meal ideas for young kids, check out this collection of Daycare Lunches for toddlers and preschoolers (even the picky ones!). Easy, simple, and tasty enough for the whole family to enjoy!
Cheap breakfast ideas for family
Many people find themselves in the same situation morning after morning. Whether is getting the most important meal of the day through a drive-through, grabbing a pastry out of a machine, or forgoing a good breakfast altogether; none of the choices are healthy and not necessarily cheap.
The following easy breakfast ideas for the entire family are quick, cheap, easy to make, and delicious. And they work great as cheap breakfast ideas for daycare too. And hey, aren’t a lot of us moms too? Whether we are talking about our personal family or our daycare family the same struggles apply.
What Makes a Healthy Breakfast?
Often people think of sugary cereals, pancakes topped with syrup, cake-like muffins which are often stuffed with chocolate chips or other sugary snack food, donuts, waffles, or low-calorie but high-sugar and unhealthy morning meal bars as their breakfast go-to items.
According to Harvard University, those who eat a nutritious breakfast on those busy mornings tend to be leaner than those who skip this important meal. It can be difficult to find the time to eat breakfast, which tempts people to drive through the fast food lane for a greasy breakfast sandwich.
Cheap breakfast
However, a hearty breakfast can be simple and cheap and you can prepare healthier options at home. The trick is finding inexpensive options you can buy on sale or in bulk.
A breakfast pizza made on a tortilla is a tasty treat. Spread peanut butter, yogurt, or gravy on a tortilla, or you can use butter or leave it dry. Top it with bits of bacon or sausage, scrambled eggs, and/or slices or chunks of fruit. You can sprinkle cheese on top, or not, whatever your preferences are and enjoy. You can melt the cheese under the broiler or leave it unmelted. The possibilities are endless on this one.
Sausage biscuits can be economical for breakfast. You can also make scrambled eggs and fried potatoes for a cheap start to your day. Or consider chunks of potatoes for a breakfast hash.
Here is a list of CACFP approved cereals too.
Cheap Breakfast Casserole
The price of eggs is going back down and eggs are a relatively cheap protein. Although they are delicious and healthy scrambled or hard-boiled, to create an inexpensive, quick breakfast, create a breakfast casserole.
Add ingredients such as mushrooms, bacon, sausage, or onions. Whatever your kids will eat. This is a great way to use up leftovers. You can also make them in individual servings like these Spinach Egg Muffins with Cheddar and Bacon
You can also try these easy broccoli cheese egg cups for a delicious breakfast!
Healthy Oatmeal
Instant oatmeal is expensive per package and has a lot of additives that aren’t healthy for you like high fructose corn syrup. A great idea is to buy a container of whole oats that doesn’t cost much money and cook flavored oatmeal from scratch.
Some ideas to add to the oatmeal include nuts, chia seeds, fresh fruit, dried fruit, and frozen fruit.
Cream Of Wheat
Cream of Wheat is a warm breakfast cereal and a healthy food that is very low in fat yet high in iron. One serving of Cream of Wheat contains 45 percent of the daily recommended value of iron which is a huge benefit. It also contains 40 percent of the daily recommended amount of bone-healthy calcium and even more when cooked with milk. Add a piece of fruit for added fiber.
My kids love it and it takes just minutes to make!
Pancakes
A box of pancake mix is only a few dollars and should last for several meals. Syrup can be purchased for less than five dollars, depending upon what brand you purchase. Not only are pancakes inexpensive, but they are filling.
You can make healthy pancakes from scratch as well. And they are even more delicious but still inexpensive to make. They can also be cooked and frozen for future quick breakfasts. Simply separate pancakes with pieces of wax paper and place them in a freezer zip-top bag. Take one out at a time and microwave for a minute on high heat.
You can also use pancakes to make breakfast sandwiches that are delicious. Or try these awesome pancake tacos. Yum, I need to go make some right now.
And don’t forget about waffles and even easier, french toast! If you don’t want to batter the toast and cook it in a pan, you can make toast in the toaster even faster for just pennies a serving.
Leftovers for Breakfast
According to Wasted Food, consumers throw away about 25 percent of food brought into the home. Make use of leftovers and you’ll save money.
To utilize leftovers for breakfast, you might need to think outside of the box. Leftover fruit salad can be stirred into fresh oatmeal or pancakes. Lean meats can make an excellent addition to a breakfast burrito. Be creative and you’ll figure it out.
Yogurt, Berries, And Homemade Granola
Add fresh berries to yogurt and top with granola for a protein-packed breakfast with healthy fats, carbohydrates, vitamin C, and cancer-fighting antioxidants.
To save even more time, make the night before with frozen berries found in the freezer section of the grocery store. Wait to put the granola on top until you are ready to eat it. If you do not like berries, try another fruit or simply add a little bit of honey to plain or vanilla honey and top with granola.
Peanut Butter And Banana
You can spread peanut butter on a banana, but you can also make a great breakfast by spreading peanut butter on a tortilla, waffle, or pancake and rolling it around the banana. We call is sushi rolls around here. Ha. Any way you wrap it, or don’t, peanut butter and banana is delicious!
We love making banana muffins using this banana bread recipe and spreading a bit of peanut butter on top. So good.
And by the way, muffins of any kind make a great and inexpensive breakfast. You can bake bulk batches of them and stash them in the freezer to save tons of precious time. Check out these delicious muffin recipes:
Boiled Eggs And Fruit
Hard-boiled eggs and fruit is a breakfast that is cheap, easy, and healthy. Simply boil a batch of eggs the day before and let them sit in a bowl in your refrigerator. Cut up some fruit like apples, melons, grapes, grapefruit, and pineapples and put them into a Tupperware bowl. When you wake up the next morning your breakfast will be ready to eat.
For even less time grab fruit that doesn’t need to be cut up like pears, apples, and bananas, or purchase a fruit bowl at your local grocery store.
Eating a healthy breakfast can be easy, fast, and tasty. In fact, the largest amount of time it takes to prepare the above delicious breakfast recipes will be shopping for them.
For more daycare breakfast inspiration, check this out:
