@Bracken_Joy , you are reminding me I need some ground turkey to make turkey sausage patties again.
ETA: nothing wrong with growing up in the 90s! 
. I “grew up” in the 70s.
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They are a popular Starbucks breakfast option! Kinda like muffins, but…eggs. You can make them at home, and they’re easy to customize—meat, cheese, veggies, herbs, etc. you could make a batch on Sunday and eat them throughout the week! They might even be freezable? Mine never last that long. I need the protein in the morning to feel full til lunch.
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When I was in nursing school I would batch cook and freeze egg bites. Breakfast Egg Muffins 3 Ways (Meal Prep) - Cafe Delites They reheat super easy in the microwave. Be sure they’re fully cooled before freezing or they’ll get grainy.
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Thanks everyone! That’s given me quite a few ideas to start with. I like the idea of cooking the egg bites and oatmeal ahead.
Dietary restrictions are technically nil, but if I’m given a choice I won’t drink milk. It’s a texture thing.
I have an Instant Pot, but no crockpot. My Instant Pot has a slow cooker function, but it doesn’t seem very reliable.
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Yay! I hope you have fun trying new breakfasts out. It is my favorite meal of the day!
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@pinktutu another two suggestions I didn’t see are granola (I need to finally do some homemade) and chia pudding - there’s a cereal called holy crap that has chia and buckwheat I think? Super healthy and easy to do at home.
I didn’t grow up on cold cereal- more of a treat breakfast. I grew up on oatmeal or toast. I also do peanut butter rice cakes, muffins, pancakes, leftovers
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Okay. Meal planning. I have not been doing this and it worked for a few days and then turned to takeout, scavenging, and/or hating all options
Goals - have nothing taste healthy, minimize waste
Leftovers- brown rice, eggplant achari, power salad in peanut sauce
Monday - rice bowls (leftovers + add an egg for kiddo). Do some kind of meal prep. Dinner baked salmon or potato gnocchi with green sauce, veggies and dip/sprinkles
Tuesday- smoked tofu+ sunflower dip in tortillas with coleslaw
Pasta or zoodles baked with jarred sauce
Wednesday - make muffins?
Same lunch sandwich
Jerk tofu with rice, jerk shrimp with cauli rice, coleslaw - could also do a stirfry day if we’re more in that mood
Thursday - same sandwich
Takeout? Fancy salads with HB egg/fish for husboo (probably going to get groceries an hour away)
Friday Lunch - baked beans and chips
Dinner- fancy salads or takeout.
Fancy salad can go with hummus and rice cakes
Snacks can include hummus, leftovers, fruit, cheese, HB eggs, nuts and seeds, banana ice cream, smoothies, hot dogs
Breakfast - oatmeal, rice krispies, lunches and snacks, peanut butter rice cakes, eggs
Saturday - chicken Tikka, tofu Tikka, mild chicken, eggplant achari, daal and rice (bubble coming over) coriander chutney, yogurt, tea.
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Budget planning
We’re going to start putting $400/mo in my account, plus whatever I pull from my work account.
Is this left justified? Why is it being weird?
400
80- tfsa
100-resp
120- mama earth organics
100 cash
And I think this explains why my budget hasn’t been balancing without the budget. I do a lot of the other groceries too, but the mama earth is the big spend.
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Ooooh I think I know why I felt so grumpy last week. I felt all those things, and takeout only failed because takeout store ran out of chicken.
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We’ve been adding a little chia seed to our oatmeal. Don’t cook it with it, on top just before eating. Adds a little crunch.
Need to really pull it in this week, I’ve spent $350 this month and want to spend $300 a month total. Last year my budget was $100/week, so this fits, but I need it to go DOWN.
I just looked up the “thrifty plan” for my household, $434.10 
So, if I can actually live within the $400 a month that I used last year, we’re good. I’d still like to get it down to $300, to help defray the future expense of buying bulk produce and maybe paying down some debt too. I thought the $400/month put me in the most expensive category. That would be over $700/month.
I’m not the out of control spender I was afraid I’d been. 
I deposited checks last Friday, made an extra home-equity loan payment. Annoyingly, our CU won’t let you just make extra principle only payments. If it’s within some period close to the regular payment, they just make it the payment. I’ll have to ID when I can make principle only payments and be sure to do it then.
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One thing I do because I love cereal is I do 1/2 of the bowl with old fashioned rolled oats (raw) and the second half my favorite cereal. It makes the cereal last way longer, it’s less sweet, but I still get my cereal fix.
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It makes us GenX-ers feel old AF! 
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When I was working onsite I usually brought overnight oats. Made a week’s worth at a time. Oatmeal, enough milk or milk alternative to cover, some fruit or a gob of jam. Cover, refrigerate, heat up in morning. (Supposedly you can eat it cold after it’s sat overnight, but yuck.)
Lately I’ve been forcing myself to have fruit smoothies to start out the day with a big hit of fruits/veg (I usually throw in a big handful of spinach which you can’t really taste if there are also enough berries.) But that might be more prep than you want.
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yes. I am going to take credit for Sunday’s dinner in the plan because otherwise it is obvious how little is done
Sunday - chicken salad gruyere toasts with bell peppers
Monday - okonomiyaki
Tuesday - paneer in spinach butter chicken sauce over sweet potato
Wednesday - zucchini and corn fritters with paneer
Lunch base - rice, lentils, fried onions
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Today: lunch LO hash, snack = lemon bars, Dinner - Brie, bread, fruit, chutney, etc. Will either use up the demi loaf I made the other day and need to bake again, which has to happen anyway. Will use up the brie before it goes bad.
Tomorrow: LO (frozen) roasted veg
Weds: supposed to be LO from Monday, wont’ be any left. Have no idea.
Thurs:
Fri: Chicken ____
Sat: Sandwich
Sun: Chicken ____
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My kids LOVE cold overnight oats. If they have to pack lunch because of a field trip*, that’s what they always want. We make ours with homemade plain yogurt, a little milk, and strawberry jam. I think it looks gross but they are big fans.
*School should be providing sack lunch but apparently they don’t. I worry this is a burden on the many, many families who get free lunch even in regular years (everyone gets it this year).
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I have, not for myself but for my husband. The first thing I switched him to was homemade “oat cereal”. It was like 80% raw oats (you don’t have to cook them to eat them) and then I’d mix in chopped nuts, raisins, chocolate, cinnamon, etc. At first I put a lot of honey and brown sugar in it but over time he needed less and soon i just used honey with no sugar. After a while he would just eat oats with milk! Now he’s switched to frittatas which I make him every week (usually hash browns, egg, cheese, and sometimes an extra meat or vegmeat).
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Thank you, I see your text! 
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Just saw that Leanne Brown of Eat Cheap and Healthy did an AMA on reddit! Probably not new stuff to many people here, but I’ve been really enjoying her responses, and lots of good refresher info for me: https://www.reddit.com/r/EatCheapAndHealthy/comments/sboym5/ama_hi_im_leanne_brown_author_of_good_and_cheap/
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There’s so much good info in her responses! I really love this:
" listening and smelling and tasting and using your senses as much as possible— even when you are just making PB&J. Teach your body how good the act of preparation can feel. Then if you aren’t that into the finished product you still have that time spent relaxing and engaging with your senses. In time you might choose to spend more time there because it actually feels GOOD"
When I need more motivation I like to think about all the work it took for that product to get in my hands. The people who planted it, cultivated and grew it, plucked it, sorted it, washed it, packed it, transported it, etc. So many people’s hard work goes into every item and that encourages me to do it justice and treat it with a certain level of respect. When I forget that part it’s much easier to get into a “whatever” frame of mind, especially if I’m not in the mood to cook.
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