Late last night, I realized that we didn’t have any bread for sandwiches for the children going to camp (at their schools). Since the bread locally is sold out by the morning, there wasn’t any to buy. I could have gone to the store early in the morning to buy their overpriced bread, which is what I did a couple of weeks ago when I was in the same situation (teen boys eating the bread that was intended for the younger kids school lunches).

This time, I decided to bake some bread instead of making another early morning run to the market. The only problem was I was too tired to start baking at that time of night, so instead I set my alarm for 4:50 am.

My husband woke up at the same time and seeing how tired I was, very generously offered to make the bread for me so I could sleep a bit longer, but when he couldn’t find some of the ingredients I got up. It’s just the getting up when I’m tired that’s hard; once I’m up I enjoy the early morning hours.

It’s a quick recipe to put together so in a few minutes I mixed it all up, then made one loaf and a bunch of rolls.

My oldest daughter had an early morning driving test (which she passed her first time!), and at 6:15 am her three children arrived, joining me and our four youngest children. With seven children who all wanted to eat, play and talk at the same time, and three of them needing to get dressed and ready to leave the house between 6:45 and 7:20, it was busy.

Pro parenting tip: everything goes much more smoothly when there’s food ready to eat as soon as the kids are ready! Hungry kids are cranky kids, and having freshly baked rolls to offer the kids definitely helped keep that busy first hour enjoyable for everyone.

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The last time I ran out of bread, I got up at 5 am, got to the local market by 5:15 and bought a loaf of spelt bread for 20 shekels. Small markets are always more costly, but I needed it and was glad to be able to get it.

However, this time I realized it wouldn’t even save time to buy it. It takes longer to go to and from the store than to spend five minutes of hands-on time mixing the dough. Of course, it takes time to rise and bake, but that’s passive so as long as you start an hour and a half before you need it, you can make it fresh for a significant price savings.

Avivah’s Fast and Easy Whole Grain Bread

• 4 c. warm water
• 2 T. yeast
• 2/3 c. honey, date syrup or sugar
• 2/3 c. oil
• 4 t. salt
• 8 – 10 c. whole wheat or spelt flour

Mix the warm water and yeast. Then add the remaining ingredients in the order listed. Mix in flour until the dough is slightly tacky but able to be handled without sticking to your hands. Form into loaves or rolls and let rise until doubled. (This went very quickly today in a non-air conditioned kitchen with outdoor temps over 105 degrees. :)) Bake for 30 minutes at 350 degrees Fahrenheit/180 degrees Celcius.

This recipe yields three large loaves.

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Here’s a breakdown of my costs:

• Sweetener – I used date syrup, 20 shekels a kg. 2/3 c. is about 4.5 shekels.
• Coconut oil – 17.5 shekels a liter; 2/3 of a cup is about three shekels.
• Spelt flour – 7.5 shekels a kilo (I buy by the case), I used one bag.

The cost of salt and yeast is minimal but let’s say it’s another shekel, so 16 shekels for three loaves of spelt bread, of much higher quality than one store bought loaf.

Avivah

My sixteen year old son baked a few large pans of Amish oatmeal for the yeshivas bein hazmanim breakfast that he organized for the Sukkos vacation and it was a big hit. It’s one of several baked oatmeal recipes that I have – they’re all good but more dessert-like than I prefer to serve for a regular breakfast.

Here’s a healthier version that I jotted down ages ago and finally made this week – I made it the evening ahead so it would be ready for breakfast the next day, but half the pan was gone before everyone had gone to sleep! This has a mellow sweetness that my family enjoys; it’s gluten free and sugar free.

For me this was a very frugal recipe, but please don’t make the blanket assumption that if I say it’s frugal, then it will be equally inexpensive for you. I use a lot of strategies that keep my food costs down that you may not use, and have different resources available that you may not have. And you have frugal resources and options that I don’t have! If the exact recipe doesn’t work for you, take the general principal of frugal cooking – use ingredients that are inexpensive for you to make meals with.

Baked Oatmeal

• 1 c. applesauce
• 10 large Medjool dates
• 4 eggs
• 4 c. milk
• 1/2 c. juice
• 2 T. baking powder
• 1 t. cinnamon
• 6 c. rolled oats
• 1 c. fresh or dried fruit, chopped

Blend the dates with the milk, juice, applesauce and eggs. Mix the dry ingredients, then add the applesauce mixture to the dry mixture. Fold in fruit.

Pour in the pan, and refrigerate overnight. In the morning, you can top with nuts if you like. Bake at 350 degrees F/180 degrees Celsius for 35 – 45 minutes, and serve warm.

My cost breakdown:

• applesauce – I got the apples free, and cooked and preserved the applesauce when I got them last season
• dates – free (my son picked them locally)
• 4 eggs – 3 shekels
• milk – I used a half of a carton of coconut cream, 7.5 shekels (purchased at restaurant supply store I told you about; at Shufersal I saw it for double the price I paid). Dairy milk would be cheaper.
• juice – didn’t use it, instead I cut the coconut cream with water
• baking powder, cinnamon – purchased in bulk bags of 1 kg each, don’t know how much a spoonful would be but let’s say .50 for both
• 6 c. rolled oats – 6 shekels
• dried or fresh fruit – I left this out

Total: 17 shekels for a deep 9″ x 13″ pan or two shallow 9″ x 13″ pans; this makes a generous amount for two breakfasts for a family of six.

Avivah

I like to periodically cruise around online looking for new meal ideas, and I came across a recipe for 15 bean soup. In the US it’s a popular premixed dry bean combination but I don’t have the ready made bean mix available here.

What I do have is a variety of different beans in my pantry, so I took out whatever I had and put together my own mixture. I made a big batch so I’ll have it ready when I want to make it again – it doesn’t take any longer to make a big batch than a small one.

I set aside some to make for dinner tonight, then jarred the rest for future meals.

After making dinner tonight, I saw that half a jar is plenty for our family at this time (there are 6 of us at home right now), so the jars above will be enough for fourteen meals.

Here’s my personal combination – you can adjust according to whatever beans you have:

Avivah’s 13 Bean Soup Mixture

Mix equal amounts of each of the following:

• black beans
• navy beans
• red beans
• red kidney beans
• chickpeas
• black eyed peas
• cranberry beans
• red lentils
• brown lentils, large
• brown lentils, small
• green split peas
• yellow split peas
• mung beans

• Other suggestions are broad beans (large and small), pinto beans and lima beans. (I had adzuki but that would have been too many red beans in the mixture.)

Mix equal amounts of bean in a bowl, then mix by hand. Pour the mixture into jars and stick them on the shelves to make dinner easy one night in your future. 🙂

Here’s how I used the dry bean mix to make a soup for dinner:

I usually presoak beans overnight but this afternoon didn’t have time for that, so I let the beans cook for an hour before adding everything else. Then I added chopped onions, carrots and potatoes, a cup of rich chicken gravy, some dehydrated mushrooms (I shared about sun drying them here), a couple of bay leaves and a little salt. The pot continued to cook on low until everything was soft.

How much did this cost? I bought the beans in bulk so they averaged 6 shekels a kilo and it was 3 shekels for the half a kilo used for this recipe. I used a kilo of potatoes – 4 shekels, 2 onions – 2 shekels, 1 kg carrots – 4 shekels. The gravy was left from the roast chicken I made on Shabbos – I always drain off the pan drippings and set it aside to enhance the flavor of a dish. I got the mushrooms for free last year. So it cost under 15 shekels for a generous pot of thick soup that filled up all six of us, for less than 2.5 shekels a person (70 cents per person).

It was a very quick and simple dinner with hardly any prep time other than the vegetables. Even the vegetables don’t take long since I invested in one of my favorite kitchen tools ever, a heavy duty manual vegetable chopper. It makes vegetable prep so quick and professional looking. Oh, how do I enjoy that chopper – I think I tell a family member probably every other day, “Have I mentioned lately how glad I am to have this?”

With food prices going up around the world, I’m going to be sharing more frugal tips, strategies and recipes to help you make your food budget stretch further. If you have a frugal recipe or suggestion, please share in the comments – it helps all of us! Also, if you have a question about something specific, the comments is the place to ask. 🙂

Avivah

I haven’t made baked oatmeal in a while – my main fallback recipe has more sugar than I want to have for breakfast. Then I came across this recipe and made it yesterday. It was very frugal (for us) and very yummy!

I make my menu based on the ingredients that I have (versus making a menu plan and then buying the ingredients that I need – it’s a very significant difference). What is frugal for one person won’t necessarily be frugal for another.

Becky at Scratch Pantry, whose recipe I adapted, has chickens and abundant eggs, so her recipe is egg heavy. I made some small adjustments, reducing the eggs and oats, and taking out the brown sugar.

Apple Cinnamon Baked Oatmeal (makes one 9 x 13 pan)

• 5 eggs
• 2 c. milk
• 2 c. applesauce 
• 2 t. cinnamon 
• 1 teaspoon salt 
• 3 c. oatmeal (not rolled oats)
• 2 c. finely chopped apples

Topping

• 1/4 cup butter
• 1/4 cup brown sugar

Mix all the ingredients for the oatmeal mixture, and pour into a 9 x 13 pan. (I doubled the recipe to have one for another day.) Top with slices of butter and sprinkle the brown sugar on top. Bake at 350 degrees Fahrenheit/180 degrees Celsius until slightly firm to the touch. I used a toaster oven for this and it took over an hour; in the oven it might have been different.

To make two large 9 x 13 pans of this baked oatmeal cost me under ten shekels. My costs were super low because I: 1) used milk that I got for free, 2) blended up a jar of home canned apples to use for applesauce (made from free apples), 3) have fresh apples that I got free and 4) buy oats in bulk so my cost is around 4 shekels a kilo. If I had to buy all of the milk and apples, my cost would be much higher.

Look at what your costs will be to determine if this will be an affordable breakfast for you! What can you do if the specifics make it pricey for you, but you like the basic idea? I’m big on adapting recipes to meet my needs. Don’t have apples, but you have some other fruit or vegetable? Use that instead! I have recipes for zucchini baked oatmeal, pumpkin baked oatmeal, and others. You can use canned or fresh produce. You can leave out the produce and make a basic recipe that is oats, liquid, eggs and sweetener. If you don’t have milk, use juice, or water.

And of course, this general principle doesn’t apply to just this recipe! I consider recipes a starting point, and that’s something I teach my kids when they learn to cook – that it’s just fine to make substitutions or leave something out if they don’t have it. Sometimes you come up with something even better than the original!

Avivah