My ongoing quest to save as much money as possible has led me to find cheaper ways to feed my family. This is hard when you have three children with varying degrees of pickiness. My oldest is very picky, thanks to his Sensory Processing Disorder, and we do cater to him in the breakfast and lunch department. (For dinner, he gets what everyone else is having.) Because of this, he tends to choose the same things over and over again. For breakfast especially, he has one favorite thing that we always have on hand: Quaker Oatmeal to Go bars.
With two other children who see their beloved big brother eating these and demand the same, we end up going through as many as 90 per month. At approximately $3 a box (50 cents per bar) that comes to about $45 a month just for these breakfast bars! Coupons for them are rare and we do stock up when we can get them at a cheaper price, but it still ends up being about $30 a month. Just not a very good idea for our food budget anymore.
Not only are they expensive, but the second ingredient is high fructose corn syrup, which I’m trying to cut back on. I’m all for moderation but when HFCS is in everything, it’s not so easy to be moderate in your consumption! Needless to say, I’ve been doing a lot of home cooking to try to minimize this in our diets.
So how to go about a) minimizing costs and b) eating healthier while keeping the kiddos happy? I googled copycat recipes, of course! I came up with several different options to try and with a little trial and error, I’ve managed to come up with my own variation that works out to about 20 cents a bar, assuming you don’t use any coupons or sale prices. With coupons and sales (or WIC food items, if you qualify) this can be much, much less…almost free if you do it just right!
If you’re a fan of Quaker Oatmeal to Go but want to save money or eliminate this source of HFCS in your life, here’s my recipe for a similar breakfast bar:
- 4 eggs
- 2 cups milk
- 1 cup unsweetened applesauce
- 2 teaspoons vanilla
- 4 cups uncooked oats
- 1 tablespoon baking powder
- 1 teaspoon salt
- 2/3 cup brown sugar
- 1 tablespoon cinnamon
- Preheat oven to 350*F. Spray a 9×13 pan with cooking spray.
- Combine wet ingredients and mix well.
- Add dry ingredients and mix well.
- Pour mixture into pan and bake for approximately 40 minutes, until a knife inserted in center comes out clean.
To change it up a little, consider these variations:
- Add a cup of raisins. (Or chocolate chips for a really special treat.)
- Use a half cup of chopped apples and add in some apple pie spices.
- Try substituting mashed banana for the applesauce and add some nuts for a healthier banana bread substitute.
- Consider using pureed pumpkin in place of the applesauce.
- Add fresh or frozen berries like blueberries or strawberries.
It’s an easy recipe that takes very little work and there are so many ideas for variations out there. If you try it, let me know how it works out and any substitutions you tried!
