Hello mommies! As they say, breakfast is the most important meal of the day. Preparations however usually come with a challenge as it may involve less time as everyone is in a hurry every morning, and increasings costs of food could push more moms to go for quicker and easier breakfast options like cereal.

The good news is there are healthier and more affordable breakfast options out there that are available, especially if we are willing to do a bit of leg work, or make things from scratch. We all know that homemade food is definitely healthier as we know every ingredient we put in, it is fresher, and at the same time more economical.

Invest time and reap healthier and cheaper meals!

Sometimes, we may have to invest time and ingredients, but usually if we do this, we could  double, or even quadruple the number of meals that we can make with the ingredients that we buy. And the next time that we serve it, we will not spend as much time as we have spent during the time we are making the meal from scratch. Good examples are pancakes and waffles, homemade tocino, homemade longganisa, tapa and the like.

So without further ado, here are 7 affordable breakfast ideas that you can serve your family. By affordable, I mean about 100.00 to 150.00 all in all for a family of four to five people (or with kids who can eat adult-portion sizes).

Budget breakfast ideas for Filipino families

1.Champorado with fried dilis. This is easy to cook and is definitely not too expensive! It yields a lot too you can even have leftovers for merienda. And since condensed milk comes in smaller cans now (than when I was much younger), you can have a creamier bowl of champorado! Tip for the dilis is you can fry it with a sprinkling of brown sugar to make for a sweet, yummy glaze.

2. Crunchy Tortang Dulong. Even my kids eat this as long as I fry them crunchily. The secret is to use a good amount of really hot oil. You will not be deep frying it, but you cannot fry it in a non-stick pan with less oil (well, you can do that if you want a healthier version) but for crispylicious Dulong Patties, shallow-frying in really hot oil is the secret! Dulong sells in the marker (or even in SM Savemore) for about P50.00 for 250grams. That 1.4 kilogram will go a long way since you will add it in a pancake-like batter before frying, so try it. Here’s a past recipe we published.

3. Oatmeal with Tropical Fruits. Oatmeal, especially the plain ones are not as expensive. Whatever you have at home — instant, quick cooking, or rolled, just prepare some and top with your favorite tropical fruit like mangoes or bananas. One piece of mango can go a long way if you would cube it. One piece of banana for every person is enough, just slice the banana on top of each bowl, and there goes your healthy breakfast! If you still have a bit of extra budget left, why not drizzle some condensed milk on top?

4. Homemade chicken longganiza. Half a kilo of ground chicken (about P110.00) can make two meals worth’ of longganiza. The good thing about this is you don’t need any other ingredients except for pantry staples like brown sugar, soy sauce, garlic, flour or cornstarch, salt and pepper, and some oyster sauce, maybe some ketchup. You will not need a wrapper since this can be a skinless longganiza that you can freeze as soon as formed so you do not need to wrap them in parchment paper. Find the time to do it as it is worth the effort and surely healthy too!

5. Pandesal Bar – Want to make weekend breakfast fun for the kids? Set up a pandesal bar on a weekend morning. Buy some pandesal. Gather all the bottled spreads you have at home, and make some more yummier spreads using your remaining budget for this breakfast. Ideas include: Hardboiled egg spread, tuna sandwich spread, and tomato sardines spread. 

6. Arroz caldo. As they say, congee  goes a long way, and that is not just because of the budget factor, but also the energy that it provides. Buy 1/4 chicken breast, boil and shred it. Buy soup pack chicken, and use whatever bigas you have at home. Buy some spring onions and boil some hardboiled and you’ve got a hearty arroz caldo!

7. Tortang talong. Super yummy, high in fiber.Tortang talong is a good breakfast, and is even good for lunch! Fry some and make it extra crunchy. Try our recipe here

Hope you picked up an idea or two from our post! Will endeavor to post once again about budget breakfasts. And if you are looking for more ulam ideas, hope you can check out our recipes and meal plans section here.

Food for the soul

At this point, I hope you can allow me to share one of the bible passages that I have been asking my kids to memorize:

“Whatever you do, do it all for the glory of God”

1 Corinthians 10:31

Thank you for stopping by and till next post!

A happy homemaker is a Happy Pinay Mommy!

https://happypinaymommy.com/2023/06/16/7-budget-ulam-ideas-for-the-week-p150-00-to-200-00-per-dish/

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Hello everyone! sharing with you a quick breakfast idea that could surely fill the tummies of your school aged children in no time!

This is Gyeran Bap, roughly translated as Egg Rice. I make it during frazzled mornings when I have super limited time to get breakfast on the table. Today is that day.

After a decade or so, morning rush no longer meant being stuck in traffic and listening to a radio show, it meant having super little time to feed my kids and make sure they do not get hungry until it is their recess time.

Gyeran Bap as a go-to breakfast

So there I cooked the quickest breakfast I know, and not just quick but satiating until their morning break!

Again, this happy breakfast is called Gyeran Bap. Nothing too fancy about it. Just newly cooked rice, topped with sunny side up egg, shredded gim or nori wrapper, soy sauce and sesame oil.

Just scoop mounds of rice in a bowl. Fry an egg sunny side style — the doneness of the yolk will depend on the preference of your child. Top the rice with the fried egg. Drizzle with sesame oil. Add shredded gim or nori. Add a few drops of soy sauce, and it is game time!

Happy breakfast, happy morning

My family never gets tired of eating this simple dish, and so when I am pressed for time, this is my go-to breakfast. It also assures me that their tummies are full, and that they can focus on their teacher’s lessons.

Thank you for stopping by and if you are on the lookout for more easy to cook dishes, hope you can check out our recipes and meal plans section here.

Food for the soul

At this point I hope you can allow me to share with you another bible passage that continues to inspire me. This time it is from the Book of Proverbs:

“Let love and faithfulness never leave you; bind them around your neck, write them on the tablet of your heart. Then you will win favor and a good name in the sight of God and man.”

Proverbs 3:3-4

Again, thank you for being here and till next post!

A happy homemaker is a Happy Pinay Mommy!

https://happypinaymommy.com/2023/03/27/easy-burger-steak-with-mushroom-gravy-recipe/

The post How to make Gyeran Bap for your kids’ breakfast appeared first on Happy Pinay Mommy.

How to cook easy beef tapa.

Cooking Procedure for tender and easy beef tapa:

I usually marinate the beef tapa the same day i bought the beef so i would not have to thaw just to marinate. If that will bot be feasible yhen thaw the beef in the ref and marinate the night before you plan to cook it for breakfast.

You may also want to divide your tapa marinade to single serving packs so you would just take the package out as needed. Ziplocs help a lot in minimising freezer space andin making sure that the marinade is distributed well in the meat.

Cook your tapa quickly, usually thin slices are cooked in less than two minutes.

Serve the sauce on the side of your tapsilog plate

Have a marinated tapa ready in your freezer so you could have easy beef tapa anytime!

This easy beef tapa recipe never fails to make for a happy breakfast in our home!

You may also want to check out our facebook album of family meal recipes and budget ulam ideas under P100.

Let’s eat! Tender beef tapa is easy and quick to cook. Just choose the right beef cut and fry it quickly.

Hope you can also follow us on IG and Pinterest where we regularly post our family meals, toddler and baby food recipes and other local parenting information. See you there!

Here’s a video explaining the different cuts of meat:

Baby and toddler food recipe: Ginataang tinadtad na sitaw at kalabasa

The post Easy Beef Tapa Recipe appeared first on Happy Pinay Mommy.

Here’s a list of Breakfast Food Recipes Children Can Eat in the Car. (Photo Credits with Modifications)

In the run up to the opening of classes, I have thought of coming up with another article which is Breakfast Food Recipes Children Can Eat in the Car. This is again part of our series on baon and breakfast recipes and ideas for our school aged children.

I have recently posted about quick breakfasts that us moms can prepare during those mornings when everything has been crazy and alarm clocks have been over-snoozed. But what if there literally is no more time to have breakfast, and the morning was just enough to pack baons, brush teeth, wash the face and change into the school uniform?? First time parents may say YUCK to this, but those with more than one children who are iof school age definitely know what I am talking about.

But during hurried mornings, we can only balance punctuality in school and nutrition, hence the point of this article. I am thinking that the solution to this is to give children nutritious  breakfast items that they can eat in the car or aboard their respective school buses. Not too messy of course, and some can be pre-made in bulk the day before with the left overs frozen for future re-heating! So, without further ado, here are some breakfast meal recipes your children can eat en route to their school:

Breakfast Recipes Children Can Eat in the Car

1. Sandwiches – Of course good old sandwiches are the easiest food to munch in the car! Check out the easy and healthy sandwich recipes that I have posted in my past blog article here. Again, we have an almost unlimited choices of bread – usual bread loaves (or TASTY as dubbed in the 80s), pandesals, hamburger buns and even more sophisticated soft ones like focaccia, or ciabatta. Don’t forget the cheese!

2. Wraps – This is not too common in the Philippine setting but children can enjoy this. Fillings children will surely enjoy are those that have chicken, egg, ground beef or pork, and lots of cheese of course. Here are some recipes of breakfast wraps you may want to prepare for your child. This is ideal to make when we have left over chicken in the house, or even Adobo.

(Post Continued Below)

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You may also want to read:

• Quick kid-friendly breakfast recipes
• Baon Ideas for your school child: sandwiches, preschool snacks, packed lunches
• How to get kids to sleep early
• Yummy Sandwich Recipes for Baon
• Happy Breakfasts for Kids
• Eight Recipes under P100.00 – 2016 Edition
• Kid-Friendly vegetable salads
• Meryendas you can prepare with your kids
• Requirements for a Catholic Confirmation
• Local Party Resources: Where to buy DIY Party Supplies, Where to Buy Sweets for DIY Candy Buffet etc

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3. Breakfast smoothies – Of course this is one of the easiest to prepare, in fact you can make it the night before, and just pour it in your child’s insulated bottle (here’s a great deal for a spill proof insulated and non-toxic tumbler for your child). With a blender, Osterizer or Nutri-bullet, the easiest to prepare would be a Choco Banana Smoothie (banana, powdered milk chocolate like Hershey’s Cocoa, Swiss Miss, Goya, or Cocotime, plus a cup of almond, soy or cow’s milk and crushed ice), Plain avocado or Choco-Avocado Smoothie, Strawberry or Mango and yogurt smoothie, all of which are kid-approved and very appetizing.

4. Panwiches – If you have left over pancakes, you can just easily assemble a panwich for your child to eat in the car or school bus. Just slap on a hamburger patty, or even peanut butter and jelly (plus slices of fruit inside), cream cheese and jam, then you have a breakfast on the go for kids right there. You can also make some pancakes ahead of time, and freeze it for later use.

5. Store-bought nutritious pastries – I know most of us here may not have the time and equipment to bake from scratch, so buying FRESH (not prepacked) pastries like muffins, banana loaves, carrot and raisin bread, turn-overs, and pocket pies could be very helpful for super busy mornings. Stores where we usually buy fresh pastries include Purple Oven, TLJ, The French Baker (like TLJ they have big discounts during closing time), and Bread Talk. You may also want to check out the fresh pastries from Red Ribbon, Goldilocks, Fortune Bakeshop, and S & R. Again, the key here is get something that has to be consumed within a week because that means it does not have a lot of preservatives.

5. Siopao – Yes, these are yummy on-the-go breakfast item that even your husband will appreciate (that is if he loves Siopao too). The trick here is when you are in your favorite Chinese Restaurant, order at least two sets for takeaway, then freeze it when you get home. You can then steam it or reheat it during your crazy school day morning! Alternatively, you may also want to purchase those that are frozen, and are ready for steaming available in the grocery store nearest you.

6. Waffles – If you have a waffle maker at home then go ahead and make some for your child. You can opt for filled or plain ones, and what I am sure of is that your child will definitely enjoy! Like pancakes, waffles can be frozen for later use.

7. Breakfast Bars – You can make some from scratch, but it will not hurt if you buy something from the store, provided that it is not plain sugary and non-nutritious. Choose a high-fibre variety so you will not be guilty of just sending your child to school with it plus milk drink.

Make sure to pack for them extra water and drinks for their on-the-go breakfast as the water you may be packing for them might be for their snack time or lunch break. Here is the spill-proof water bottle I will be buying for my child.

It is also important to pack these breakfasts in appropriate packaging like reusable containers (this one is what I will buy for achiebell’s on the go brekky), or a brown bag, or a reusable sandwich or pastry bag made of linen cloth.

We all know that the metro is saddled with traffic problems, and that we have to balance our eagerness to make sure that our child does not arrive late in school, to our eagerness to ensure their stomachs have been filled with nutritious food for breakfast.

Breakfast is a very critical meal for the day. It ensures that our children will have enough energy, and mental alertness to absorb lessons for the day and participate in physical activities in school. Let us all make an effort to make sure they get their fill of a nutritious first meal. (If you are in no hurry, here are great breakfast ideas cooked from scratch)

Will be coming up with more posts like this (Breakfast Food Recipes Children Can Eat in the Car) to help all of us become more intentional with the food that we serve our children. If you have the time, hope you could drop by my Facebook page and hit the like button, or follow our Instagram account so you can receive regular updates from Happypinaymommy.com direct on your newsfeed.

Thank you so much!

A Happy Homemaker is a Happy Pinay Mommy!

Leaving you with more recipes for on-the-go breakfast recipes and ideas:

Quick Breakfasts for Pinoy School Kids

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