10 Cheap and Easy Breakfast Recipes | Allrecipes

Tis the season for holiday entertaining and I've got 10 ideas for breakfast and brunch that you can feed your crew without busting your budget. Get ready for this, cinnamon roll bites. This is better than monkey bread and way easier. Pop that can, pop that can. Any biscuit variety will work. I found the sweet Hawaiian flavor and I just thought, that sounds good. Take each biscuit and cut it into quarters. Try to keep these separated. It works better as long as they're cold. Be sure your oven is preheated to 350 degrees. In a large Ziploc bag, I'm gonna put a third cup of sugar and a teaspoon of cinnamon and give it a shake. And then you're gonna toss half your biscuits in and shake them up. Spray an eight or nine inch baking pan and add your biscuits. Don't worry that it's not like super full right now. They're gonna rise and stick together as they bake. And then I'm just gonna drizzle it with three tablespoons of melted butter. Bake it at 350 degrees for about 20 minutes. To make the frosting, we're gonna start with two tablespoons of softened butter. Add in one cup of powdered sugar, two tablespoons of milk and one teaspoon of vanilla. All you probably had to buy for this is the can of biscuits. Everything else, you have on hand. That's how to cook on the cheap. Just look at this before I ice it. I gotta show you something. Do you see the little flaky layers right here? That is like a vessel for the icing. Share the love all over. Oh, yes! Are you ready for the very best part? You know how like in the cinnamon roll, everybody just wants that middle portion? You know, you kinda peel away that outside layer? With this, it's like all middles. You get tons of frosting and it's still gooey but also it's still like toasted on the top and bottom. Might as well just call it perfect bite casserole. Since this is a party of one today, I'm just going straight in. Do you see how good that is? Are you ready for this next one? Might be my favorite one of the day. I'm talking slow cooker, breakfast burrito bar, the brainchild of my lovely assistant. 100% I'm taking this on our holiday vacation with my family of 15 and this is the way to feed them on the cheap. I'm gonna start with a pound of regular and spicy sausage. If you don't like spicy, you can just do all regular and I've browned that up with an onion and a red bell pepper. This might seem like an expense in the beginning but you're feeding a lot of people. So I'm telling you, it comes out to about like $1 to $2 per person. Spray your slow cooker and add in your brown sausage mixture. I'm usually the first one awake in my household so I can just get this started in the morning and put it on high for about three hours. You could also, if you stay up late, you can put this on, turn it on low before you go to bed and let it go on low for about six hours. All right, I'm gonna put like half of my cheese down on top of the sausage. Next, I'm gonna add in some hash browns. All right, more cheese. A little salt and pepper. Whisk a dozen eggs with a cup of milk. Does not get any easier than that. You could always brown off your sausage with your onion and bell pepper the day before and then toss it all in the crock pot, cranking it up to high. If this doesn't look like the most fun brunch ever, then I don't know what does. Check this out. I added a little more cheese at the end. You can turn this into a burrito or a taco. This is what you serve your hungry guests. This is even just a good meal prep solution. You can make a whole batch of breakfast burritos, put them in your freezer. The possibilities are endless. Come on, just look at that. Say goodbye to boring brunches with this idea. These are ham and cheddar biscuit muffins. Okay, super easy, only requires a few ingredients. Starting with our favorite, canned biscuit. Pop her open. I'm gonna start by rolling out the biscuit. Add in a little bit of ham and cheese. You could also throw in some green onion or chives if you want to, and then just fold the biscuit over the toppings or fillings. How cute, but wait. And then we're gonna press it into a muffin cup. How easy is that? This is also just a great recipe for your kids to make. Let them fill them with whatever they want. You could do this for lunch or breakfast. This is also a great recipe to do if you've got leftovers, maybe some leftover barbecue chicken or leftover lunch meat from the week. Don't be wasting anything. All that's left is to brush it with egg wash. I'm gonna sprinkle mine with some Everything Bagel seasoning, or you could just leave them plain. Pop these in the oven, 350 degrees, for about 12 minutes until they're golden brown. Just wait. These are just so cute for a party or a little holiday brunch. Just little single-serving packets of goodness. Just set them out. It's probably one of the easier things you can ever do. Look how cute. I mean, that's just genius. What I love about this is you can't tell this biscuit came from a can. You can't even tell it's a biscuit. People are gonna think you picked up these little treats at the local bakery and paid $60 a dozen for them. And the topping is my favorite part. Next up, something indulgent and sweet, a pancake bake. I'm telling you, forget the French toast casserole. Pair it with a little bit of bacon or sausage, and you've got breakfast. I'm keeping it easy with frozen pancakes. You can make your own. That might even be cheaper, but I've got 24 pancakes for about $4. The real difference between a homemade pancake and these are that they don't have as many air pockets in them, so I'm gonna help so that it'll absorb the custard by just kind of puncturing it with a fork a little bit. So just kind of give them a little forking. Lightly grease your baking dish. So you're simply just gonna cut your pancakes in half and shingle them into your baking dish. You can use a nine by 13 and do two to three rows of pancakes. And then similar to a bread pudding, you're gonna make a little custard here. I've got five eggs. To that, I'm going to add 3 1⁄4 cup of milk and 1 1⁄4 cup of heavy cream. I'll whisk in 1 1⁄4 cup of sugar, a teaspoon of vanilla, and 1⁄4 teaspoon each of cinnamon and salt. That's it. I'm just gonna cover it and refrigerate it overnight. And then we bake. When you're ready to bake, just uncover and sprinkle with the streusel topping. This is just a combination of butter, flour, cinnamon, and pecans. We'll bake at 350 degrees for 50 minutes to an hour. Forget the breakfast casserole this year. This is your Christmas morning breakfast right here. Next up, a super cheap and easy breakfast idea that's also a little bit healthy, baked oatmeal. Start with mixing three cups of oats. I'm gonna stir in one cup of brown sugar, two teaspoons of cinnamon, and two teaspoons of baking powder, and one teaspoon of salt. Next, I'll stir in two eggs, one cup of milk, and a stick of melted butter. Finally, two teaspoons of vanilla. Give that a good mix. You could stop here, but I'm also gonna stir in some dried cranberries. You could do raisins or any other dried fruit you want. Then just pour it into a lightly greased baking dish. We're gonna bake at 350 for about 40 minutes. A good, hearty, comforting breakfast doesn't get any easier than this. Definitely one to try for your oatmeal lovers. Drizzle with a little cream if you want. This just sort of feels like dessert to me. That's good. Tastes like the way my mom used to make it with all that brown sugar. Yeah, I'm full, but we're not stopping yet. Y'all know I love serving things buffet style, and this next trick is also super cheap and easy. I'm talking about a slow cooker grits bar. This was sort of mind-blowing for me because when I make grits, it's a lot of standing over the stove. So you can just let these go while you fix everything else. We're gonna start just by mixing two cups of grits with six cups of water and a teaspoon of salt. We'll crank this on high and let it go for two to three hours. You do wanna give it a stir after an hour or so, and then it'll start cranking up from there, but it's a lot less stirring than if you were standing over the stove. And then all you have to do is set out your toppings and your grits bar is ready. To finish these up, add in some butter and a little bit of cream. Now that's a good pot of grits. Taste it to make sure you don't need any more salt and pepper. You could have also cooked that in half water and half stock or all stock for super flavor-packed grits. Can add a variety of toppings, keep it simple, keep it cheap, that's my motto. You don't have to be from the South to enjoy this comfort. This next recipe is when you wanna fancy up your breakfast or brunch, and you can make it for as few as one person or as many as you like. I'm gonna do breakfast for four, and I'm making baked eggs. This is similar to the eggs in purgatory you make over a stovetop, but we're gonna make it even easier by popping it in the oven. Starts with just store-bought marinara. Just pour it into your baking dish up to about a quarter inch high. Gonna add a little kick with some crushed red pepper, salt, pepper, and parsley. Using the back of a spoon, I'm just gonna create some small wells into the sauce, and then crack your egg into the well. I'm gonna crack it into a bowl first so it's easier to pour in. This is one of those meals where they're like, gah, you went through so much trouble. No, I really hadn't. Finally, we're just gonna sprinkle it with a little bit of Parmesan cheese and olive oil, and then just a drizzle of heavy cream. This goes in at 400 for just about 10 minutes until the whites are set. Then all we do is serve it with some good crusty bread. I mean, y'all just look at this. That's the perfect meal. I can't even explain it. This makes me so happy. I need my mimosa, I need my Bloody Mary. Brunch is served. Let me show you how to build the perfect bite. Get some of that sauce up on there. This is just so good, I'm telling you. I would be remiss to have a breakfast and brunch show without mentioning one of my favorite dishes of all time, biscuits and gravy. You've seen me do that before. The biscuits you can make from scratch with some pantry staples, or you can buy the canned version. It's all about the gravy, and all you need is that pack of sausage, a little flour, and some milk. It's one of our best videos of all time, check it out. You can't have a party, even during the holidays, without pizza, and today for this brunch, I'm making a hash brown pizza. Again, inexpensive, easy way to feed a family. For the crust, I'm using hash browns. Now, you used to be able to pick up a whole pack of this for a dollar. You can't get anything for a dollar these days, but they're still fairly inexpensive. You're going to fit them into a rimmed baking sheet. It's okay if they overlap a little bit. We're gonna press them down as they cook. These go in at 450 degrees for about 10 minutes, and then we're gonna press them to fit the pan. All right, these are not done, but I'm gonna show you what we do next. Take the back of a measuring cup, and we're gonna press down on these hash browns and get them to kind of connect together. We're gonna put them back in the oven for about 15 minutes until it's good and crispy, and in the meantime, I'll make the toppings. Our pizza crust is ready, now I'm gonna top it. So easy, put a little bit of cheese down. This is gonna act as the glue. Top it with some super soft scrambled eggs. These are gonna finish cooking. We're gonna pop it back in the oven one more time. Top with some cooked bacon, and then mo cheese. Back in the oven just for a few minutes until all the cheese melts, and this is just fun. This is so good, kind of proud of this one. Because it's so hot, I have to eat this pizza with a fork. Telling you, it is full of perfect bites. The crust is crunchy, the bacon's crunchy, the rest is creamy and delicious. So good. How does she do it? I've saved one of the best for last because this is probably my all-time favorite breakfast casserole, although you can have it for breakfast, lunch, or dinner. I discovered this like 20 years ago when my husband's cousin brought it to Easter. It's the old-fashioned hash brown casserole. Starts with a bag of frozen hash browns, two pounds. Dump it in the bowl. Diced onion, a stick of butter, melted. A can of our favorite holiday soup, and eight ounces of sour cream. Eight ounces of shredded cheddar. Sometimes it's cheaper if you buy the block and shred it yourself. Finally, stir in some quarter teaspoon of pepper and a teaspoon of salt. Get it good and mixed, and it's going in a nine by 13 that's been lightly greased. I don't like it perfectly smooth on top because I like the little pieces that stick up. They get extra toasty. Now for the topping, and yes, your hash brown casserole has to have a topping. Now it can be potato chips. It could be the Ritz crackers, saltine crackers. This recipe, which has five stars, calls for cornflakes, so that's what I'm using. We're gonna crush two cups of cornflakes with a half a stick of butter. I just couldn't do a cheap brunch episode without including a hash brown casserole. Cover and bake for about 40 minutes or until it's good, golden, and bubbly. If you know, you know, and if you don't know, you need to know. Not only is this perfect to serve at a brunch or breakfast, but it makes the perfect side dish to those holiday hams. That's a wrap. I hope you'll give one of these recipes a try throughout the holiday season, and when you do, be sure and tag me. From our Allrecipes family to yours, we wish you a very Merry Christmas. See you next time. This is just the time of year to be indulgent and to take time and cook for your family a little bit while everyone's out of school and off work, so we're gonna do it.