Frugal Friday: Special Homemade Birthday Breakfast

For my birthday yesterday, my wonderful mother gave me a great gift--a waffle iron!  I had one at one time, but I have no idea what happened to the dog-gone thing!  I think I sold it in a yard sale or maybe did I let somebody borrow it--Lord only knows, because I can't.  I just know that before yesterday, I didn't have one and NOW I do!!


I wanted to share with you two recipes that I plan on using with my new waffle iron.  Both are quite frugal and one is very nutrious!  The first is a great recipe for waffles that my mother has been using.  You'll notice it has no flour, no eggs and mainly just water and rolled oats.  Now don't start to think this can't work and defintely is not good--you wouldn't be farther from the truth!!  These boogers are GOOD!!  My kids LOVE them!  I can't wait to see if I can fool my husband!  Give this recipe a try and tell me what you think, PLEASE!!

Oatmeal Waffles

2 cups of rolled oats

2 cups of water

1 banana

1/4 tsp of salt

1 tbsp of maple syrup

1 tsp of vanilla extract

vegetable oil spray

syrup and/or fresh fruit

1. Preheat waffle iron to medium-high

2. Combine oats, water, banana, salt, syrup and vanilla in a blender.  Blend on high speed until completely smooth. The batter should be pourable.  If it bevomes too thick as it stands, just add a bit more water to achieve desired consistency.

3. Spray waffle iron with vegetable oil.  Pour in enough batter to reach edges and cook until golden brown--5 to 10 minutes without lifting the lid.

4. Serve with fresh fruit and homemade syrup

I plan on making my own syrup to go over my Oatmeal Waffles.  I found this recipe in the book The Tightwad Gazette.  Check out my review of this book and you can purchase it from Amazon link in my post.  (I get a little from Amazon if you buy it!)

According to Amy Dacyczyn, this recipe tastes much better than the generic syrup her family had been using (I use the same generic stuff!).  This recipe calls for maple extract and Dacyczyn says it doesn't taste the same with maple flavoring.  She also states that if you don't have the butter flavoring, just leave it out. 

This recipe should not take long to fix and is cheaper to make than buying pancake/waffle syrup in the stores.  This recipe makes around 30 oz or 3 3/4 cups for less than $0.90 while store bought syrup will be more than $2.00 without a coupon. 

Give the Homemade Pancake syrup a try and let me know what you think, PLEASE!!

Homemade Pancake Syrup

3 cups of granulated sugar

1 1/2 cups of water

3 tbsp molasses

1 tsp vanilla

2 tsp of butter flavoring

1 tsp maple extract

1.  Bring all to a boil.  Stirring until the sugar dissolves (a good rolling boil).

2.  Turn off burner, but leave pot on burner until bubbling stops.

3.  Pour over pancakes/waffles while still warm.

Good luck and don't forget to leave your comments on how you like these frugal recipes!!