DollarSquares

Breakfast

Pancakes, muffins, gravy from a can.

10 recipes · tap one to open it

Pumpkin pancakes

Just-add-water mix, one can, one spice. It is autumn now.

Serves 3, or about 12 pancakes15 minutes

What to buy

Send all 3 to my Amazon cart

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From your kitchen

a bowl, a pan or griddle, a spatula, syrup or butter.

What to do

  1. Two cups of mix, the water the box says for two cups, half the can of pumpkin, the cinnamon. Stir until it is mostly smooth. Lumps are fine.
  2. Pan on medium. A quarter cup per pancake. They take a little longer than plain ones - wait for the bubbles.
  3. Flip once. The other half of the pumpkin can keeps in the fridge for the muffins on this page.

If you want to show off

Two-ingredient pumpkin muffins

Cake mix, can of pumpkin. That is the ingredient list. That is all of it.

Serves 12 muffins5 minutes, then 20 in the oven

What to buy

Send all 2 to my Amazon cart

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SNAP EBT Every ingredient in the cart was listed as SNAP EBT eligible on Amazon when we last checked. Amazon decides at checkout.

From your kitchen

a bowl, a muffin tin, paper liners or a little oil, an oven at 350.

What to do

  1. Oven to 350. Dry cake mix and the whole can of pumpkin in a bowl. No eggs, no oil, no water. Stir until it gives up and becomes batter.
  2. It will be thick. That is correct. Spoon it into 12 lined cups.
  3. 20 to 22 minutes, until a toothpick comes out clean. They are dense, fudgy, and technically a vegetable.

If you want to show off

Sausage gravy and biscuits

The gravy comes in a can. We checked. It is fine. It is better than fine.

Serves 420 minutes, 12 of them the biscuits baking

What to buy

Send all 3 to my Amazon cart

One tap. Everything above lands in your Amazon cart at Amazon's current price; you check out there.

SNAP EBT Every ingredient in the cart was listed as SNAP EBT eligible on Amazon when we last checked. Amazon decides at checkout.

From your kitchen

a bowl, a baking sheet, an oven at 450, two-thirds of a cup of milk, a small pot.

What to do

  1. Oven to 450. Two and a quarter cups of Bisquick, two-thirds of a cup of milk, stir. Drop it in 8 lumps on the sheet. 10 to 12 minutes.
  2. Meanwhile, the gravy: can into a pot, low heat, stir. Pepper it like you mean it.
  3. Split the biscuits, gravy over the top. Sit down. It is the weekend, or it feels like it.

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Overnight oats, the jar kind

Oats, milk, honey, a fruit cup. Stir, lid, fridge, sleep. Breakfast made itself.

Serves 1 jar; make five on Sunday3 minutes tonight, 0 tomorrow

What to buy

Send all 4 to my Amazon cart

One tap. Everything above lands in your Amazon cart at Amazon's current price; you check out there.

SNAP EBT Every ingredient in the cart was listed as SNAP EBT eligible on Amazon when we last checked. Amazon decides at checkout.

From your kitchen

a jar with a lid, or any tub, half a cup of milk per jar, a spoon.

What to do

  1. Half a cup of oats, half a cup of milk, a squeeze of honey, a shake of cinnamon. Stir. Lid on. Fridge.
  2. Morning: tip a peach cup over the top, juice and all. Eat it cold from the jar. That is the recipe; the fridge did the cooking.
  3. Five jars on Sunday night is five breakfasts you do not have to think about.

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Blueberry muffins from the box, improved

The box does the muffin. A spoon of jam in the middle does the improving.

Serves 12 muffins5 minutes, then 18 in the oven

What to buy

Send all 4 to my Amazon cart

One tap. Everything above lands in your Amazon cart at Amazon's current price; you check out there.

SNAP EBT Every ingredient in the cart was listed as SNAP EBT eligible on Amazon when we last checked. Amazon decides at checkout.

From your kitchen

a muffin tin, paper liners, whatever the box asks for, an oven at the temperature on the box.

What to do

  1. Batter as the box says, plus the cinnamon. Fill each cup halfway.
  2. A teaspoon of jam on each, then the rest of the batter over it so the jam is hidden. A pinch of brown sugar on top.
  3. Bake as the box says. The jam is a surprise. Act surprised.

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Cereal-crusted French toast

Bread and eggs from the store. The crust is a cereal, crushed. The syrup is finally on the shelf.

Serves 4, two slices each15 minutes

What to buy

Send all 4 to my Amazon cart

One tap. Everything above lands in your Amazon cart at Amazon's current price; you check out there.

SNAP EBT Every ingredient in the cart was listed as SNAP EBT eligible on Amazon when we last checked. Amazon decides at checkout.

From the grocery store

8 slices of bread, thick if you can, 3 eggs, butter for the pan. Any store, on the way home. Not in the cart button; we do not sell eggs.

From your kitchen

a shallow bowl, a plate, a pan, a spatula.

What to do

  1. Eggs, half the can of evaporated milk and the cinnamon whisked in a shallow bowl. Crushed cereal on a plate.
  2. Bread into the egg, both sides, then pressed into the cereal, both sides. Pan on medium with butter, 2 to 3 minutes a side, until the crust is golden and it smells like a cereal commercial.
  3. Syrup. Serve immediately; the crust waits for nobody.

If you want to show off

Potato pancakes and applesauce

A box, an egg, a pan. The applesauce is not optional and never was.

Serves 3 to 4, about 12 pancakes20 minutes

What to buy

Send all 3 to my Amazon cart

One tap. Everything above lands in your Amazon cart at Amazon's current price; you check out there.

SNAP EBT Every ingredient in the cart was listed as SNAP EBT eligible on Amazon when we last checked. Amazon decides at checkout.

From your kitchen

a bowl, a pan, oil for frying, whatever the box asks for - an egg or two and water, paper towels.

What to do

  1. Mix as the box says. Let it sit the minutes the box says; it thickens, and that matters.
  2. A thin layer of oil in the pan, medium-high. Spoonfuls in, flattened. 3 to 4 minutes a side until deep gold. Onto paper towels.
  3. Applesauce on top. Pepper. The sweet-and-salty thing is the entire reason this exists.

If you want to show off

Pancakes and maple Spam

Just-add-water pancakes, a can of the maple one, and a bottle of syrup. A diner plate from three squares.

Serves 420 minutes

What to buy

Send all 3 to my Amazon cart

One tap. Everything above lands in your Amazon cart at Amazon's current price; you check out there.

SNAP EBT Every ingredient in the cart was listed as SNAP EBT eligible on Amazon when we last checked. Amazon decides at checkout.

From your kitchen

a bowl, a pan or griddle, a spatula, a knife.

What to do

  1. Spam out of the can, sliced into 8 thin slices. Dry pan, medium-high, 2 to 3 minutes a side until the edges crisp and brown. It has its own fat; it needs nothing.
  2. Same pan, wiped, or a second one: pancakes, a quarter cup each, flip at the bubbles.
  3. Two pancakes, two slices of Spam, syrup over all of it. Yes, over the Spam. That is the point of the maple one.

If you want to show off

Cheese grits

Grits, a pouch of cheese sauce, a lot of pepper. Southern breakfast, no Southerner required.

Serves 415 minutes, mostly stirring

What to buy

Send all 4 to my Amazon cart

One tap. Everything above lands in your Amazon cart at Amazon's current price; you check out there.

SNAP EBT Every ingredient in the cart was listed as SNAP EBT eligible on Amazon when we last checked. Amazon decides at checkout.

From your kitchen

a pot, a whisk or a spoon, salt, four cups of water.

What to do

  1. Four cups of water, a big pinch of salt, boiling. Whisk in the cup of grits slowly so it does not clump.
  2. Low heat, lid half on, 10 to 15 minutes, stirring every couple of minutes. It spits; that is normal.
  3. Off the heat. The cheese pouch in, stirred until it disappears. Pepper, Frank's. Eat it hot; cold grits are a different food.

If you want to show off

The hash brown skillet from a box

Dehydrated hash browns come back to life in a pan. Add a can of Spam and a jar of salsa and it is a diner.

Serves 3 to 420 minutes

What to buy

Send all 4 to my Amazon cart

One tap. Everything above lands in your Amazon cart at Amazon's current price; you check out there.

SNAP EBT Every ingredient in the cart was listed as SNAP EBT eligible on Amazon when we last checked. Amazon decides at checkout.

From your kitchen

a big pan with a lid, a little oil or butter, a spatula, eggs, if you have them; the box does not need them.

What to do

  1. Spam diced small, fried in the pan until the edges crisp. Out onto a plate.
  2. Hash browns in the same pan the way the box says - water, lid, then uncovered until they brown. Stir in the green chiles near the end.
  3. Spam back in. Salsa over the top. If there are eggs in the house, crack two on top for the last 3 minutes with the lid on. If not, it is still a skillet.

If you want to show off