The biggest way to get the Dollar Tree to be cheaper than your normal grocery store is to use DT as your essentials shopping store; meaning you buy your oats, oils, salt, spices (which are sooo much cheaper than the name brands!), juices, boxed/shelf soy milk, snacks/chips and frozen potatoes if you eat ’em and all household items. I am going to do it in my two part Vegan Dollar Tree Meals series starting with these Vegan Oatcakes & Blueberry Sauce.
It is expensive to me to be vegan, especially constantly buying fresh veggies. Even in-season fruit and veg are expensive due to lack of rain and poor growing. I find it easier to buy veggies frozen and come up with recipes for them after that. That is how I use DT-buying essentials and frozen or canned goods. Sometimes they have Progresso soup for $1 (which is a steal) and if you have the dollar off 4 coupon it is way cheaper than normal stores. For dinners I like to use one can veg Progresso and one can with liquid Libby’s mixed veg (coupon used also) and you get a large full meal that way-all for about $1.40. Cheap!!
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I am starting with breakfast, which is usually the easiest meal of the day. I don’t tend to normally make a real week long meal like I do for lunches. My breakfast is always at my desk, so I am typing and munching. But, again, boredom has hit and celery and pb is getting…well…boring.
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For my Dollar Tree breakfast I decided to make pancakes, and not just any pancakes. Oatcakes. I am not really a pancake person, the spongy texture doesn’t do it for me, but I was wanting something warm and comforting and pancakes would fill that for me. I had to use my large frying pan and made small cakes so I have bigger servings 🙂 I already had the oats and spices so I just needed the soy milk! When I actually think out the prices of things and not just go-whole-hog at the grocery store I am so much better able to control my spending!
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For the oat flour, measure a cup oats and drop into your blender or food processor and blend till flour happens. I suggest doing a large amount and use it for future recipes-especially if you are going gluten free. Be sure with the frying pan to spray with Pam or lightly coat with oil and wipe out and redo after each pancake. You get the black drops of oil/Pam when it has been on to long and I hate that!
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For the syrup I needed blueberries only-I already had the ginger and my trust Maple Grove Farms maple syrup. I got two frozen 10 ounce bags of blueberries…how cheap is that! I mean, I love fresh blueberries as much as the next girl (I am an Oregonian after all), but they are so dang expensive that frozen it the only way to go-especially when you are just going to mash those bad boys up and macerate them with syrup. So for breakfast only, for 6 days, I only spent $3!
Oatcakes, 16 cakes
1 Tbsp Hodgson Mill Flax Seed
1 C Oats
1 C Oat Flour
2 Tsp Cinnamon
1 Tsp Ginger
1/4 Tsp Salt
1 Tsp Baking Soda
1 Tsp Baking Powder
1 Tbsp Maple Grove Farms 100% Pure Maple Syrup
1 Tsp Vanilla Butter and Nut Flavor
2 C West Soy Milk
Fitting Into Vegan 