The Best Breakfast Pantry Staples You Can Buy at Trader Joe's

There's a lot to love about Joe. Not only is the small-scale supermarket home to super-affordable wines, 19-cent bananas, and shortcut pre-marinated meats that even chefs love, but it's also where you'll find some of the best deals on products in every aisle. In fact, Trader Joe's prices clock in at 16 percent lower than its local competitors, according to a report by Consumers' Checkbook.

Some of the biggest steals can be found on pantry staples, so we're rounding up the top budget-friendly breakfast ingredients you'll find exclusively at Trader Joe's. Just be sure to stock up now if you spot these tasty finds; many Trader Joe's products are seasonal or limited-time offers. (Plus, they're shelf-stable and will last several months!)

1. Crunchy Cinnamon Squares

Channel your inner Saturday morning cartoon-loving child with these Cinnamon Toast Crunch-like cereal squares. Available for $2.99 per 12.2-ounce box, these whole wheat and rice flour crisps are coated in cinnamon-sugar and will deliver an ample dose of nostalgic, delicious vibes if you pour a serving into a bowl and top things off with a splash of milk. Or for a more grown-up treat, crumble up a handful to layer into a fruit and yogurt parfait.

2. Non-Dairy Oat Beverage

Speaking of that classic cereal and milk combo, oat milk has been flying off shelves lately—and has become a staple in the homes of vegans, the lactose intolerant, and Americans as a whole. Mildly sweet and silky smooth, this plant-based milk can be mixed with oats, blitzed into breakfast smoothies, stirred into coffee drinks or (you guessed it!) splashed into a bowl of cereal. Find it on shelves for $2.29 per 32-ounce carton, then refrigerate after opening.

3. Grainless Granola

For a more wholesome, less gluten-y cereal start to the day, try Grainless Granola ($3.99 per 10-ounce bag). Made with almonds, sunflower seeds, pumpkin seeds, dried coconut, coconut sugar, and tapioca syrup, it's crunchy, just sweet enough, and awesome atop parfaits, smoothie bowls, oats, or fruit salads.

4. Dark Chocolate Protein Muffin

We'll take any opportunity we get to eat chocolate for breakfast. And this $1.99 per 2.08-ounce muffin makes that doable in about a minute and a half. Just mix with ¼ cup of water/milk/non-dairy milk swap and microwave for 60 seconds, then you're ready to dive into a warm, gluten-free muffin that just so happens to be hiding 12 grams of protein in the cassava and coconut flour base. Chocolate chips and cocoa powder ensure it tastes far more decadent than its nutrition facts might lead you to believe. This is like a semi-homemade mug cake that's totally appropriate to eat before noon.

5. Organic Pitted Medjool Dates

Packed with energy and natural sweetness, these dried fruits, which are harvested from date palm trees, are a dream blended into shakes and smoothies, energy balls, muffin batter, breakfast cookies and more. Available for $5.49 per nine-serving, 12-ounce package, these organic dates come pitted and recipe-ready. On hectic mornings, we like to pair 3 Medjool dates with 2 hard-boiled eggs and hit the ground running.

6. Instant Cold Brew Coffee

Skip the daily coffee shop stop and save so much money! For the cost of one cafe-purchased cold brew ($3.99 per 3 ½-ounce package), you can score 22(!) 12-ounce servings from this instant cold brew blend. Simply combine 1 teaspoon of the 100-percent Arabica coffee bean powder with 1 ½ cups of hot or cold water, then stir until dissolved. If you enjoy full-bodied, dark yet smooth cups of joe, Joe's got you covered.

7. Banana Bread Mix

No extra bananas are required to add this tasty quick bread to the menu. Each $2.69 15-ounce box comes already infused with dehydrated banana flakes, which deliver ripe banana flavor without any risk of rotting. (By the way, if you do happen to have ripe bananas you're hoping to preserve, freezing is a brilliant solution.) The mix is scented with vanilla and packs a lot of nutty flavor from wheat germ and bran. Just add egg, oil and water, then bake in a loaf pan or a muffin tin.

8. Sprouted Wheat Sourdough Bread

In other bread news, no home pantry is fully stocked without a loaf for toast (topped with avocado, cinnamon-sugar, butter, or otherwise), breakfast sandwiches, eggs in a hole and beyond. This tangy sourdough, available for $3.99 per 24-ounce loaf, features a blend of organic sprouted wheat berries, wheat and rye flour, plus a sourdough starter from Northern California. That means it's more robust-tasting and slightly higher in fiber than the typical sourdough recipe. We adore this slathered with what's up next...

9. Mixed Nut Butter

Why choose one variety of nut butter when you can have several in one? This Trader Joe's nut butter blend ($5.99 per 12-ounce jar) includes dry-roasted almonds, Brazil nuts, cashews, hazelnuts, pecans, walnuts, sea salt and nothing else. That's all blitzed into a butter that's naturally sweet enough that it requires zero doctoring up to enjoy on that toast, blended into a smoothie or pancake batter or swirled into oatmeal.

10. Creamed Multi-Floral New Zealand Honey

If you do find that your nut butter toast or smoothie could use a hint of extra sweetness, drizzle on a spoonful of this unique and new-to-TJ's-shelves creamed honey. Unfamiliar with the concept? To cream honey, they add microscopic "seed crystals" of finely crystallized honey to the liquid honey, then stir it for several hours until it reaches a silky, spreadable consistency. This $3.99 per 16-ounces jar of honey packs in a lot of flavor per penny, as it's made with honey from bees that pollinate flowering trees, shrubs, plants, and other nectar sources. The resulting flavor is floral, herbal, and earthy all at once.

11. Organic Reduced Sugar Cherry Preserves

For a toast-topper, breakfast PB&J, or a parfait or oatmeal addition, these sour cherry preserves are an excellent option—and value. Available for $3.49 per 15-ounce jar, each 1 tablespoon serving has just 30 calories and a reasonable 7 grams of sugar (about 50 percent less than traditional cherry preserves), so you can jumpstart the day on a tasty and fruity note without worrying about a huge blood sugar crash later.