Snacktime Round-Up

I’ve shared many of my favorite “make it yourself” recipes. I wanted to bring this series to a conclusion by offering some encouragement as well as a dose of reality.

Simply put:

You cannot do it all.

I’m not sure about your kids, but mine eat approximately 10,000 times a day. Okay, maybe not that much, but it goes something like this:

Early morning snack with Dad

Breakfast

Snack

Lunch (or “snacky” lunch)

Snack

Dinner

Maybe even one more snack in there somewhere!

It seems like someone is always eating (this doesn’t include the baby’s nursing habits, of course!). As much as I would like to, I’m not there yet with making every single snack from scratch. I know some people do, but I’m not quite that organized!

Here’s what I recommend if you are making a shift from store-bought to at-home:

1. Pick and choose. Decide what’s most important to you. Is it to avoid added sugars? Dyes? White flour?

2. Start by replacing one store-bought item with homemade. You don’t necessarily even have to make the switch for each time the item is consumed. Go through a lot of bread? Maybe resolve to make bread for lunchtime PBJs on Tuesdays and Wednesdays. Maybe it’ll be chocolate graham crackers the third Friday of each month for a weekend treat.

3. Once you feel comfortable with one, add another.

4. Make a schedule. Know that Thursdays are always slow? Make your yogurt and applesauce for the week then.

5. If you stick with store bought, choose a better option. Instead of Ritz crackers, we eat Late July.

I tend to rotate what I make. I always, always bake my own bread/rolls and make my own yogurt. Other than that, it fluctuates. During apple season, I make a lot of applesauce. During the summer, I make ice cream. I go through cycles of making and freezing my own stock and tomato sauce. Occasionally, I make crackers. Once a week or so, I bake cookies or another dessert and make other items like granola bars, brown rice snacks, or Jell-o.

My next goal is to add tortilla making to the rotation!

Find what works! The journey from refined to real food does not happen overnight!