Coffee, Children and Craziness

Something about having kids made me suddenly take a very hard look at the kinds of foods we ate in our house and the ingredients, aka chemicals that were in them. I grew up in a house with ten children, so we did not make a lot of homemade food. When I got married, I knew how to make NOTHING unless it came in a can or a box. 🤦‍♀️Once we had our son however, my perspective on health changed drastically. I knew I wanted to quit feeding my family all the processed junk in the stores, but I had NO clue where to start. The Pinterest boards and Google searches overwhelmed me and the plethora of information on the internet made me want to quit before I even started. Everyone was suddenly making their own candles and dish soap and sourdough bread and I didn’t even know what sourdough was!😫

It doesn’t have to be like that. I wish someone would have told me to just pick ONE thing and start there. Small changes are what matters and it makes a huge difference when you do small things consistently. It’s like going to the gym. You don’t lose fifty pounds by staying at the gym for 10 hours and doing every exercise known to man and killing yourself in the process. Small steps. One pound at a time. One recipe at a time.

So, if you are on the fence about making some changes to the way your family eats, let me encourage you. Do it. Pick ONE thing and try it. If it works out, fantastic! You did it! You took the first step! If it turns out badly, well, at least you figured out that that method doesn’t work well for you. 😂

I was shocked at the amount of SIMPLE things that could easily be made with minimal prep, time, labor and ingredients. Things at the grocery store that had over 40 ingredients (most that I couldn’t pronounce), required only ten or less by making it at home! I was saving money as well as taking small steps to keep my family healthy! 👏

If you are wanting to try, here is a list of some of the very first things I learned to make homemade. Don’t let it overwhelm you! I promise you, once you start, it gets easier! Even myself as a mom of two littles who demand a LOT of attention can manage to make most of these.

• Pancakes/ Waffles
• Muffins
• Granola Bars
• Butter (yes! It’s super easy! )
• Dinner rolls
• Peanut Butter
• Jelly
• Pizza crust
• Ketchup
• Pudding
• Cornbread
• Salsa
• Lemonade
• Applesauce
• Popcorn
• Coffee Creamer
• Taco shells
• Taco seasoning
• Laundry Detergent

This is only the beginning of some of the amazing things that we can easily make at home with the ingredients we almost always have on hand! Plus, as a bonus, homemade always tastes better! I will start to share some of my recipes on here and I hope this encourages some of you to try it! You won’t regret it and your family will thank you for it! 😊❤️