If you try making something on your own and can do it easily and like it, then you start paying attention to labels, you quickly realize that there are at least a few things you can make at home that eliminate a ton of unneeded stuff from your body.

Salad dressing is an easy one. We like olive oil, lemon juice, a turn of sea salt and fresh thyme from the garden. Takes 2 minutes idea-to-pour.

Compare this to Kraft Zesty Italian:

Vinegar, Water, Blend of Vegetable Oils (Soybean Oil, Canola Oil), Sugar, Salt, Garlic*, Contains Less than 2% of Red Bell Peppers*, Onions*, Xanthan Gum, Spice, Oleoresin Paprika (Color), Potassium Sorbate, and Calcium Disodium EDTA (to Protect Flavor). *Dried.

Compared to even the very good Newman's Own:

Olive Oil Blend (Olive Oil, Extra Virgin Olive Oil), Vegetable Oil (Soybean Oil And/Or Canola Oil), Water, Red Wine Vinegar, Onion, Spicy Brown Mustard (Distilled Vinegar, Water, Mustard Seed, Salt, Turmeric, Spices, Natural Flavoring), Distilled Vinegar, Less Than 2% Of: Salt, Garlic, Lemon Juice Concentrate, Black Pepper, Celery Seed.

There is nothing wrong with that one IMO, but I prefer to control my oil choice (I get mine from a vineyard), and I have no idea what the "natural flavoring" is and am happy to do without it.

Anonymous wrote:To the eating clean parents, what is the difference between making your own bread and buying organic bread or gluten free as a healthy alternative at the store? I'm genuinely asking, not asking to be snarky.
What other foods do you give as snacks? My kids eat a ton of fruits and veggies but STILL want stuff like Goldfish because they're constantly hungry.
I know there are websites that talk about this but I'm wondering what real people do.

Do not be fooled by organic and gluten free marketing as healthy. Neither organic or gluten free equate to healthy. This is a marketing ploy only. Not to say these products cannot be healthy, you just have to check the labels. It's all about the ingredients! Breads are notorious for having added sugar and the organic aisle is no better for this unfortunately. In my bread quest, I have found Arnold Double Fiber and Ezekiel bread to have the best ingredient/nutritional breakdown. Making your own bread is fantastic because you know exactly what's in it.

For salty/crunchy snacks in my house I make a "mix". My kids love Chex mix and Goldfish which are both so unhealthy. My solution is to mix the unhealthy snack with whole wheat/low sugar cereal varieties in a big tub. Doesn't exactly make it healthy but adds a little fiber and cuts the sodium a bit. I avoid adding in dried fruit because that adds way to much sugar and I would rather them eat fruit whole.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I'm wondering if it's worth the time to make all this stuff homemade if you don't mind spending money to get bread, salad dressing in organic or low sugar varieties. What am I missing?

It is certainly not worth my time. I feel that I am easily able to feed my kids a healthy diet without making my own stuff. There are PLENTY of good choices out there. We buy Kashi nuggets and the heart-to-heart, Rao's, Wegman's triple berry jam, Pepperidge Farm (100% whole wheat), lots and lots and lots of fruits and vegetables and meats, plain yogurt, etc. We buy english muffins and bagels without considering the sugar in there. I make cookies and pies from scratch, but I buy boxed cake mix for sure. (I do make frosting from scratch because it tastes much better to me. I love my desserts and so do my kids!) I also make my own pancakes and waffles on the weekends and freeze the leftover ones to pop in the toaster when we want waffles or pancakes during the week. I buy processed Lite Log Cabin or Lite Wegman's syrup and don't bat an eye.

I feel very strongly that we should feed ourselves and our kids well, but I don't stress at all over "clean" eating. For example, last night we ate roasted chicken legs, roasted carrots and parsnips, a berry fruit salad, and a leafy green salad with tomatoes/peppers/avocado (my kids had croutons... I hate those things) and store bought dressing. Nothing was organic.

Why would it need to be? Last night's meal sounds fantastic! And very healthy.

Anonymous wrote:To the eating clean parents, what is the difference between making your own bread and buying organic bread or gluten free as a healthy alternative at the store? I'm genuinely asking, not asking to be snarky.
What other foods do you give as snacks? My kids eat a ton of fruits and veggies but STILL want stuff like Goldfish because they're constantly hungry.
I know there are websites that talk about this but I'm wondering what real people do.

For me, the difference is that my kids are way more willing to try things that they had a hand in making. They are not crazy about vegetables, but, get excited to prepare and eat the ones that they grew in the garden. They like collecting eggs from their hens and making breakfast or baking things. I'm not at all opposed to store bought breads, but the ones we make at home get eaten.

Anonymous wrote:I'm wondering if it's worth the time to make all this stuff homemade if you don't mind spending money to get bread, salad dressing in organic or low sugar varieties. What am I missing?

It is certainly not worth my time. I feel that I am easily able to feed my kids a healthy diet without making my own stuff. There are PLENTY of good choices out there. We buy Kashi nuggets and the heart-to-heart, Rao's, Wegman's triple berry jam, Pepperidge Farm (100% whole wheat), lots and lots and lots of fruits and vegetables and meats, plain yogurt, etc. We buy english muffins and bagels without considering the sugar in there. I make cookies and pies from scratch, but I buy boxed cake mix for sure. (I do make frosting from scratch because it tastes much better to me. I love my desserts and so do my kids!) I also make my own pancakes and waffles on the weekends and freeze the leftover ones to pop in the toaster when we want waffles or pancakes during the week. I buy processed Lite Log Cabin or Lite Wegman's syrup and don't bat an eye.

I feel very strongly that we should feed ourselves and our kids well, but I don't stress at all over "clean" eating. For example, last night we ate roasted chicken legs, roasted carrots and parsnips, a berry fruit salad, and a leafy green salad with tomatoes/peppers/avocado (my kids had croutons... I hate those things) and store bought dressing. Nothing was organic.

I buy the bags of smart popcorn. Kids feel like they are getting chips but it's pretty healthy

We're pretty healthy, generally for snacks we do fruit, veggies with dip, organic graham crackers, bread with nut butter, whole wheat bagels with cream cheese, etc. Not every snack is the healthiest thing ever, but we avoid most processed foods and save sugary treats for special occasions.

I spent the first half of my childhood abroad in a rural area where it was the norm to make everything from scratch. It only takes a long time if you’re making complicated meals. Simple everyday meals from scratch are easy to prepare. I guess it’s a little bit cultural.

Sometimes when we’re tired my DH will suggest take out and about half the time I’ll rather just make food because it’s easier than dealing with all the take out trash.

This is OP. Thanks for these responses, very helpful.

For my first child I swore we would only eat healthy and organic and that I’d make everything from scratch. For my second I decided it was fine to buy the organic baby food and worth the money since I was exhausted with an infant and a toddler.

It’s ten years later and life got real. I still try to buy healthy food and model healthy eating. We are busy with work, school and a million activities and occasionally eat goldfish. The kitchen is being remodeled and we ate out every day this week, including McDonalds. Everything is fine in moderation.

I make food from scratch when I have time because I enjoy cooking. When life gets busy or we feel like indulging we treat ourselves.

As for healthy snacks, hummus with raw vegetables is a favorite.

We don't eat clean. But one kid is milk/cheese intolerant and the other is artificial food dyes intolerant. So we buy expensive dye free snack food from WF. Goldfish and Cheezits are fortunately dye free, as well.

I don’t eat super clean by any means but I don’t buy salad dressing. I make my own and about 4 kinds. The store kids have too much vinegar for me and just taste off.
For bread, homemade has pretty much no preservatives and no sugar unless you put them in there. It dries out much faster too.

I'm wondering if it's worth the time to make all this stuff homemade if you don't mind spending money to get bread, salad dressing in organic or low sugar varieties. What am I missing?

Real people give their kids some goldfish every now and then to avoid them being psychotic as adults.

To the eating clean parents, what is the difference between making your own bread and buying organic bread or gluten free as a healthy alternative at the store? I'm genuinely asking, not asking to be snarky.
What other foods do you give as snacks? My kids eat a ton of fruits and veggies but STILL want stuff like Goldfish because they're constantly hungry.
I know there are websites that talk about this but I'm wondering what real people do.