Keeping Up With the Joneses

Homemade bread, fewer ingredients, and one very dramatic loaf

I’m sure this will be a slightly controversial post, but I figured I’d explain how we even ended up dipping our toes into this whole crunchy-ish lifestyle.

And let me be very clear right from the start — we have not gone full force.

We still eat the occasional McDonald’s chicken nuggets and burgers. We still enjoy a glass of Kool-Aid from time to time. I am not over here churning butter in a prairie dress judging everybody’s pantry.

I have not made homemade butter yet, but it is next on my list… so everybody pray for my kitchen and my self-control on Amazon.

But we have definitely started making changes around here. Some of it is for financial reasons, because let’s face it, everything is expensive. Especially when you have four kids, and some of those kids eat like they are preparing for battle.

But some of it is also because I started paying more attention.

I have one adult child, two teenagers, and one pre-teen, and sometimes I feel like kids are maturing so much faster than we did when we were younger. It got me thinking… maybe there are small ways I can slow things down a bit. Maybe I can start cutting out some of the extra additives and ingredients we have in our everyday food and products.

Not perfectly. Not overnight. Not in a throw-everything-away-and-start-from-scratch kind of way.

Just little by little.

It started with sick days

One of the first places I started looking was at what I was giving my kids when they were getting sick.

Now listen, I am not a medical professional, and I am not telling anyone what to do with their children. We still believe in doctors. We still go to the doctor when we need to. We still use common sense, because I am crunchy-ish, not reckless.

But I did start wondering if there were times when we could support their bodies in a more natural way first.

Doctors can be quick to prescribe antibiotics or other medicine, and sometimes those things are absolutely necessary. But I started researching things like elderberry, oregano oil, immune support, cleaner ingredients, and some of those old-school remedies people have used forever.

Again, not medical advice. Just me being a mama who started asking more questions.

And honestly? Since we started approaching some of those everyday sick-day moments a little differently over the last year or so, we have noticed fewer doctor visits for the little stuff.

That made me wonder what else I could take a closer look at.

And that is how I ended up in the bread aisle questioning everything.

Have you ever looked at the back of a bread bag?

Because let me tell you… I had not.

Bread seems simple enough, right? It is bread. You throw it in the cart. The kids eat sandwiches. Everybody moves on with their lives.

But one day I actually stopped and read the ingredients on the back of the bread bag, and I thought, why are there this many things in here?

Bread is supposed to have maybe four or five ingredients.

Flour. Water. Yeast. Salt. Maybe sugar or oil depending on the recipe.

That’s about it.

But some of those store-bought loaves have a whole paragraph on the back. Ingredients I cannot pronounce, preservatives, additives, and who knows what else.

And on top of that, I was paying around $3 to $5 a loaf.

Now I know that does not sound like much in the grand scheme of things, but when you have a family of six and kids who can take down a loaf of bread like it personally offended them, it adds up fast.

So there I was, late one night, scrolling TikTok like any responsible adult avoiding bedtime, and I came across someone showing how easy it was to make bread in a bread maker.

And I thought…

Well now, this might be my kind of crunchy.

I like homemade… but I also like convenience

Listen, I like to say I can cook.

Do I enjoy cooking every single day? Not really. Mostly because I hate the mess afterward, and there are only so many times a person can wipe the same counter before they start questioning their life.

I love the idea of homemade food. I love knowing what is in what we eat. I love saving money.

But I also like convenience.

Could I make bread by hand in a bread pan? Absolutely.

Do I want to stand around kneading dough, waiting for it to rise, punching it down, letting it rise again, and pretending I am not overstimulated by the mess?

No ma’am.

I have four kids, homeschool, dance nights, football things, laundry that multiplies in the dark, and a husband working away in construction living that camper life.

Ain’t nobody got time for all that.

So what did I do?

I hopped right on over to Amazon and bought myself a bread maker.

The bread maker arrived… and I was not prepared

That bread maker arrived the next day, and I was so excited to pull it out and get started.

I had visions of fresh bread, cozy kitchen smells, and my family being so impressed with me that they would maybe stop leaving cups all over the house.

But there was one tiny problem.

I did not actually have the ingredients to make bread.

Because apparently bread makers do not come with flour, yeast, milk, or common sense.

So we opened up the recipe book, made a grocery list, and ran to the store to get everything we needed for our very first loaf.

When we got home, I loaded everything into the bread maker, hit start, and y’all…

I was more excited than I probably should admit.

That little machine started mixing and kneading, and I felt like I had just unlocked some new level of motherhood.

And do you know what it cost to make that first loaf?

Minus the cost of the bread maker, of course.

About thirty cents.

Thirty cents, y’all.

For a loaf of bread.

I nearly needed a moment.

Then the boys destroyed it

A few hours later, the house started filling up with the smell of homemade bread, and everyone was circling that machine like hungry little raccoons.

When the timer finally went off, I pulled the loaf out and set it on the counter to cool.

The recipe said it needed to cool for about two hours before slicing.

Which, in theory, sounds reasonable.

Except it was a dance night.

So my daughter and I loaded up and headed to the studio, and I forgot to tell the boys to let the bread cool.

That was my first mistake.

While we were at dance, my husband got home and called me.

He said, “What happened to the bread?”

And I said, “What do you mean?”

He said, “Well… there’s a giant hole in it. It looks like a bread bowl.”

I asked him to send me a picture, and sure enough, those boys had torn straight into the middle of that loaf and left nothing but the crust.

Just hollowed it right out like little bread goblins.

My daughter was so mad when she found out there was no bread left for her, especially since she had helped me make it.

So naturally, when we got home that night, we decided to make another loaf.

Because now we had a problem.

We were emotionally attached to fresh bread.

That was the last store-bought loaf

We were ready to make loaf number two when I realized we were out of milk.

Of course.

Thankfully, one of my good friends, who is also a baker, sent me a recipe she had found that did not call for milk.

So we loaded up the bread machine again, pressed start, and that was it.

That was the beginning.

That was the last time we bought store-bought bread.

It has been a few months now, and making bread has become part of our normal routine.

All the kids have gotten in on it, and honestly, that might be one of my favorite parts.

It is not some big fancy homemaking production. It is just a regular part of our house now.

Kind of like any other chore.

Whoever eats the last piece makes the next loaf.

And for a family with teenagers, that rule matters. Because if you are going to eat four sandwiches in one afternoon, sir, you can also measure flour.

It has been such a good change for our family. We are saving money, we know what is going into our bread, and the kids are learning how to contribute in a simple, practical way.

It feels good.

Not perfect. Not complicated. Just good.

This is what crunchy-ish looks like for us

For us, crunchy-ish does not mean we threw everything away and started living off-grid.

It means we are making small changes where we can.

It means reading the labels sometimes.

It means making bread instead of buying it.

It means trying elderberry before running straight to the medicine cabinet for every little sniffle.

It means asking, Can I make this cheaper, cleaner, or simpler?

It means doing what works without making life harder than it already is.

Because let’s be honest, I am still a busy mom with four kids. I need things to be realistic. I need things to fit into actual life.

And if a bread maker helps me make fresh bread for thirty cents a loaf without covering my kitchen in flour and emotional damage, then praise be.

So go get you a bread maker

If you have been thinking about making little changes in your home, start small.

You do not have to overhaul your whole life.

You do not have to become a sourdough expert overnight.

You do not have to throw out everything in your pantry and spend $500 replacing it all with glass jars and organic snacks.

Just pick one thing.

For us, it was bread.

And now, a few months later, I cannot imagine going back.

So go get you a bread maker and start with me.

I’ll be sharing more of the little things we are trying around here — the recipes, the products, the wins, the flops, and the “well, that did not go like I planned” moments.

Because that is the heart of crunchy-ish living for us:

Trying to be a little healthier.
Trying to save a little money.
Trying to feed our family better.
Trying not to lose our minds in the process.

And if homemade bread is where it starts, I think that is a pretty good place.

Shop What Got Us Started

Disclosure: This post may contain affiliate links. As an Amazon Associate, I may earn from qualifying purchases at no extra cost to you.

Bread Recipe

Ingredients

• 1 cup warm water
• 3 tablespoons vegetable oil (we actually prefer olive oil because it is an anti-inflammatory)
• 3 tablespoons sugar
• 1 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 3 cups bread flour
• 2 1/4 teaspoons active dry yeast or one packet

Directions

1. Place all ingredients in the bread machine in the order listed. (Do not let the yeast touch any of the wet ingredients)
2. Program the bread machine for the white bread cycle with your desired crust color (we prefer the lightest)
3. This recipe is for 1 1/2 lb. loaf
4. Once the cycle time is complete, remove the bread pan from the bread machine and allow to cool for 5 minutes before removing the bread from the pan.
5. Place on a wired rack and allow to cool for 2 hours before slicing.
   
   Enjoy!