One day I decided to make my own bread.  Not really sure why, just a new challenge I suppose.  It was a disaster and ended up in the trash.  I tried again.... another pile of dough that didn't rise for me in the trash.  

Then I bought a breadmaker.  It was an amazing purchase. I just throw in the ingredients and kazow... fresh baked bread.... and quite delicious I might add....

I started to explore this machine's capabilities... Jelly, Pizza dough... you name it... it pretty much makes it.  A great purchase and it got me to thinking... all of these years we are sort of conditioned to believe that those things we buy at the store are just way too much work, if even possible, to make ourselves.  

Cake and brownie mixes, for example.  its so simple, you take the box... add some eggs, water, and oil and its done. Why would anyone do anything different?

.....wheat flour enriched with Niacin, reduced iron, thiamine mononitrate, riboflavin, folic acid, partially hydrogenated soybean oil, cocoa powder processed with alcal, dextrose, artificial flavors, carrageenan, sodium bicarbonate.......

that's why.  

high fructose corn syrup and partially hydrogenated soybean oil are both TERRIBLE for your body and is in NEARLY every item we buy!

I feel like i would just overlook the long list of ingredients that you can't pronounce just because I thought that it was my only option... then I realized..

its not my only option.  

I could avoid all of those unnecessary ingredients by just taking the extra 10 min and add my own flour, sugar, cocoa powder... and whatever else the recipe calls for... Its really not that hard... the 10 extra min to add a few extra ingredients totally worth the health of our family....

Everyday Lance comes home from work and has wheat thins and hummus.... Now, the hummus we buy is about $4 for a little tub so i decided to save us some $$ and make our own.  I was appalled at how easy it was!!  Today I was reading about Wheat thins REALLY REALLY REALLY RIDICULOUSLY high in sodium.  So.. today i made wheat thins... do you know its only 7 ingredients (all ingredients i already had in my cupboard) and takes 5-7 mins to cook?  My cupboards that were once stocked with boxes and cans of "food" is almost completely bare. 

And then I watched Food inc and realized all of those big companies that pretty much control the food industry... are all in decision making positions in the FDA and  USDA.... and so that answers my question as to why no one really cares what is put in our food and the regulations are so lax.... and my trust is broken...

ps....i grind my own flour which makes bomb-diggity bread AND  I spend about 1/2 the budget I used to on groceries... everything we eat is made at home :-) Plus, no more wasted time clipping coupons and deal searching.  Its really a win win :-)