Our recent grocery store bills have felt exorbitant. Because ingredients matter to me and I am a stay at home mom, I’m challenging myself buy more one-ingredient food items and make the other things from scratch. For example, a package of frozen waffles is about $5 and a 5lb bag of flour is about $6 but I can make many batches of waffles from 5lb of flour. I’m trying to keep my kitchen stocked with basic staples at all times.

Obviously I don’t always have time to make everything homemade, but I’ve also found that the more I make something from scratch, the more second nature it becomes. I can now make my sourdough boule from memory, but the first couple of times were very time consuming. Ease comes from practice and repetition.

I think it’s also worth noting that seasons matter. There are busy seasons where buying store-bought yogurt is what I need to buy. But there are other seasons where I am more than capable of spending a bit more time in the kitchen in order to make more wholesome snacks at a lower price point. My husband likes to remind me that everything costs something. You will always pay for things in terms of money, time, or quality. How we prioritize these three things will shift and adjust throughout our lives and seasons. And that’s okay! We just also need to be honest with ourselves about these seasons and revisit our priorities from time to time.

And if we feel like we have fallen off any bandwagon in life, it’s fine! We can learn from where things went sideways and adjust accordingly. My current favorite workout coach wrote this comment on an Instagram reel recently, “…we ‘mess things up’ and feel the need to reset or restart. If you have set meaningful goals, you never truly have to restart because the goals have stayed the same, it’s just your actions that have change.” (See her video and caption here.) I love that concept! We don’t need to restart – we just need to pick up where we left off! We can also use what we learn from different seasons to analyze what is sustainable for us to make from scratch at home versus what is best for us to buy so that we can keep the “main things the main things.” Our goal is not perfection in healthful eating, our goal is to do our best!

Okay! So back to the practical food lists and recipes! Here’s my basic ingredient list that I tried to keep stocked at all times – be sure to check specific recipes for ingredient lists. I use these basics in addition to other one-ingredient-items to create real food snacks. Between my kids and myself – we eat a lot during the day! I always like to get new snack ideas from others so I wanted to share mine here for anyone brainstorming for new things to include. But just a quick side note – we eat lots of unhealthy, junky foods too! No one is perfect!

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What snacks do I like to make from these ingredients? Lots! I’ll share more recipes below. But first, let’s talk about fruit and vegetables. Have you seen the viral videos going around about how the most expensive part of raising kids is buying fresh berries? It will make you laugh or cry – depending on your mood – because it’s so true! My favorite way to help is mitigate the expenses of fresh produce is to buy things in season. Buying fruit in season helps to keep the cost down and to ensure it’s better quality (no one likes a winter watermelon!) Here’s a neat chart that tells what is in season during different months! Below is a list of some of our favorite fruits and veggies to eat as snacks…

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If you know me, you’ll know that I love to make baked goods – especially if it is a sourdough recipe. I was lucky to get my sourdough starter from my local farmer’s market. The baker told me that it is 50 years old! It is a treasure and I hope to pass it down to my children as a sort of “heirloom.” If you want to get your own starter, you can sometimes find them for sale here or here. But even if you don’t use sourdough, there are so many normal recipes out there that use REAL food ingredients to make the same things we might buy prepackaged at the store. Here are a few of my favorite go-to recipes…

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Baked Goods

Sourdough boule

Sandwich bread (I like to substitute 1 cup of whole wheat flour for 1 cup of AP flour)

Granola – chocolate granola | skillet granola

Muffins – blueberry muffins | pumpkin spice muffins

Crackers – savory crackers | graham crackers

Waffles

Oatmeal balls

Chickpea blondies

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We do a lot of dairy and meat products in our house. If you don’t – that’s okay! I won’t get into sourcing in this post as I am not an expert in that area, but obviously the life the animal leads will translate into the quality of the animal product being consumed. Once again, this is not about perfection. It’s about doing the best we can with the resources we have been given.

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Here’s a few additional ideas that I couldn’t fit in the categories above. What would you add?

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Misc.

Peanut butter

Nuts/seeds

Hard boiled eggs – IP method

Popcorn – I’ll share my method soon…

Sauerkraut

Quick pickled carrots

Homemade marshmallows

Homemade gummies

Chocolate

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I also want to share a few of my favorite bloggers who share wonderful real food snacks and meals. I enjoy following them on social media. I’ve also saved a lot of their recipes to use time and time again!

Kristin at Live Simply

Alyssa at Ancient Paths Nutrition

Fallon at Fallon’s Table

Christine at Nourish the Littles

Lisa at Farmhouse on Boone

Jillian at Jillian Margaret Wellness

What are some of your favorite real food snacks? Drop your favorite recipes in the comments below!