What's in my packaged loaf of bread?

Ah, grocery shopping day.
Juicing means we go through a lot of fruits and vegetables- mainly apples, carrots, and lemons.  I would say we consume about five pounds of carrots and ten pound of apples, more if the kids snack on them.  Apples are so expensive to purchase organic (bah!), so I usually purchase about 5 lbs of organic apples (the cheapest ones I can find), and 5 lbs of your basic pesticide-loaded sort.  Yum, right? I know it has to be better than consuming prepackaged, processed foods.

I decided to stop buying pretty much all processed foods, except for cereals.  We're pretty picky about the cereals we eat to begin with and hardly eat cereal anyway (it's one of those, "I can't function this morning so have a bowl of this" sort of meals).  This has motivated me to test out various cracker recipes, among other snack delights, so I have a simple and healthy snack to offer to mini-peoples. I've also stopped buying breads. Fact is, every time I pick up a package of crackers, bread, or other snack food, I cringe at the label. I feel like there's not a good option out there for healthy, tasty breads— at least not one that doesn't make my pocketbook flinch.

I've been pretty good about  preparing a decent homemade breakfast almost every morning (muffins, banana bread, parfaits, or eggs with a side of fruit and some fresh juice).  I figure I could make it part of my breakfast routine to pop some ingredients into the bread maker so that we could have some fresh sandwich bread for lunch or supper.

I've allowed myself to eat "junk" as long as I make it from scratch which often means I skip the junk because I'm feeling a bit too lazy to whip up the batch of decadent brownies I'm craving.  However, even when I feel like making chocolate cake or a frappe, at least I know it's from quality ingredients with no added weirdness.

Seriously, have you looked at the label on some of those things? As I mentioned before, I've been scanning the ingredient lists on loaves of bread at the grocery store, and.... it's shameful really. I can't pronounce most of the things on there, and I'm wondering why a simple loaf of whole wheat bread has fifty ingredients (the majority of which do not resemble food stuffs). Whaa?

So, I guess we'll just be one of those households that has a zillion gadgets on the counter tops (juicer, bread machine, crock pot), but if it means we're eating healthy, it's worth it. Brandon's thrilled about me becoming more "domestic" (as he put it) because he absolutely loves when I bake fresh goods. (I've always been the baker in this union.) It's really not that difficult to make bread, tortillas, crackers, cakes, granola bars and other delicious goodies from scratch, and once I get into the routine of doing it (rather than relying on the packaged, flavorless hamburger buns for a buck), I'll wonder why I even settled for such icky substitutes.  (Let's face it. Homemade, fresh baked is so much better!) Besides, when I make it myself, I can pack in even more flavor and nutrition.