Quick Macaroni & Cheese (without the box)

by RookieMom Heather on September 2, 2010

in Eating, How to, We Love It (For Mom)

Food, food, food! Do I seem obsessed to you? I truly believe that getting dinner on the table Every Single Night is one of the great challenges of rookie-mom-dom. We welcome our good friend, Karen, to share another easy peasy recipe with our readers: Quick (and healthier) Mac and Cheese good enough for kids and adults.

I admit I’m a sucker for that bacon trick. Oh, and the breadcrumb trick. Yummmy!

I am going to tell you a dirty little secret about myself: I like Kraft macaroni and cheese from a box. It might be because I ate it so much as a kid that I have some sort of Stockholm syndrome thing going on with it, or it might be that I am just not all that refined. I only occasionally eat it at home, and when I do it’s totally on the down-low and I shamefully hide all the evidence afterward. In case you’re not disillusioned enough by my bad habits yet, let me also reveal that I put soy sauce on it. Don’t knock it til you’ve tried it: the soy sauce actually makes the orange chemical cheese-like product taste more like, well, cheese. Strange, I know.

Of course, the sad thing about that Kraft box is the questionable ingredient list. Aside from the unnatural Doritos-colored cheese powder, did you know that one of the main preservatives in boxed Mac and Cheese is a common ingredient in laundry detergent? Ick.

The good news is that contrary to popular belief, macaroni and cheese is really easy to make from scratch, and offers a lot of room for customization. [click to continue…]

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Graduating our rookie kids

by Whitney on September 1, 2010

in Momoirs of a Rookie Mom

Today the babies that inspired this website start public Kindergarten. Holy macaroni and cheese.

A moment of reflection today.

As Julian and Holden have grown, we’ve grown the site, adding activities for toddlers, then preschoolers. But now what?

As Heather and I struggle to balance our dedication to supporting true rookie moms with our self-centered desire to blog authentically and document our own real lives, we frequently debate how our readers might be reacting to what we write.  Fresh new moms, we fear, will be unable to relate to tales of shoelace- tying lessons and soccer practice.

On the flip side, if we stick to nursing bras and maternity leave outings, we offer nothing to our peers with whom we entered the world of motherhood in the mid 2000s. Of course some of them are doing it all over again, but they are no rookies. (Although aren’t we all rookies? Forever?)

Julian swinging, the same week this website launched.

Julian in the same swing, last week.

So what do you think? Newbie moms, do you enjoy reading about our big kids or do your eyes glaze over when we talk about them?  RSS subscribers, we hope you’ll click through today and weigh in. How old are your kids? How long have you been reading Rookie Moms?

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Reader tip: Waterproof your photography

August 31, 2010

One of our longest-time readers, LauraC, sent us this tip. Although it’s late in the summer, I want to share it because it’s super useful, and also because I adore these pictures of Laura’s twin boys in the pool.

I was recently introduced to waterproof digital point and shoot cameras by a friend. I bought [...]

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Stocked Kitchen report, week two

August 30, 2010

I continued on with my Stocked Kitchen experiment to see if I could settle into more of a groove. The answer was kinda YES and kinda NO.

We had two preschool potlucks and a multi-family camping trip and I didn’t have to go to the grocery store one extra time. How flipping awesome is that? Super [...]

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Bec and Ben’s Very Rookie Summer

August 27, 2010

Allow me to share the ninth installment of our Very Rookie Summer series.
Bec is just beyond the official definition of being a “true rookie” mom to her son Ben. Ben is a whopping 13 months old. She is sharing the story of their rookie camping trip together on Vancouver Island at Rathtrevor Provincial Park.
For even [...]

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Activity #257: Meow, bark and tweet at the pet store

August 26, 2010

My friend Mary (who had her son Del in the same hospital the day after I had Julian) gave this idea to our moms group. She said that 13-month old Del loves the pet store where he can check out the animals, especially the birds.

To kill two birds with one stone (no-offense, bird lovers), [...]

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On being alone, even though you are probably not alone

August 24, 2010

I saw this video “How to Be Alone” on my friend Andrea’s blog and it stuck with me. I like the style and the tone, so there’s that.  But mostly I wanted to share it because I believe loneliness is the aspect of new motherhood that is most surprising. Do you agree?
I thought some of [...]

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Auntie Karen’s Crock Pot Pulled Pork

August 23, 2010

Our good friend Karen is amazing in the kitchen. When she invites you over for a fabulous dinner party, you don’t want to miss it. She assures us that she also can cook a quick dinner using regular-person ingredients.
We put her to the test and asked her for four terrific, easy-enough-for-a-rookie-mom recipes to share over [...]

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The great Stocked Kitchen experiment, week one

August 22, 2010

Whitney turned me onto the concept of the Stocked Kitchen before I ever set eyes on it. She told me that it’s a cookbook with a set grocery list and once you buy all the stuff you can make any of 300 recipes. So clever!
I totally admire the authors’ obsession with preparedness and list-making. Also [...]

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Kristi and Nora’s Very Rookie Summer

August 20, 2010

We’re happy to share the eighth edition of our Very Rookie Summer series.
Kristi is sharing three short stories (the final one is a love story) about a great big green ball. Her daughter, Nora, is 6 weeks old. They live in smokin’ hot North Carolina. She blogs at Here we go…

This story is about the [...]

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BlogHer ‘10 Highlights (and lowlights)

August 19, 2010

Now that I’m back home and into my normal groove, reflecting on BlogHer feels surreal. Was I really there? I spent an amazing long weekend feeling totally B-List. And that’s a good thing (I felt neither invisible nor obligated to be the funniest person in the room). I know a solid handful of people, although [...]

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Sleeping with the enemy

August 18, 2010

You know what’s probably really good exercise for a mom? Sneaking out of a toddler bed six times in one night. Slowly lifting one’s head from her sleeping daughter’s pillow, raising chest to the ceiling, wiggling arm out from under said child, keeping that core steady, holding a side plank position while taking a deep [...]

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