She likes it! She likes it! Gracie likes it!

After recently making note of the sodium content in boxed macaroni and cheese (and not just Kraft), I decided to attempt making my own. I say attempt not because I thought I couldn’t do it but because I thought Grace wouldn’t eat it. She has turned up her nose before at white cheddar macaroni or the shell variety. It’s original yellow mac for her or nothing.

I wanted to start with something as simple and quick as possible and then work my way up to a more involved preparation if need be. I think we came pretty close on the first try.

I started with this recipe, which is just macaroni, butter and cheddar cheese. It looked a little sticky rather than creamy and was a bit bland so I added a bit more butter and two Tablespoons of vanilla yogurt, which gave it just a bit of tang. I put the bowls on the table, called the kids over and held my breath. (I made sure Grace didn’t see me preparing it so she wouldn’t know it was something different.)

She first looked at it kind of funny and I thought she would notice that the elbows were fatter and shorter and the cheese less yellow than usual. But she didn’t. She took one bite, made a mad face and pushed it away. Shoot! Then she said “needs more milk.” So I added a little milk to her bowl and nuked it a bit. She ate a few bites and said it still needed more milk. She asked if it was leftover macaroni (which neither she or I like because it’s dry). I told her no and she said OK and ate some more once I added more milk.

When she said she didn’t want any more, I asked if she liked it and … she … said … YES!

So, here’s the recipe I’m going with next time:

8 oz. macaroni, cooked and drained.
3 Tbsp. butter
1 C. cheddar cheese
2 Tbsp. vanilla yogurt
1/4 C. milk
Salt and pepper to taste

Once they are used to that, I might get bold and add some pureed squash or sweet potatoes instead of the yogurt to boost the nutrition and the yellow color.

Not only is this way just as easy as the box kind, it has waaaaaay less sodium, no artificial colors and no unpronounceable ingredients. (Annie’s, whose nutritional panel is pictured above, gets props for at least having no artificial colors or unpronounceable ingredients. They do offer a low-sodium variety as well, but it’s not as low as making it yourself.)

For more kid-friendly recipes, visit the My Cup 2 Yours link-up.

 

Five things about me

Today’s Talkin’ About Thursday topic is “five things about you.” I wanted to join in, even though I have another post in the works for later tonight, because I have quite a few new readers who don’t know a lot about me. It’s hard to pick five things out of the air though! So, here goes.

1. I’ve always been a night owl. As much as I love sleep, I just can never make myself go to bed early. Working the 4-12 shift suited me well, even though it made it hard to get up with the kids in the morning. Now, I stay up nearly as late, have just as hard of time getting up but have no legitimate excuse for it!

2. I hate onions. A lot. I’ve expanded my food palate in the past few years but it is never ever going to include onions.

3. I love grocery shopping. Growing up, I hated grocery shopping with my mom. In college, I still hated grocery shopping. Now I love it. I love trying to see how much I can get for how little money by using coupons on sale items. I like reading labels to make the best choice for my family — all though I wish that wasn’t so necessary. That is part of the reason I’m trying to cook more this year, to avoid all the unpronounceable items in processed food, including MSG, which gives me terrible headaches.

4. I don’t swear. Well, I should say rarely. So rarely that when I do, my husband is literally scared. I remember the first time I said “Oh my God.” I was in eighth grade and someone had jumped out and scared me nearly to death. Once it came out that first time, I found it hard not to say again. And now my 3-year-old says it. I’m hoping he’ll stop if I just ignore it but his 5-year-old sister makes a big fuss every time he does. “Mo-om, Connor said ‘Oh my  God.’ ” She’s such a tattle-tale.

5. I was a cheerleader in high school. For some reason, this surprises a lot of people. I also twirled baton, took and taught a variety of dance lessons, was in choir and theater and on the yearbook staff. I tried for two seasons to play softball, both slow and fast pitch, and it was a disaster. Before high school, I played clarinet and piano. I still can play piano but not often or particularly well.

So there you go. Random enough? Now it’s your turn. If you have a blog, write a post and leave your link at MyCup2Yours. If you don’t, leave your five things in the comments. I want to get to know you too.

 

Where I go to relax …. wait, to what?

This week’s Talkin’ about it Thursday should be a fun topic: Your favorite place to relax. I knew immediately that I would write about the cabin we go to each June. I love everything about it.

But after reading the two other entries (only two, by the way? Shows how few moms take time to relax.), I am sad. Both of the women have relaxing places they can go to daily, or at least weekly. Ginny has a favorite chair at a favorite coffee shop. Barbie has a worship space at her church (also one in her home but try to keep the kids out. yeah right). I have no place to relax on a regular basis. So I’m going to write about that instead because I need to get it out.

Before I lost my job, I was a member of our community center. I went to Pilates class there twice a week for quite a while and then took my time in the locker room getting showered and dressed, sometimes even sitting there reading for a few minutes. Or if I missed class, I would read while riding a stationary bike. These things were relaxing AND good for my body. But these memberships aren’t cheap and it was the first thing to go when our income was cut by .. oh .. 100%.

When I was working, I’d go to the local coffee shop during a break about once a week. It was just walk there with a friend, buy coffee, walk back and drink it at my desk. But somehow it was relaxing. Something about a short walk, the smell of a coffee shop, a few minutes adult conversation.

This spring I was going to a chiropractor regularly for my frequent headaches. One added perk was that every adjustment came with time in the massage chair, with electodes stimulating four problem spots on my back. This was soooooooo wonderful. But at a $40 copay per treatment, these also had to go when I lost my job. (Not to mention I also lost our insurance and would have had to pay even more than that because I didn’t know whether the state would accept us for Medicaid.)

Back when I was nursing Connor, my daily trips to the Mother’s Room were also relaxing. I got to sit in a super comfortable chair, alone, where it was quiet and either just close my eyes or read a magazine.

Now I have none of these things. It has been replaced with being in my house virtually all of the time. I leave to take Grace to school and pick her up; to take her to gymnastics, where I spend the whole time keeping Connor out of the gym; to take her to Faith Formation class and attend the parent portion of the evening; maybe to go grocery shopping; to go to Mass. Somehow even my monthly volunteering gig has fallen by the wayside.

Yes, it’s possible to relax in your own house. But like Barbie, I have found that to be more of a theory than a reality. Even when locked in my room, I can hear Mark yelling at the kids when they misbehave, can hear the kids running up and down the stairs, can hear them pounding on my door because they want to come in. Sound relaxing?

So my favorite place to relax is … well, I guess I’ll let you know when I find one.

 

Favorite fall recipes

Well, I think you all know I’m no gourmet cook so this title may have puzzled you. I’m more of an open the box/can/take-out container type of cook, but today’s Talkin’ About it Thursday at MyCup2Yours is about our favorite fall recipes. I had forgotten the topic until just now, and by coincidence I have a new dish in the crockpot right now (no, really, I can prove it) that is perfect for fall. First, here is the recipe:

1 1/2 lbs. or 6 boneless pork loin chops (I only used 4)
4 medium Golden Delicious apples, sliced (I used Haralsons because it’s what we had)
3 Tablespoons packed brown sugar
1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1/2 teaspoon salt

Put chops in bottom of crock pot. Cover with sliced apples. Combine remaining ingredients and pour over apples. Cover and cook on LOW 6 to 8 hours

This recipe was suggested the other day by a digiscrapping friend and came at the perfect time because we just got a bunch of chops from my sister, who spotted a deal at Rainbow: 25 pounds for $25!

And now the proof that at 9:30 a.m., I am not only out of bed and coherantly typing, but that I really do have supper cooking:

And while I was up early being all responsible-adult-ish, I thoroughly cleaned half the kitchen. No, you can’t see the rest:

 

How laundry gets done in my house

I’m grateful laundry is so much easier now than at the turn of the century. At my house, it might go something like this:

Grace loves to paint. And wear fancy dresses. And if I’m busy helping Connor in the bathroom, she’ll do both at once. So I decide this dress should go in the wash immediately, even though it’s washable paint.

Open washing machine. It’s full. And a bit musty. One of us threw in a load and then forgot about it. So throw in some vinegar and run a short cycle.

Check e-mail while that’s running — because that’s more productive than say loading the dishwasher so I can use my kitchen sink instead of straining macaroni in the bathroom.

Cycle is done. Open dryer to dry the hopefully-not-musty load. Dryer is full. Too much in it to carry upstairs in my arms. So I go up to get a laundry basket.

Laundry basket is full. I’ll dump it on the bed to fold later.

Make bed to provide smooth surface for folding. Find stuffed animals and toys in bed. Return them to kids’ rooms.

In kids’ rooms, find dirty clothes. Bring them downstairs to put in with the dress. (Not that there isn’t enough already piled outside the laundry closet to fill the washer. Multiple times.)

Forgot laundry basket. Go back up, empty basket, bring it down. Fill with clothes from dryer. Move clothes from washer to dryer. Put dress and other whites in washer, along with a Clorox color catcher because of those bright red flowers on the dress. I’m paranoid about colors mixing after living with my husband for seven years.

Hmmm … why is the box of color catchers wet? Oh, because the ceiling is wet. Again. Time for a call to my plumber, also known as Dad.

See, isn’t laundry easy?

This post is part of Talkin’ About It Thursday at MyCup2Yours. Find links to more posts on laundry there.