Blog Posts by Real Simple Magazine

You'll never be stumped for dinner ideas if you stock these foods in your kitchen.


Foodcollection RF/Getty Images

Peanut Butter
An essential of childhood and cornerstone of the PB & J, this sandwich staple is packed with protein and heart-healthy monounsaturated fats.



Get recipe ideas for peanut butter.






John Kelly/Getty Images

Pasta
A staple of every pantry, dried pasta-a delectable combination of semolina flour, water, and salt-is a surefire kid-pleaser, a quintessential comfort food, and the basis of no end of delicious dishes. Fresh pasta, which contains eggs, is more tender than dried and cooks in about half the time.

Get delicious pasta recipes.





Bill Steele/Getty Images

Rice
The main dietary staple for half the world, rice is an infinitely adaptable grain. "Long-grain" means a rice kernel is three to four times as long as it is wide, whereas short-grain rice is almost round.

Learn about different types of rice.








Valerie Janssen/Getty Images

Grains
Grains are an essential element in a healthy diet, and eating high-fiber whole grains may help reduce your risk of heart disease,

Parenting is a joy, a privilege, a miracle. Except for the times when it's not. Here, fellow parents divulge which tiresome tasks and doleful duties they would love to live without.

Anna BondWeekend-morning duty. My side of the bed is closest to the door, and while I love waking up to that pitter-patter, I wish it came much later than 6 A.M.
Amy Reesman
Easthampton, Massachusetts

Can I give up the hours between 4 P.M. and 7 P.M.? Like clockwork, my children go insane, crying about everything under the sun-their home-work, someone looking at them, a kid who took their crayon, or others breathing in their vicinity. The only solution seems to be sleep-preferably for me.
Marsha Ho
Staten Island, New York


Helping out with homework. It's still boring, even when you're a grown-up.
Heather Jennings
Oakland, California

This is awful, but I can't stand playing-especially playing on the playground and assembling toys. I'll bathe, feed, and nurture my kids, volunteer in their classrooms, drive to the

Use these tricks to avoid problems when your children share the same bedroom.

A version of this article originally appeared on Learnvest.com.
James BaigrieWould you-or do you-have your children share a room? Sometimes room-sharing is a choice, and other times, it's a necessity. After all, not every home has one bedroom per kid.

But whether by choice or necessity, similar issues may arise when you set up roommates of the non-rent-paying variety. How can kids get alone time? What if they have different bedtimes? What if they fight over toys or space?

We spoke to two parenting experts (who also happen to be parents themselves) to figure out what having a sibling as a roommate means for your child, and how you can make sharing a bedroom a great experience for everyone.


Also See: A Children's Bedroom Gets Organized


Why Sharing a Room Can Be A Good Thing
Jessica McMaken, founder of parenting consulting site Razbelly and mom of three, has found that her two older children, ages 4 and 7, like sharing a

By Stephanie Abramson

The fastest way to dry nail polish, grow out a bad haircut, and more.

She may look (and even act) like your Mini Me, but kids aren't little versions of adults. Here are pint-size guidelines for diet, sleep, exercise, and more.
By Maya Kukes

Growing up is hard work, and a child has a special set of requirements to get the job done. "Kids have to be treated as their own entities with unique needs," says Laura Jana, a pediatrician in Omaha and a coauthor of Food Fights ($15, amazon.com). That's because your little person is still developing, of course, from her brain to her bones. Here are a few ways in which she's different from you-and how you can give her what it takes to get big and strong.

Meiko Takechi Arquillos

She Dehydrates More Easily
There are a few reasons for this: Water makes up a greater proportion of a child's body, and children have faster metabolisms, which means their systems need more water to run smoothly. You've heard "eight glasses a day" for the average grown-up, but for kids there's no magic number. The amount of water depends on a child's weight and

Your kids' little quirks make you, well, want to start biting your nails. Help them overcome unseemly behaviors with some expert advice.
By Jennifer King Lindley

How to Break a Bad Habit
You adore your child, but you can't say the same about some of his annoying habits: The knuckle cracking. The nail nibbling. The way he interrupts your phone calls with emergency pleas for peanut butter. Relax-there are a few wise strategies to restore your sanity.
Ben Javens First, it's important to understand the impulse behind the actions. If he's smacking away at the dinner table, he may just need an etiquette adjustment. However, some parental button-pushers-like thumb-sucking, nail biting, knuckle cracking, and hair twirling-are unconscious ways to relieve tension. "They can help alleviate feelings that a child is experiencing in a big way-boredom, anxiety, overexcitement," says Dawn Huebner, Ph.D., a psychologist in Exeter, New Hampshire, and the author of What to Do When Bad Habits Take Hold ($16,

Want to have your cake and eat it, too? What you don't know about emotional eating-why we're wired to do it and why (sometimes) it's not such a bad thing.
By Alice Oglethorpe and Noelle Howey, additional reporting by Julia Edelstein


Geof Kern"I have made a lot of mistakes falling in love, and regretted most of them, but never the potatoes that went with them," wrote Nora Ephron in Heartburn. If only most of us were so philosophical about the way we eat when we're in the throes of a powerful emotion.
Unfortunately, after we celebrate our promotion with champagne and cupcakes or drown our romantic woes in a bowl of spaghetti, we tend to feel remorseful. "I indulged myself," we might confess, in a hushed tone, to a friend the next day. (Even our choice of word-indulge-is loaded, as it implies we are engaging in a vaguely illicit behavior.)
But is this self-flagellation really necessary? Some experts say no. "It's healthy to emotionally eat once in a while-to eat for comfort, to celebrate, or

Real Simple asked a host of experts-from an arachnid specialist to a meteorologist-to put your worst nightmares to bed.
By Anne-Marie O'Neill


1. That Nasty, Hairy Spider on the Wall is Going to Jump On You Any Second Now

In the United States, there is only one family of spider, called Salticidae, that is capable of jumping, and these spiders are not commonly found in houses (they prefer forests). Generally, spiders do not seek people out and attack them. It's not in their nature. Spiders are only going to crawl across you if they're headed somewhere and you're in the way. As for the hairiness-what can I say? They are indeed hairy. But personally I find them to be quite darling.
Related: Bug-Repelling Basics

Jonathan Coddington is the curator of arachnids and myriapods at the Smithsonian Institution's National Museum of Natural History, in Washington, D.C.



2. Some Crazy Person Will Push You Onto the Subway or Railroad Tracks

In old movies, "falling" onto the