Mrs. C Does Stuff

I planted this garden a little over a month ago.  Since planting, I've been tracking the progress of my plants.  The picture above shows how all the plants look now.  We are experiencing a little growth here, folks. I try to keep the plants watered well.  It has been raining fairly regularly here, so I haven't had to water everyday to keep the soil moist.  Lately, I have started to notice that some of the leaves are yellowing.  This happened before with my tomato plant a few years ago.  Either the sun is burning the leaves or my plant is having water issues.  I'm still trying to figure this one out. My first attempt at a solution will be to address the water issues.  Although we have had almost daily rain, I will try keeping it more watered and see if that helps.  I've also been considering installing a drip irrigation system to assist with keeping the soil moist enough.  We will see how this works out.  Of course, if I ...

This is one of the first meals I ever cooked for my husband years ago.  Back then, I used to bread the chicken, first dipping it in an egg wash and then coating it with bread crumbs.  Rather than cooking the chicken breasts in a skillet, I would bake them in a baking dish. Now, since I am counting calories, I try to do whatever possible to cut down on some of the calories.  So, instead of breading the chicken, I grill it without any breading.  I feel like I'm getting a bit ahead of myself here.  Let me start at the beginning with the ingredients. Ingredients: 6 or 8 Chicken breast, thinly sliced (depends on how many servings you want out of the dish) Salt Pepper Paprika Cayenne Pepper Garlic Powder Onion Powder 1 Box of Penne pasta (I use the Barilla Protein Plus pasta) 1 Jar of spaghetti sauce of your choice (I like to use the Prego Traditional or Roasted Garlic sauce) 1 Small bag of Parmesan cheese I always start by washing the chicken in ...

What do you do when you are in the middle of baking a cake and your air conditioner goes out before you finish?  Well, if you are like me and all of your cake has baked but a circle in the center of your cake about one inch in diameter, you turn your cake into cake balls.  True story, folks.  I was baking a quick cake for Teacher's Appreciation week.  This was nothing fancy.  I was using a box mix and had planned on whipping up a quick batch of my French Vanilla icing after the cake had cooled. As I was cooking the cake, I realized it seemed as if the temperature was rising in the house.  After checking the thermostat, we discovered something was wrong with our air conditioner.  I had taken the cakes out of the oven, and immediately turned off the oven so it would not continue to heat the house.  When the cakes cooled and I leveled them, I discovered the uncooked section in the center of the cake.  I didn't want to turn the oven back on...

As  mentioned before in the post about my natural hair, I flat iron my hair a couple times a month.  I try to make it to the salon and have it professionally done at least once a month, so I only have to go through this extremely time consuming routine about once a month.  I like the results, I just don't necessarily love the amount of time it takes to get these results. I use some of the same products at home my hairstylist uses in the salon.  I brush through my hair with the Denman brush before I wash it to relieve my hair of any knots that may have formed amongst my curls.  I also use it after I flat iron my hair.  I love the way that brush feels on my scalp. The leave-in conditioner I use is the It's a 10 Silk Express Miracle Conditioner.  And, I use the Lanza Healing Strength oil to protect my strands from the heat.  The long tailed comb with the medium width teeth will come into play later when I am actually running the flat i...

I am always looking for quick and easy dinner solutions.  This is especially true now that I am a working mother and wife.  By the time I get home from work, I am rushing to find something quick to fix for dinner. When I was on Weight Watchers, I found a Spice-Crusted Roast Pork Tenderloin recipe.  This was a low point recipe (3 PointsPlus points) that was beyond easy to prepare.  I have made some modifications to this recipe by adding paprika, onion powder, black pepper and cayenne pepper to the rub, and turned it into a slow cooker recipe.  The original recipe called for the tenderloin being cooked in the oven at 450 degrees for about 26 minutes. Ingredients: 1 pork tenderloin Spice Rub Ingredients: 2 1/2 tsp kosher salt 2 tsp granulated garlic 2 tsp dried oregano 2 tsp dried thyme 2 tsp ground cumin 2 tsp paprika 1 tsp onion powder 1 tsp black pepper 1/2 tsp cayenne pepper Combine all of the spices in a bowl to create th...

Let me start by saying, I do not have a green thumb.  My main problem is my lack of attention to plants once I have planted them.  However, it is a personal goal of mine to improve my gardening skills.  I love plants and flowers.  And, I have always wanted a garden.  The idea of growing my own food seems so rewarding. This is a great activity that can be done with a toddler.  My plan is to learn while I teach my two year old how to garden.  Together, I think we can do this and have some fun too. We wanted to create a raised bed garden using cinder blocks.  We leveled out the ground as best we could and created a rectangle with the cinder blocks.  We placed cinder block caps on each of the blocks to finish off the look.  Doing this will also help block light from getting through in the holes of the cinder blocks and keep grass from growing within the holes. We actually built and prepped the garden bed a few weeks prior to plantin...

In my last post, I talked about my decision to transition my hair into it's natural state.  Here are some pictures of how my hair looked throughout the transitioning process.  I will warn you, some of these photos are not the best quality.  I am trying to do a better job documenting this hair journey. When I flat iron my hair, I wear that straight style for about four days to a week.  If it starts to revert to its curly state in less than a week's time, I simply wash it and just go back to wearing it curly.  I flat iron my hair at least twice a month.  I know, some naturals may be out there gasping.  Flat ironing is sometimes considered a big natural hair faux pas.  So far, I have not had any issues with heat damage. February 2012 May 2012 May 2012 - Flat ironed April 2013 (a month after my son was born) September 2013 - Flat ironed March 2014 - Flat ironed August 2014 April 2015 April 2015 - Flat ironed...