Mom on the Make

Finding fun amidst the chaos of Motherhood

See’s Candy and Valentine’s Day

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I always look forward to Mountain Man giving me my traditional See’s Candies one pound heart shaped box of chocolates.

See’s makes the best chocolates on the planet.

I felt the need to take photos of my delicious chocolates to share……

By the way, this was probably one of the most fun photo sessions for a post.  🙂

Check out some of my most favorite See’s candies…..

see's candy heart box

see's candy

2013-02-13 12.33.31

Milk Chocolate California Brittle……

see's california brittle

Chocolate almond nougat, Polar Bear Paw, and marzipan………
see's candies

California Brittle, Strawberry heart shaped truffle, California Crunch, Milk Chocolate Almonds.

see's candies

Love the See’s Valentine’s boxes…..

see's candies

Happy Valentine’s Day Everyone!

Heart Collage2

Chicken Tortilla Casserole

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I wanted to make my Mom’s recipe for Chicken Tortilla Casserole tonight, so I brought up my blog’s recipe category.  Much to my surprise, the recipe was not there!

This is one of my favorite go-to casseroles that I have been enjoying for decades, and am shocked I have not shared this one with you all.

So, for a Valentine’s Day treat, you will now have access to the world’s best Chicken Tortilla Casserole recipe.  🙂

This casserole is what I was making yesterday when I mentioned my kitchen time in the lego post yesterday.

The layers of corn tortillas, fresh baked chicken, cream of chicken and mushroom soups mixed with fresh salsa, and fresh grated cheddar cheese is the perfect comfort food and a great family dinner.

One of the keys to this recipe is squeezing lots of lemon juice onto the chicken breasts and wrapping in aluminum foil before baking in a 400 degree oven for one hour.  The lemon juice really makes the chicken moist.  I know this is the best way, because I have tried to use shortcuts like boiling the chicken.  Definitely not as good.  Make time for the one hour baking time – its worth it!

baked chicken

Chopped Baked Chicken……

chopped baked chicken

Start layering tortillas, chicken, soup mix, grated cheddar cheese, then repeat.

chicken tortilla casserole

 

chicken tortilla casserole recipe

Top off the second layer with tortillas, then grated cheese on top.  This is such a great touch.  Its like mini cheese crisps on top of your casserole.

chicken tortilla casserole recipe

chicken tortilla casserole

chicken tortilla casserole

5.0 from 1 reviews
Chicken Tortilla Casserole
 
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Author:
Recipe type: Dinner
Ingredients
  • 12 Tortillas
  • 1½ pounds chicken breasts
  • 1 can cream of chicken soup
  • 1 can cream of mushroom soup
  • 2 cups fresh mild salsa
  • 1 cup milk
  • 2-3 cups grated cheddar cheese or mexican mix cheese
Instructions
  1. Squeeze fresh lemon juice on chicken breasts.
  2. Wrap chicken breasts in aluminum foil and bake in preheated 400 degree oven for 1 hour.
  3. Cut baked chicken into bite size pieces.
  4. Put cooking spray on a 9x13 pan.
  5. Mix the soups, milk and salsa in a medium bowl.
  6. Cut tortillas into 4 sections, creating triangles.
  7. Place a layer of tortilla triangles on sprayed dish for first layer.
  8. Place half of chopped chicken onto tortillas.
  9. Cover chicken with half of soup mix.
  10. Sprinkle cheddar cheese on soup mix.
  11. Repeat Layer.
  12. Place extra layer of tortilla triangles on top layer and sprinkle cheese on tortillas for mini cheese crisps.

You are going to love this one!  ENJOY!!

I love Chocolates

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I know, I know, I just posted that my body needed more veggies, but chocolates are a must too. 🙂  Wouldn’t you agree?

Around Valentine’s Day, there are so many beautiful candy displays around, its difficult to not think about chocolate.

I took Imagineer to the ice cream shop yesterday to treat her to a scoop of Almond Joy and a scoop of Cherry Vanilla.

We decided that we needed to order a few chocolates as well……chocolate nut clusters and sea salt caramels to be exact.

Here’s a few photos of our treats….

bag of chocolates

caramels and nutscaramels and chocolate covered nuts

chocolate caramels and nuts

I love sea salt with caramel and chocolate.  So good.

Need More Veggies?

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I was feeling like my body needed more veggies, so I pulled up one of my favorite veggie dishes as featured a few months ago on my blog: Spicy and Sweet Cabbage Salad.

This really is a good one if you need to incorporate more veggies into your menu plan.

The recipe calls for a homemade dressing of orange juice, lemon juice, curry powder and sea salt.  Its really easy to whip up, but today I did not have the orange juice, so I decided to use my Cilantro dressing from Trader Joe’s.

So, the point is, you can really dress this salad with any of your favorite dressings, and it will be equally as delicious.

In the photo below, I tried to highlight the delicious veggies with my new camera.  I’m trying to become more proficient with the aperture settings.  Still have some work to do. :0

Now, go eat your veggies and have a Fantastic weekend!

Cabbage salad

 

Cabbage salad 2

Its a Ten Smoothie Day

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Yesterday, a smoothie craving overtook my home.

I made smoothies for the kids right after school, then about an hour later, then after dinner.

At the end of the day, I felt like I had just gotten off a shift at Jamba Juice.

What I realized is that I can keep the smoothies REALLY simple, and the kids still love them a lot.  I typically will try to think of additional ingredients to add like yogurt or honey or a touch of orange juice.  And, while they always like those smoothies, they also loved the smoothies I made yesterday, and they were super SIMPLE.

Here’s the ingredients…….milk, banana, frozen berry mix from Trader Joe’s.

berry smoothie ingredients

I find that you really want to add a good amount of frozen berries in relation to the milk and bananas to give it that smoothie shop consistency, which is oh so delicious.  Without enough berries, it will not be thick or cold enough.

The finished berry smoothie…..as easy as can be…..

berry smoothie

I need to hit Trader Joe’s today for about 10 more bags of their delicious frozen berries.  🙂

I’m really glad I discovered this easy smoothie, since this is my year to simplify, as I discussed in my new purse post.  So far this year, I’ve accomplished carrying around a much smaller purse and easier smoothies.  Woo hoo.

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