Gardening and Reaping the Benefits...

Our garden took a beating this year!  Last year's garden was glorious.  

But I am already looking forward to next summer's garden, because this was just a crazy year for gardening, 

between the weeks of dry weather and the months of RAIN (see this post). 

But if you plan to have a garden, may I recommend planting zucchini & peppers?  

I did NOT think zucchini would be popular at our house, but my kids loved it! And since we had never grown zucchini before, I didn't know that it wouldn't grow FOREVER and EVER, like cucumbers do (that's a story for another time...).  We ate so much zucchini that we quickly depleted our stash.  

Note to self: More zucchini, Less tomatoes!

But while we did have it, one of the dinners we enjoyed was something we named, "Summer Chicken". 

SO easy!

I just realized that this photo of the finished meal looks almost just like the picture of the zucchini and peppers above!  Oops. You'll need chicken breast (cut into bit sized pieces), a half an onion, a zucchini, a fresh pepper, and a tomato, as well as 2T olive oil and  1/2 packet Hidden Valley Ranch Italian Seasoning mix. As usual, you will notice I don't have any measurements.  Sorry!

And I'd like to say that I have discovered that while fresh veggies always look good in photos, the finished product doesn't always.  Well, maybe for some people, but not for me!

Back to it:  Chop all of the vegetables. 

Pour the oil in the pan and heat, then toss in the chicken breast pieces and the chopped onion.  Once the chicken is thoroughly cooked, throw in the zucchini and the pepper.

Sprinkle the seasoning packet over everything in the pan, and toss to coat.  You will want to cook the veggies until the zucchini is no longer firm - you will see a change in color but I don't know what to call it.   Just before you take the pan off of the burner, put the tomato pieces on top.  Leave them on just a bit, you don't want the tomato to be overcooked.  Remove from heat and eat!

It is just the right touch for a summer meal, light and delicious, and quick!  

And here are 2 of my gang of 6 who love it!

And i'm sharing this over at www.peasandcrayons.com!