Squash it!

In my last post, I told you that there would be some squash recipes coming soon.  Well, here we are.  I've been teaching a class this week at the local community college, so I've neglected my garden until today.  Here is my squash harvest:

Well, this is actually minus the three squash I used to go with dinner tonight.  These all came from 4 squash plant in our garden!  There are about 10 additional squash out there that will be ready in another 24-48 hours too!  And, what is up with those conjoined squash???  Oh well...

I love squash.  Whenever I think of summer, I think of squash (and tomatoes, and corn, and okra...).  When I was a kid, my dad's schedule seemed super busy in the summer - I am sure it was super-busy during other seasons too, but I guess when I was out of school, I noticed just how busy he was.  He would get up to milk cows, hours before the sun rose, come in and try to sleep an hour (with my 3 sisters and I running around the house), and then return back to plant, fertilize, spray, or harvest the crops.  Plus, he had to go back to tend to the cows during the day, then milk the cows again mid-afternoon each day.  I remember he would come home to eat lunch, or we'd all eat lunch over at my Memaw's house, and there always seemed to be some fried squash available.  I always wanted the fried squash that had almost gotten burned - I liked them crispy.  :)

As an adult, when I fry squash, I am always taken back to those lunches around the table during summer time, when my Daddy would come home to eat.  Lunch was usually a hot dog, a bologna sandwich, or left overs, along with sides of whatever was available from the garden - and that almost always included squash!  I try to utilize the squash that we harvest from our garden.  I hate to see them go to waste, so now with plenty of squash coming out of our garden, most of our dinners include a side of squash!  I have to change it up, so that no one gets sick of squash.  Here is one variation on a squash side dish.  It's healthy too!

Steamed Squash & Onions

Here's What You'll Need:
3-4 squash, sliced (cut off both ends, then slice about 1/2" thick slices)
1/2 onion, cut into thin wedges
salt/pepper and Nature's Seasoning
1 Tbsp. butter (optional)
Non-stick spray
Foil

Here's What You'll Do:
1. Preheat the oven to 400 degrees Fahrenheit.
2. Tear off a large sheet of aluminum foil (large enough to hold squash slices on one half of the sheet). Spray the foil with non-stick spray.
3. Place squash slices and onion onto one half of the foil.  Season with salt & paper and Nature's Seasoning.  Cut up the Tbsp. of butter and put dabs of the butter around on top of the squash & onions.

4.  Fold foil over and roll up the edges, so it forms a sealed packet.

5. Cook in the oven for about 25 minutes.
6. Remove from oven and let cool for about 5 minutes.  Carefully open up the packet (the steam that will come out will be very hot!) and serve.

Quick & simple & yummy too.  Clean up just involves throwing away the foil!
Now I'll move on to figure out how to use the remaining 24 squash that came out of the garden tonight.  Maybe I'll take some over to my Mom & Dad's house, and fry them up tomorrow for lunch.  I bet I can even find stuff to make a bologna sandwich to go with them!
Happy Summer Y'all!!

Lettuce Celebrate Summer!

Summer is here!  Okay, well not officially - that doesn't happen until like June 21st, but I am a teacher and I have finished up my final teacher workdays, so MY summer has started and I am very thrilled!  Not that I wanted to leave my 58 precious fifth graders - it was a wonderful year and I loved each day, but everyone needs a mental break every once in a while.  (Just between you and me, I will be WAITING on July 5th to get here, because that is when big box stores begin putting out school supplies and by then, I will be very ready to start gearing back up for a new school year.)

My husband and I planted our little garden in late April.  Everything is coming right along, but the only thing that is ready and available to eat in our garden is the lettuce.  Boy do I have a lot of lettuce.  If you are afraid of gardening, or only have a small space (or a small window box even), then you should definitely plant some lettuce or spinach.  Both of these grow very easily, do not require deep soil, and replenish themselves, as you pick off leaves for your salads or sandwiches.  They grow quickly too!

With an abundance of lettuce growing in our garden, I decided to try to find something to prepare that would use up some of it.  I am also keeping in mind that my husband is trying to eat healthy and tries to avoid a lot of carbs (breads, rice, potatoes, etc.) in the evenings.  Plus, it's been like 93 degrees here or hotter the last few days and with that heat, we just want something light for dinner.  I found a great recipe here and of course, I modified it.  Buffalo Chicken Lettuce Wraps are what's for dinner for our family tonight.

Here's What You Will Need:
Lettuce Leaves (depending on size - anywhere from 6-12 leaves)
2-3 Large chicken breasts
1 stalk celery
1 clove of garlic, minced
1/2 onion, chopped
2 cups chicken broth
1/4-1/2 cup Buffalo Wing Sauce (I like Frank's)
1/2 packet ranch dressing mix
1/4 cup sour cream

Here's What You'll Do:
1. In a crockpot, place chicken (mine were frozen), broth, celery, & onion.  Cook on high for 4 hours or low for 8 hours.
2. Remove chicken and 1/2 c. broth. (Discard remaining broth.) Shred chicken with forks (it will literally fall apart when you begin picking at it with a fork).
3. Put chicken, ranch mix, sour cream, wing sauce back into crockpot, mix well and heat through (on high, about 20-30 minutes).
4.  Once heated through (and cooled slightly), place a spoonful onto a lettuce leaf.  You can wrap it up and eat it like it is, or you can choose to add some toppings before you wrap it all up.  We added shredded carrots and cheese.  I added crumbled bacon to mine, as well (I highly recommend this, even though it lessens the healthy factor to a degree).

These were very yummy!  I served them with some watermelon and carrots with ranch dressing (my kids' favorite healthy snack).  It was a great, light supper - and pretty healthy too!  The lettuce tasted so good, maybe just because I know it came straight out of my garden!  I am sure I'll be using a lot of that lettuce in salads and on tomato sandwiches in the very near future.

My garden is growing well - very soon we'll have yellow summer squash and I've got lots of recipes for squash, so be on the look-out for those very soon!  Cucumbers and tomatoes are not far behind either.  I can't wait!!!