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!!!