Garden Chicken Bake

I have a confession to make - I can't cook. I mean, most of my friends would say that I can -in fact most people would probably say that I can- but that's just because sometimes I do. I can read and follow directions, so if I have a recipe in front of me, it tends to turn out pretty well. When I say I can't cook, what I mean is that I absolutely NEED a recipe. If I'm baking junk food, I can just kinda make stuff up and it turns out good. I rarely follow a dessert recipe to the letter. If I use a recipe at all, it's more of a guide or an inspiration. I usually end up changing at least half of the ingredients. And I've always wanted to be able to do that with real food. But I can't. Even with simple stuff like chicken, I need a recipe. I don't know how long to cook it, or at what temperature, or if I need to turn it, baste it, season it, etc. And don't even ask me to add, remove, or substitute ingredients.

I know there are a lot of people that are like me when it comes to cooking. Being able to "make dinner" without the help of frozen entrees has become a dying art. Now that most women work, making dinner from scratch has become too much of a hassle and no one does it anymore. Which means that we aren't learning how. A little over a year ago, I became a stay-at-home mom. I quickly fell in love with Pinterest, taught my son sign language and myself crochet, and started spending time outside. This year I have a garden, and we are already having trouble eating everything it produces. I decided that we are going to eat or preserve everything that comes out of the garden. We are not letting anything go to waste and we are not giving anything away. Now I realize not giving ANYTHING away sounds kind of selfish, but I am doing it to force myself to learn how to make the most of my garden instead of just giving away everything that doesn't conveniently fit into my meal plan. To reach my goal, I will have to dehydrate, freeze, and learn how to can. I will also have to find recipes that use whatever vegetable I happen to have large amounts of or  *gasp* I'll have make to some up. Today I created my first recipe, and amazingly enough it tasted good.

Garden Chicken Bake

1 zucchini, thinly sliced
4 banana peppers, sliced in rings (mine taste more like bell peppers though every once in a while you get a bite with a little bit of kick)
2 chicken thighs, cooked, deboned, and chopped
barbeque sauce (I used Jack Daniels Steakhouse)
parmesan cheese
mozzarella cheese, shredded

In an 8x8 pan, make a layer of zucchini, then a layer of peppers. Next sprinkle on a layer of Parmesan cheese. Add a layer of chicken and another layer of zucchini. Then put the barbeque sauce on. I didn't use much barbeque sauce, but my chicken had also been grilled with barbeque sauce, so if your chicken is plain you may want to be more generous. Then add the rest of the peppers and the rest of the chicken and cover with mozzarella. bake at 350 for 25 minutes.

It turned out great and used up zucchini and peppers from the garden AND leftover chicken without me having to add a bunch of new ingredients, so I call it a success! And now I'll be less worried making up dishes in the future :-)

Update: My zucchini are doing terrible this year, but the peppers are still going strong so I ended up making this recipe again, but layering it with cooked yellow rice instead of zucchini. It was also very good.