Chicken with Fresh Tomato Sauce--Sandra age 10

Picking Basil. 

Chopping up the Garden. 

The Sauce.  It was prettier in person. 

Finished Product. 

Sandra's Take: Good.

Amy's Take: Last year I developed a new August tradition. It may be my only August tradition (other than back to school shopping and heat rash). I found that I'd plant a garden, harvest it, and continue to buy all my normal groceries and try to fit our garden produce in around the edges. To combat this problem August is now (drumroll) NO GROCERY SHOPPING MONTH. There are exceptions. Milk and eggs. The idea is to make our garden produce the center of our meals. Last year I did a major shopping trip on July 31. This year we were on vacation on July 31. So, we are starting a little leaner than last year. We also had major amounts of green peppers and eggplant last year. This year the peppers seem to have been eaten by a wild pumpkin vine and I can't even remember if or where I planted the eggplant.
Tonight was our first night home with no major leftovers to eat. I have a bunch of chicken breast in the freezer (expect a lot of chicken recipes this month) and I had seven ripe tomatoes and fresh basil from the garden  on the counter. So, Sandra googled chicken and tomatoes and got a Pioneer Woman recipe that you can see here. Pioneer Woman used canned tomatoes and chicken legs.  We modified it to suit our fresher ingredients.  It was one of the better tomato sauces I've ever made.  Maybe that's not saying much, but it is the truth.  We did not cook it as long as Pioneer Woman, only about 20 minutes, and it might be even better if we were able to let it stew longer.  Even Eric, who is opposed to pasta, liked it.  Here's my version of her recipe:

Chicken with Fresh Tomato Sauce
2 chicken breasts
2 tbsp salted butter
salt
pepper
1/2 of one onion, chopped fine
3 cloves of garlic, minced
1 1/2 cups chicken broth
7 medium tomatoes, chopped fine
1/8 cup chopped fresh basil
About 2/3 can of tomato paste. 

Put chicken in ziploc sack and pound to be a uniform thickness.  Heat a skillet on high heat.  Melt the butter and chicken breast.  Cook for a few minutes on each side until surface is browned. Chicken should still be pink in the middle.  Remove chicken from pan.  Cut into 8 or 10 chunky pieces.  Add in onions and garlic and chicken broth.  Cook five minutes.  Add tomatoes, basil and tomato paste.  Stir up and put chicken pieces back in.  Turn heat down to Medium and cook for about 15 more minutes.  Or more if you want.  Make sure the chicken is cooked through.  Serve over pasta.  We used bowtie because that's what Sandra wanted.  Serves 6 probably.