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Friday, November 30, 2007

Easy, Cheap, Healthy & YUMMY!!! Fried Rice

I suspect this will become a regular lunch around here. Awhile back when I was at Trader Joe's, they had frozen vegetarian fried rice so I got some to try & the girls (& I) gobbled it up! Soon after that L started her "yuck!" phase where she proclaims "yuck" to whatever I say I'm fixing for a meal. So, the next time I made it, when I said I was making fried rice, she proclaimed yuck! And asked for a peanut butter sandwich, shrug, ok, more for me . . . but then once she saw me eating it, she said "I didn't know it was THAT!! I want some!" and proceeded to gobble it down again. So, the frozen fried rice from Trader Joe's has been a quick, easy lunch we've had every so often, but it's not exactly bargain food. So, I kept thinking I should try making fried rice from scratch, but from what I'd read, it works best with leftover rice, and I never thought about it when I had sufficient leftover rice in the fridge. Last night we had black beans & rice, and I made a point of making plenty so there'd be some leftover. So today for lunch I made fried rice. I kind of read a couple recipes online & then went & did my own thing:

Heat oil (I used olive oil) in a skillet (all my skillets are cast iron to avoid the carcinogen concerns of teflon). Saute some onion (I had a really small one that was in the bag of onions I'm currently using from, otherwise, for the quantity I was making I probably would've used half an onion, but it's really how much you want). Once it's sauteed a little, add cold brown rice to fill the skillet and throw in some frozen peas. This would be a great way to use up bits of leftover veggies like corn, green beans, etc too. I had an open bag of frozen peas, plus the girls like peas & dh doesn't so peas are a good lunch veggie for us. Meanwhile scramble some eggs in a separate pan. Once the eggs are scrambled and the rice is heated through, mix the eggs in with the rice & veggies and serve.

The girls didn't appear to notice a difference from the Trader Joe's version, and the 3 of us ate a medium skillet FULL, and A asked for more, so it gets their vote of approval.

1 comment:

Sarah said...

If you want a one pot version, I do the same as you, but after frying the rice, I throw an egg (or two or three) over the rice and continue to stir the rice around the pan until the egg is cooked through.

I also add oyster sauce for flavor.

We usually do ours with chinese sausage, but I've also added tofu if you want more protein.

We love fried rice. I'm so glad N outgrew his egg allergy so we can add it back into the repitoire.

And BTW, it does work with fresh rice, its just fluffier.