Fried Rice Recipe | Money Saving Meals

 I'm about to share with you a super simple, healthy and unbelievably cheap meal idea, Fried Rice!

 

 The secret to this fried rice recipe is simple, you use leftovers! Yep, that's right. This meal us perfect to have the night before a grocery shopping trip. It uses up little bits of leftover vegetables and meat(Steak, pork, chicken, a combination of them all, they all work perfectly. You could even skip the protein and go vegetarian with it.), and any of those sad looking vegetables that have been hanging around in the crisper drawer. You probably wouldn't want to put it in a salad, but it still have enough life to be chopped up and tossed into a fried rice meal. If you don't have enough vegetables in your fridge, frozen vegetables work just as well. I've been known to use a combination of fresh and frozen.

Rice and eggs are the second and third main component to this dish. They are cheap and pretty much everyone keeps these items on hand on the regular.

The remaining ingredients are easy to keep on hand as well, soy sauce (Or equivalent), oil and garlic and seasonings (Pepper, salt, onion powder, garlic powder). Also basic ingredients that people tend to keep on hand. 

The amounts of each item can vary, but I am going to give you a general idea of how much of each item I used in this recipe to feed my family of six for lunch today. The items and amounts vary each time I make this dish. That's the beauty of it, it's super flexible. 

 

FRIED RICE RECIPE

*Click title above for printable version.*

1 Cup of protein (Can be chicken, pork, steak, any protein source you find acceptable. We used leftover pork chops today.)

2 Cups vegetables (Broccoli, carrots, onions, peppers, mushrooms and peas are great add ins. Today we used onion, carrots, a sad looking bell pepper from the fridge and some frozen peas.)  

Garlic (Fresh, in the jar, in powder form. It really doesn't matter. I prefer to use fresh of jarred for this dish. Today I used jarred and powdered.)

2-5 TBSP oil (I used olive oil, but you can use your oil of preference.)

Soy Sauce (The amount varies)

Water (To thin the sauce)

Eggs (I use 1 egg to every 1.5-2 cups of rice)

Rice, prepared (I used 6 prepared cups of Uncle Ben's rice. You can use any variety or combination of rices. I love to make this dish when we have leftover rice to use up. The dish actually tastes better if you use cooked and cooled/cold rice.)

Spices, to taste  (Pepper, salt, onion powder and garlic powder.)

In a skillet over medium heat, add the oil and fresh garlic. Cook for a minute or so, then add the vegetables. Saute until vegetables are soft.

 

Add spices and meat. Mix and saute until warm. Add soy sauce and water. You can skip the water but it really helps the soy sauce to go farther in the meal and it helps not to over power the dish with the soy sauce flavor. Heat until hot.

Add the rice, stir until blended. You can add more soy or seasonings as needed. Once the rice mixture is combined and warm, make a hole in the middle to add the eggs. Crack the eggs directly into the hole in the mixture.
Salt and pepper eggs, then mix the eggs into the rice mixture. Continue to stir until the eggs are cooked, approximately 2 minutes.

 

Serve hot.

Enjoy! 

~Lyndsay