Hectic Friday dinner: fried rice (gluten free, easily vegetarian or vegan)

Saturday, April 2, 2011

So Fridays are a little crazy at my house - at least at dinner time. I am home with the kids on Fridays, but then hubby comes in at 5:30, and I leave for my 6pm Zumba class, so I try to have food ready for when I go. Hubby usually feeds/bathes them and I come back at story/bed time. Dinner often ends up being "Friday fried rice".


  • Kitchen tip: Whenever you make rice, make LOTS. Take what's left over and freeze it in ziplock bags (flattened, for easy thawing). Then when you need rice, submerge the bag in warm water and you'll have workable rice in minutes.


Friday Fried Rice
Fried rice has any ingredients you find in your fridge. Here's the breakdown:

Ingredients:
1) Leftover rice (doesn't work the same with freshly cooked rice- that's too sticky)
2) Any chopped veggies
3) Cooked meat/shrimp/nuts/seeds/egg/tofu
4) 1 Tb grapeseed/coconut oil
5) GF low-sodium tamari sauce or any other fun additions (try curry powder, pineapple, coconut and raisins for an "island" feel)

Last night's dinner was simple: I had the rice, and a leftover chicken breast (one was enough for the dish), lots of fresh veggies and two farm fresh eggs from "happy chicken". :)

Directions:
1) Dice your veggies (think green onions, peppers, broccoli, zucchini, mushrooms, carrot shreds, etc)
2) Heat pan to medium and add oil (skip step 3 obviously if you're making vegan)
3) Crack your eggs into the pan and stir them around with a spatula
4) Once eggs are almost cooked/scrambled, add your rice and stir to spread out the egg and to dry out the rice a bit.
5) Add your veggies, and any of the following: cooked meat, cooked or raw shrimp (shrimp cook in seconds so it's fine to put raw in at this point), tofu, or nuts/seeds, and lightly saute them. If you've used raw shrimp, make sure they are bright pink and fully cooked before serving.
6) At this point, you could add some tamari (soy sauce) but you could also wait until it's plated and add directly to the plate. I have a feeling you'd use less if you did it that way.

That's really it. My kids will eat whatever veggies I want to put in this as they're all diced so small that the kids can't really tell what they're eating. :)

Any other ideas for simple last-minute dinners?
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