Anything Goes Fried Rice

Every time I order Chinese food out I need to have fried rice.  I've never met a carb I didn't love and fried rice is one of my favorites.  I know, however, it can pack a punch calories wise.

I started making my own version of this dish when I was single and living alone.  I found that it was a great way to use up all the opened bags of frozen veggies that somehow seemed to pile up in my freezer.  It allows for creativity and it's hard to go wrong!

It's also incredibly easy to make healthy.  Here's what I did:

Ingredients 

• 1 chopped onion
• 3 chopped cloves of garlic
• 1 cup frozen green beans
• 2 cups frozen broccoli 
• 4 carrots (half chopped, half "noodles")
• 1 cup uncooked rice, prepared and refrigerated
• 1/2 cup frozen peppers
• 3 Tbs.  olive oil
• 1 block of marinated extra firm tofu (I used Trader Joe's gyoza sauce as a marinade tonight)
• salt and pepper to taste

I'm currently obsessed with heirloom carrots.  I buy mine at Trader Joe's.  It also makes my husband happy that they're organic (he's on an organic kick too).  I'm partially to the purple ones.

I'm also currently obsessed with one of my favorite wedding gifts, the Spiralfix.  It basically turns veggies into noodles, and if a carboholic like myself enjoys these "noodles" they must be good.  The Sprialfix is great for veggies like squash and zucchini.  It's a little trickier with carrots but I was able to manage making some carrot "noodles" as you can see below.  I chopped these up to have the same consistency of the rice, adding bulk and color.  

  

I've worked many odd jobs in my days, including being somewhat of a wok cook.  We registered for a wok for our wedding, and I really enjoy playing around with it, it's especially perfect for making fried rice.  From my wok-ing days I also remember we would prepare rice and refrigerate it before using.  I made my rice ahead of time this morning, but overnight is fine as well.  

First, in the olive oil I sautéed my garlic and onion, I try to use the minimal amount of oil I need, you may need to add more oil.  Once my onions were translucent I threw in the rest of my veggies.  I used frozen veggies, but I took them out ahead of time to thaw a bit.  Don't they look pretty? 

Once my veggies were cooked I added the rice, carrots, and tofu.  I pressed and marinated the tofu this morning.  I added a little extra gyoza sauce for flavor as well as salt and pepper.  Here's the final product…

So here it is, a super easy and healthy way to enjoy one of my favorite takeout dishes.  Again you can't go wrong with this, you can add a little or as many veggies as you'd like as well as any protein.  For all the non vegans out there I would recommend adding an egg or two.  It makes for great leftovers, but it was so much of a hit tonight we don't have any!