Scrumptious Saturday

Welcome to another Scrumptious Saturday!

I have begun making a conscious decision to start using what I have...not running to the store to buy one or two ingredients for a dinner...rather plan ahead, use what I have, and have wonderful simple meals.  I also invite you the reader to make your own meal, and post the recipe in the comments (or link to your own!) and maybe a picture so nobody gets bored with the same old meals.  So here's this week's Scrumptious Saturday...

One day this week we had pork chops and potatoes with veggies.

Another day we had rice and chicken with salad.

We had leftover rice and pork chops...what's a mom to do...

Not another boring meal...after all, it is Friday night!

(Everything But the ) Kitchen Sink Fried Rice with Sweet and Sour Sauce

Fried Rice

2 cups rice...must be old precooked rice...

that way the starch has had time to make it really sticky

(great use for leftovers)

3 cups raw veggies (for crispness, I use onion, carrots, celery, and then whatever is on hand.)

2 cloves garlic minced

1 egg beaten

4 oz white meat cooked and cut into small pieces (again a great use for leftovers) OPTIONAL

ginger, salt, pepper

2-4 TBS Oil of your liking (I use peanut and olive)

Sweet and Sour Sauce

2 1/2 tsp Cornstarch

4 Tbs Sugar

5 Tbs Brown Sugar

1 C. Cold Water

1/4 C. Ketchup

1/4 tsp red pepper flakes

1 tsp Ginger

2 Tbs oil (I use peanut, but any type works)

1/4 C. Vinegar (I use white)

Chop the veggies into bite sized pieces.  Place a large skillet on the stove and put about 2-3 teaspoons of oil in it and heat it up.  Put the garlic in the pan.  Put your veggies in from firmest to ones that need to be cooked the lightest (example carrots, then celery, then onion, then spinach.)  Cook veggies lightly so they still have lots of crispness to them...it really adds to the texture of the rice. Then throw in the rice and meat.  Turn the temperature up in the pan to med-high and put in the remaining oil. After the new oil gets hot, pour the beaten egg over the mixture and stir like crazy until the rice mixture is well coated.  Then, pat the mixture down in the pan and let the oil sear the rice and make it all crispy about 3-5 min, then give it another stir and repeat the pat and sear step.  It's done depending on how much of your rice you like crispy.

Serve with the sauce...

Mix cornstarch and sugars in a small saucepan.  Whisk in COLD water.  Then add everything else in and whisk.  Bring to a boil over medium heat and boil for about 5 min.  Let it simmer until it is reduced by half...about the same amount of time it takes to make the fried rice.

I made a double batch and then froze half of it. 

For desert we made chocolate pumpkin pie...a pumpkin pie with a chocolate cookie crust and dark chocolate chips...sounds odd, but oh so good.

What did you make this week?