Day 16

Tonight I made one of my family's favorite dinners - Ham Fried Rice. Everyone loves it. Even my veggie kids, they just pick out the ham and give it to someone else who does like it. It is a really easy dish, super cheap, and uses up leftover meat and veggies. We traditionally make it with ham but I got the recipe from my mom and we always had with with pork when I was growing up. We use peas but you could use any mixed vegetables you have on hand. The rice works best if is is cold so make it early in the day or use leftover from last night.

Here's how it goes:

Heat oil in a non-stick skillet. We use sesame oil but you could use canola, vegetable or what ever. Throw some beaten eggs in the pan and cook them. You can cook them all in a flat pancake kind of thing then cut it in strips later or you can just scramble the eggs. When the eggs are done, remove them from the pan and set them aside. Putting them on a plate would be good, too. Add more oil to the pan if needed.

Add some chopped cooked meat (ham, leftover pork roast, pork tenderloin, chicken, shrimp, whatever) and a couple of chopped green onions. Cook and stir until the meat is heated through. You can add your veggies here if they aren't cooked already. Stir them until they are done enough for your liking.

Add a whole bunch of cooked cooled rice, however much your family will eat. For my family that is a lot! Stir the rice and break up any clumps. Stir the rice until it is coated with the oil and the meat is mixed in.

Add some soy sauce. You want to add enough that it turns everything that nice shade of brown that says "fried rice" but not so much that it is overwhelmingly soy sauce-y. It all really depends on how much rice you have. Start small. You can always add more but it's really, really hard to remove it once you've added it in!!!

Next, add your veggies if they are already cooked. I add frozen peas and then cover the pan to let them steam.

Lastly, add the egg back in and stir everything together. Serve with soy sauce at the table. Enjoy! I figure this meal costs me about $3.50 for my whole family ($2.00 worth of meat, .20 for the rice, .25 for the peas, .25 for oil, .25 -.50 for the soy sauce, my eggs are free but I only use three so maybe another .50 for those?) I add some canned or fresh fruit to the meal, usually mandarin oranges they seem to fit. So the whole meal is less than $5.oo for my whole family.

And the best part? My family loves it.

The rest of our meals were pretty standard today.

Breakfast was banana muffins for all and chocolate milk or juice.

Lunch was bits and pieces for all. Kaden and Carina bought lunch for the last time this month. Hubby took leftover soup from last night.

Dinner was fried rice and oranges.

My family is on their own for dinner tomorrow night as I will be at a conference. Not sure what they will do!

Jill