Fried Rice

I'm Asian (duh!)...Filipino to be exact and rice runs through my veins. I can eat rice for breakfast, lunch, and dinner and I LOVE fried rice. I think the first time my mom made fried rice for breakfast using up left over rice and meat, Kevin was like: "Where's the pancakes?". lol But now, he doesn't bat an eyelash when my mom whips it up and eats it up. My mother in law also makes fried rice but with Rice A Roni - it was a very popular meal for the Sunday dinners we used to have. Both are delicious and I've combined both moms' fried rice technique with a little bit of my own. I tend to use left over rice and meat - it's a good way to eat up the left overs!

FYI this makes a large batch, but we like plenty for leftovers. I've adjusted it to make a smaller batch before. It's a very forgiving recipe - just go easy on the soy sauce - you can always add more after you've plated your serving. My husband has made this fried rice before and has added scrambled eggs - my MIL's fried rice includes scrambled eggs. I'm not a fan of eggs in my rice (I mean I'll eat it if someone else cooks it, but I prefer not to add it when I'm cooking), but Kevin and the kids LOVE scrambled eggs. I truly forget to add it - I don't omit it on purpose! Here's my recipe:

Ingredients:
- 4 cups of cooked rice
- 1.5-2 cups of cooked bite sized pieces of meat (hubby likes a lot of meat - I used left over Adobo Chicken that my mom made)
- half of a large white onion, diced
- 5 cloves of garlic, minced
- frozen veggies (I typically use frozen carrots, corn, and peas, but I was all out of peas and only had a little bit of carrots. I tend to use a lot of veggies to up our veggie intake so put as much or as little as you want.)
- dried parsley
- freshly ground pepper (to taste - I didn't use much since the Adobo had a lot of pepper in it already)
- soy sauce, to taste (I don't measure this, but I don't use much since the kids are eating it too. I probably use about 4 Tbsp. I also didn't add any extra this time around since Adobo is cooked in soy sauce.)
- about 1.5 Tbsp oil (I used coconut)
- about 2-3 Tbsp butter (optional, this is my mother in law's contribution - her fried rice is so good b/c she puts butter in it....like 1 whole stick!)

Directions:
1. Heat oil in a wok or a large skillet under medium/high heat. Saute onion until slightly softened. Add garlic - do not let it brown.

2. Add rice and toss it in oil, onion, and garlic. Add butter. Let it "fry" for about 5 minutes - stirring every now and then to evenly fry the rice.

3. Add frozen veggies and meat and let it warm through. Also add parsley, pepper, and soy sauce. Stir everything together.

Avery ate a big bowl...

she was literally scraping her bowl and asked for more

Parker scarfed his big bowl down before I thought about taking a picture. Hope you enjoy!!!