Giving Thanks for a Stir Fry

Well, the holiday of giving thanks has just passed and one thing I am not thankful for is a fridge full of rich heavy food. I am, however, thankful for the plethora of chopped clean vegetables left over from the crudite tray. I knew I had to use up the lion's share of these vegetables before they turned south and I wanted a nice, light, vegetarian meal. So I decided to dice them up and make a rice stir fry, light on the oil, of course. This is a great way to use up left-over rice, vegetables or even meat, it's super versatile, so you can play around with it. This dish is great because it's all done in one pan, it's healthy and it's delicious, Check out the recipe below.

2 cups prepared rice (white or brown)
2 cups of any of the following raw vegetables:
- carrots, cut into match sticks
- celery, diced
- mushrooms, coursely chopped
- broccoli, in small pieces
- any color bell pepper, cut into match sticks
- bean sprouts
- baby corn
4 cloves garlic, minced
1/2 medium onion, diced
1/2 tsp of vegetable oil
3 Tbs low sodium soy sauce
1 Tbs rice wine but cherry or vermouth will work in a pinch
1 Tbs rice vinegar or red wine vinegar
1/2 tsp garlic powder
1/2 tsp onion powder
1/2 tsp ground ginger
2 eggs, cracked and beaten
red pepper flakes or powder to taste
chopped green onion for garnish

This recipe cooks in about 5 minutes so make sure everything is preped ahead of time. The important thing is to keep everything moving in the pan, that's the point of a stir fry after all.

Heat a non-stick skillet on medium high heat and spray with cooking oil.

When the pan is hot add the onion and garlic, cook until you can smell it (about 1-2 minutes).

Add the vegetables to the pan and cook for 2 minutes(if you want to add dice cooked pork, chicken, fish or beef, now is the time).

Move everything to one side of the pan and add the beaten eggs, scramble and incorporate into the vegetables.

Add the rice (I used white but brown would be great too) as the egg finishes and mix in all the garlic powder, onion powder and ground ginger along with your desired amount of red pepper flakes, the soy sauce, vinegar and wine, stir quickly.

Once all the seasonings are mixed in and all the rice is evenly colored, take the pan from the heat and serve immediately.

Did you like this dish? Let me know, leave a comment for me!