The beauty of fried rice is that you can really put just about anything into it and it’ll still be okay, because at the end of the day it’s just rice with stuff stirred in. It’s the kind of smorgasbord cooking that’s great for cleaning out freezer and/or pantry items. Or getting fancy. Either way, it’s always faboo.

Note: I am trying to eat less meat, so I tend to make my fried rice without any. If you want to add meat, cook it first, cool it, cut it, and throw it in towards the end to just warm through with the other ingredients. Throwing raw meat into a hot pan with cooked rice? Just not something I’d recommend or be comfortable with. The timing involved in making sure the meat cooks while the rice doesn’t burn boggles my poor feeble mind.

Anyway, on to the rice! … Or today’s version, anyway. It changes often based on my mood and what I have on hand.

The goods:
3 cups COOKED and cooled rice (that’s 1 1/2 cups uncooked, but seriously. cook it first. also, jasmine rice is my rice of choice for this application.)
1 red bell pepper, seeded and diced
1 to 2 cups frozen lima beans
1 8oz package cremini mushrooms, sliced
vegetable oil
3 eggs
sesame oil
soy sauce (low-sodium is okay!)
sugar

The method:
Grab a wok or your biggest skillet, get it hot.
While your wok is heating, you can be chopping your vegetables. Time management, yay!
Once the wok is hot, drizzle in about 2 to 3 tablespoons of vegetable oil (2 to 3 turns around the pan)
Let the oil heat up while you scramble your eggs. Add a pinch of salt to the eggs.
Throw the eggs into your hot, oily wok. Once it starts to solidify a little, start stirring it around to break it up. Just like scrambled eggs!
Once the eggs are mostly cooked, add the vegetables. Stir often so nothing burns and everything cooks evenly. Cook until vegetables are tender but not mush, maybe around 5 minutes.
Add rice and mix it all up. Let rice heat up for 1 minute or two, stirring all the while.
Drizzle in about 3 tablespoons of sesame oil.
Add in soy sauce to your tastes. Let the whole thing heat through.
Right at the end, stir in a good sprinkle of sugar to take the bite off the soy sauce.

Enjoy! =)