rice Archives - Mamma's Cooking

Make your own take-out! Turkey Fried Rice

Making your own take-out can be easy and delicious! My family loves fried rice. I know it is probably one of the least expensive items on the menu at your local take-out Chinese place, but I always seem to order more than I need or have to order more to reach a minimum amount for delivery. Making it at home uses up any leftovers we have on hand, it’s healthier and is finished faster than calling in the order.

Turkey Fried Rice

Ingredients

1 Tablespoon vegetable oil
½ teaspoon sesame oil
1 egg whisked
1 zucchini diced
1 small onion diced
1 clove garlic minced
¼ cup soy sauce make sure it’s GF (I like La Choy)
¼ cup rice vinegar
1 teaspoon ginger minced or use a paste like this one from Gourmet Garden.
2 cups cooked rice I love Wegman’s 90 second Steamables!
2 cups shredded cooked turkey
1 Tablespoon fresh cilantro chopped, optional

Instructions

Heat 1 Tablespoon of the vegetable oil and the sesame oil in sauté pan or wok and scramble egg. Take it out and set aside.
Add last Tablespoon of vegetable oil and add zucchini, onion and garlic to the pan. Stir and cook for about 7 min, or until soft.
Mix soy sauce, vinegar and ginger together in a bowl.
Add rice to pan then pour on soy sauce mixture and stir.
Add turkey and return egg to pan. Mix it all together and you have turkey fried rice!

TIP: You can substitute leftover pork roast or roast beef or chicken or shrimp or your favorite vegetables for the zucchini, or even solely vegetables or tofu to keep it vegetarian.

What are your favorite take-out dishes that you make at home? We love making Hot and Sour soup! What is your favorite way to use leftovers? We make fish sticks with leftover cod or chili with leftover pumpkin or squash or check out this post for more ideas! Leftovers do not need to be boring!

Make it Hawaiian

Adding pineapple to a dish can transform it to a tropical delight! My family’s love of “Hawaiian” food has grown over the years. We started with Hawaiian pizza (ham and pineapple). Then came the Hawaiian hot dogs. This is now a barbecue must have! Slice a hot dog down the middle and stuff with crushed pineapple. Wrap each hot dog with bacon and grill until bacon is cooked. Easy and delicious!

I recently rediscovered kielbasa. It is a great protein that makes a quick, easy and cheap meal! Of course, I had to make it Hawaiian 🙂

Hawaiian Kielbasa with Rice

Ingredients

1 ½ cups of rice

3 cups of broth or water

1 teaspoon onion powder

½ teaspoon of salt

¼ teaspoon of pepper

¼ teaspoon garlic powder

1 teaspoon vegetable oil

5 pieces of bacon, chopped

½ of a sweet onion, diced

2 cloves of garlic, minced

1 ½ bell peppers

1 kielbasa, diced

8 ounces of crushed pineapple

3 Tablespoons soy sauce

1 Tablespoon brown sugar

Directions

Cook the rice with the broth/water, onion powder, salt and pepper and garlic powder in your rice cooker or on the stove top. Add the oil and bacon to the pan. Stir and cook for a couple of minutes. Add onion, garlic and bell peppers. Stir and cook for a couple of minutes. Add the kielbasa and heat through. Add the pineapple, soy sauce and brown sugar, cover and cook for 5 more minutes and it will be ready to serve.

This is a perfect quick weeknight meal or even for entertaining. It would be a great meal for a certain football game on Sunday night 🙂 I’m planning on making wings and pulled pork on gluten-free pretzel rolls (from one of my favorite sources, Gluten Free on a Shoestring) along with some carrots and hummus and maybe guacamole. What are you making? Making anything “Hawaiian”?

Ginger Citrus Shrimp with summer squash, zucchini and rice

Something about the spring makes me crave light refreshing shrimp dishes. This one is so simple and you can make your own version of it with whatever seafood or chicken, pork or vegetables that you have on hand. You can make it with rice, noodles, or as filling for a lettuce wrap.

Marinade: about 1/4 cup rice wine vinegar(you can use white wine, white balsamic, champagne vinegar or the leftover white vinegar you bought for dying Easter eggs plus add a couple teaspoons of sugar), 1/8 cup vegetable oil, a drop or 2 of sesame oil (makes all the difference in any Asian dish – totally worth buying), 2 minced cloves of garlic, about 2 Tablespoons of minced fresh ginger (I peel and freeze mine when I bring it home and then use the microplane to grate it into dishes), about 2 teaspoons of sugar, salt and pepper to your taste and 1/2 of an onion-minced.

Add uncooked shrimp to the marinade ( or pre cooked and then you just don’t have to cook it in the pan as long). Let sit for about 10-15 minutes.

Make rice or noodles while you wait. I swear by my rice cooker.

Dice other half of onion, mince a clove of garlic and a Tablespoon of minced ginger. On a cookie sheet, toss with chopped zucchini and yellow squash (or asparagus or some peas, or whatever veggie you like) and some vegetable oil with a drop of sesame oil, salt and pepper. Roast about 30 minutes at 400 degrees.

Cook shrimp in sauté pan with melted butter and a little of the marinade until pink and cooked through. Serve with rice and veggies! Top with some chopped cilantro and green onions if you would like.

Enjoy!

Its been way too long…

So, its been way too long since I posted, but I’m a mom and things don’t always happen when you want them to, right? 🙂 Anyway, now that summer seems to be here in Seattle (and we have a new backyard!), I have been trying to find ways to grill instead of cook. So recently my go to meals have included:

Grilled flank steak (good deal right now at Costco!) that I marinated in soy sauce (1/4 cup), bbq sauce (1/2 cup), garlic (1.4 Tbsp) and honey (to taste) with a corn, black bean and avocado salad. Soooo good! For the salad I just used canned corn (hadn’t gone to the store to buy the good ears of corn out now), canned black beans and some avocado and lightly dressed with lime juice, salt and pepper. Karina loved it!!!! She usually doesn’t want to eat meat on its own, but also loved this steak! Then S’mores for dessert 🙂

Grilled salmon (copper river season!) (cover with pesto and enclose in foil), mussels (cook with chicken broth or veggie broth, white balsamic vinegar, shallots, butter and garlic, then toss in fresh basil before serving), good bakery bread and caprese pasta salad (make some whole wheat pasta, after toss with olive oil, white balsamic vinegar, salt, pepper, garlic, fresh basil and fresh mozzarella).

This past weekend we drove out to Harstene Island, WA off of the Olympic Peninsula and drove the through Grapeview, WA and by the Stretch Island Fruit Co. They are the ones who make these great fruit leathers that are 100% fruit (no sugar added) that Karina absolutely loves! I thought it was funny as she was eating one as we drove by it and didn’t even know they were there 🙂 That has been a great portable snack. She also has her snack cup, usually filled with whole grain goldfish and craisins or shredded wheat and craisins. I also have started buying some oatmeal raisin granola bars that she really likes. So easy when we are on the run. Why does it feel like you are always on the run when you have a 19 month old! ?

When we are at home, she loooooooooves her apple sauce and smoothies. I also have found a great timesaver for lunches! I went to Whole Foods the other day, which I don’t often do because it is across town (although soon I hear the new one will open on Interbay) and bought some organic frozen brown rice, to check it out. Karina loves brown rice, so this helps make lunch so easy. We come back from our morning activity and I put the rice with some frozen peas or edamame in the microwave for a minute and a half and poof = lunch! If she is starving because we were out way past her breaking point, I give her some ham or turkey lunch meat to snack on while I put the rice and veggies in the microwave. Sooooo easy! I tried the rice too. Its pretty good.