Whatever You Got Fried Rice

The finished product…so good…

Hello everyone! Today, I’m going to be talking about a recipe I made the other day. I usually make fried rice when we make way too much rice the night before, but this time we made rice on purpose and let it hang out in the fridge overnight because we’ve been CRAVING fried rice.

The only problem? We didn’t really have “fried rice” ingredients (like peas, chicken, bean sprouts, etc). Luckily, we had some ingredients in general, so I got creative and figured I could share what I did with y’all!

To make this fried rice, I used the following ingredients:

• Green Onions (both the green and the white part)
• Celery (two stalks)
• Carrots (two medium sized)
• Spam (half a can)
• Garlic (a big ass scoop from the jar — I think it equates to like 5–7 cloves? I like a LOT of garlic)
• Soy sauce (at least 1/4 cup, plus more to taste)
• Sesame oil (about two tablespoons)
• Butter (about two tablespoons)
• Pepper (no salt cause Spam and Soy sauce is salty enough)
• Sesame seeds (preferably roasted or toasted, but it doesn’t really matter)
• Rice, preferably leftover from a prior meal (I think it was about two and a half cups for Matt and I? We had one serving leftover)

This is definitely not a concrete list you HAVE to follow. As long as you have rice and soy sauce, you can put anything in a wok/pan and make something yummy!

Here’s what I did:

• Cut up all your veggies and protein. If you’re using carrots, peel them with a potato peeler. If you’re using green onions, separate the green and white parts.

I honestly didn’t end up using ALL of the green onions and the Spam. Save leftover stuff for another meal!

• Melt butter and sesame oil in a wok or wide pan on medium heat (I like to heat up the butter with the oil because I feel like I don’t burn the butter that way! For the heat, I put it at about 5–6 on my stovetop.)

• Throw your celery and carrots (aka the heartier veggies that take longer to cook) into the pan when the butter is melted. Stir it up! Don’t move it constantly, but often enough so you don’t burn anything. Keep that energy the whole time you’re cooking.

• Once the carrots and celery start getting soft, throw in the white part of the onions and the garlic. Stir to mix it all up and cook until the onions are looking soft.

The garlic is hiding under the onions, but it’s there!

• If you’re using protein, throw it in! We had Spam and I cut it up into little pieces. If I were using chicken or beef, I would cut it into bite-sized pieces. Spam is really salty, so I didn’t want to overload the meal with big chunks. (in hindsight, I also would’ve cooked the Spam separately first to get it crispy, but that’s just my preference!).
• Mix everything up, stirring often until your meat is cooked (or if you’re using Spam, until it’s heated through and starting to get a little brown). Get your rice ready by breaking up the big chunks (unlike me, who just threw it in there. Please make your life easier than mine).

It looks like a lot of Spam, but compared to the rice, it was a perfect amount.

• Once the meat is done and your rice is not so chunky, toss the rice into the pan and mix everything up. Get your soy sauce and pour it in! Use as much as you like. I poured in two circles and one splash’s worth (If I had to guess what that would equate to, I guess I would say it was about 1/4 to 1/3 cup).

DON’T DO THIS. Break up the rice!! It makes it SO much easier to cook. I’m only sharing this picture so you have a “what not to do” pic lol

• Stir everything around so that the soy sauce cooks into the rice. Cook a little longer until everything is hot and ready! You’ll know if you start burning rice on the bottom of the wok (like me) that it’s totally ready to eat. Take it off the heat and add pepper to taste and about a 1/2 tablespoon of sesame seeds and stir one last time.

After I got the soy sauce in there. I used a lot less than my preferred amount because I wasn’t the only one eating!

• Plate it up in your dish of choice with the green part of the green onions and some sesame seeds sprinkled right on top. I was too excited to take a picture of the finished plate, but you can’t mess up putting food on a plate. If you need more soy sauce, bring it to the table and add to taste. I love soy sauce, so I tend to add more!

That’s it! All ya gotta do is throw stuff in one at a time until it’s cooked and ready. It’s a pretty easy meal to make, even if you are absolutely horrible at cooking. Fried rice was one of the first meals I’ve made where I allowed myself to be creative instead of following a strict recipe, and it’s a meal that tastes different every time (which is a good thing!).

If you guys have any questions about how to make this, please let me know! You can always find me on Twitter, seeing as I live there. Let me know if you guys want me to share more food-related content. I love cooking, and since I’ve been home more, I’ve been cooking at home more. I’m sure you guys have been too so if your menu is getting repetitive, let me know and I can help give you some inspiration! I hope you guys are inspired to make some fried rice of your own!