Ham Fried Rice

This next recipe comes straight from the THRIVE Sampler Pack recipes sheet. It calls for THRIVE rice, but I used some regular rice I have in my pantry that I need to use up before opening any new cans. 

The THRIVE ingredients I did use were: TVP Ham, Whole Egg Powder, Freeze-dried Onion dices, Carrots, and Freeze-dried Peas.

 

Start by cooking 1 1/4 cups rice in 2 1/2 cups water. For those who don't cook rice often and need a reminder: put rice in water, bring to boil, once boiling, reduce heat and simmer with lid on for 15-20 minutes. All water should be absorbed. If the water is all gone but it hasn't cooked, you can pour in more water a little bit at a time to make sure the bottom doesn't burn. If the rice is done and there's too much water, remove the lid so the water can evaporate. 

While the rice is cooking, in a large pot, put 1/4 c carrot dices, 1/4 cup onion dices, 1/2 cup peas, 1/2 cup TVP and 4 cups water. Bring to a boil, then reduce and simmer for 10 minutes. It will look like this:

While the rice and veggies are simmering, add 2 Tbsp egg powder to 1/4 cup water. Mix well, then fry up in a pan like scrambled eggs. Set aside.

Once the rice is done, set aside. Once the veggies are done, drain the water. In large skillet, heat 1 Tbsp vegetable oil. Add 3 T soy sauce, 1/2 tsp salt, veggie/TVP mix, and rice. Stir well to coat with flavor and blend ingredients. Gently fold in scrambled eggs. Serve warm. It makes a ton!

Here's what it looks like close up!

Notes: 1. The carrots and the onions are FINELY diced. So small, I couldn't use my colander to drain the veggies, and had to carefully hold the lid over the pot and attempt to drain that way. I need to invest in a strainer with tight mesh to keep working with these. But, it is nice to have them so small, because it makes them less noticeable to kids, and thus easier to incorporate into their foods.

2. When my hubby tried it the first thing he said was: "Hey, those eggs are surprisingly good. Are they made with real eggs?" The answer is yes! They're not just made from real eggs, they are real eggs, just with the water added back in. However, there weren't enough eggs in his, or my, opinion. So next time I make this, I would double the eggs (at least) to 4 T powder and 1/2 cup water.

3. The Ham TVP didn't seem too flavorful to him, and I think I know the problem. When boiling the meat and veggies to reconstitute, a lot of the flavor went into the extra water, which was then drained off. In the future, I think I will add less then 4 cups of water to everything since I think I drained off 1 or 1 1/2 cups afterwards, OR, I will boil the veggies (the peas were just fine and didn't lose any flavor) and then reconstitute the TVP separately by pouring just enough boiling water onto the TVP in a small sealed container and letting it sit. If you get the water amount just right (I think a 1:1 ratio should be good in the future) then you wouldn't have to drain off any water, and should retain all the flavor.

4. It needed more salt/pepper according to my hubby's taste, but even with that, and

with the egg quantity and TVP flavor issues that need to be improved on, he still gave this a 7/10 for every day eating, and said he wouldn't mind if I made it on a regular basis. (He gave it an 8/10 for emergency eating). I'm not a big rice eater myself, but I still enjoyed the dish. It made so much that I was able to take half the batch to a party afterwards, and everybody there seemed to really enjoy it as well.

From start to finish, this took me 30 minutes to make, and it was a filling all in one meal for our family. Here's the original recipe, with asterisks to remind you of what I would change.

HAM FRIED RICE

2 1/2 c. cooked rice

2 T Thrive egg powder plus 1/4 cup water* (see note 2)

4 cups water* (see note 3)

1/4 c Thrive Carrot dices

1/4 c Thrive FD Chopped Onions

1/2 c Thrive FD Peas

1/2 c Thrive TVP Ham

1 T vegetable oil

1/2 tsp salt* (see note 4)

3 T soy sauce

Combine TVP and veggies with 4 cups water (see note 3). Bring to boil then simmer for 10 minutes. Drain excess water (see note 1).

Combine egg powder with 1/4 cup water, mix, and fry up as scrambled eggs. Set aside.

In large skillet, heat oil, add rice, meat/veggie mix, soy sauce and salt. mix well and stir fry for about 2 minutes. Gently mix in scrambled eggs. Serve warm.