Chicken Fried Rice

Chinese food is a weakness for Jared and I. We love it. Jared always says that it’s one food that he could eat every single day and not get sick of it. While I’m not 100% sure if that’s true, I do know two things: one, Chinese food is expensive, and two, most of it, is bad for you. Even the steamed vegetables that you can get are usually coated in some sort of salty sauce.

That being said, I set out to make a healthier version of some of my favorites. One of my favorite things from Chinese restaurant is the fried rices. They are easily one of my top three favorite sides. When does well, of course.

Yum!

So here is what you need to make this Chicken Fried Rice:

2 boneless skinless chicken breasts
1 cup brown rice
1 cup broccoli
1 medium onion
3 cloves garlic
3 tablespoons low sodium soy sauce
1/2 cup carrots
1/2 tablespoon salt
2 tablespoons of ginger

Instructions:

Cook your rice according to package instructions. This takes about 45 minutes, so plan the rest of your timing according. The rest of the meal took me about 20 minutes total, so I waited until my rice was about half way done cooking.

Chop up your carrots, garlic, onion, ginger, and broccoli.

Trim and dice your chicken.

Cook your chicken in 1 tablespoon of olive oil until cooked through. When it is finished cooking, add it to a bowl and set aside.

Take your chicken out and add your veggies to the pan, broccoli last. Cook them for about 5-7 minutes, or until they are tender. Add your salt and soy sauce. 

When your veggies have finished cooking, add them into the bowl with the chicken. Mix and then add the cooked rice.

Serve and enjoy!

NUTRITIONAL INFORMATION calories 240 ; total fat 3.9g ; dietary fiber 3.3g ; carbs 19.8g ; sugar 1.2g ; protein 30.4g

 

 

 

“Just Take a Picture of My Plate and Say, ‘This is What Not to Do'”

My plate when we went out to eat

So tonight Jared convinced me to go out to eat because we were home for half a second before running back to the library. As part of his argument about why we should go to the Chinese buffet he said, “this will be a good chance for you to say what not to do.” Honestly, the thought of not cooking and getting some sushi sounded pretty great so it didn’t take much for him to convince me. Plus, I was curious to look at the buffet from a healthy standpoint. Let me just say, they have pretty much nothing if you are trying to live a healthy lifestyle, so it’s really about moderation here.

I’m not going to lie and say that I didn’t want an egg roll more than pretty much anything, but self control needs to happen in situations like this. Walking through the buffet aisles, the only real option for food is the fruit and salad side, and speaking from experience at other buffets, a lot of that fruit is usually pretty gross. There’s also the problem of how much you pay. If you pay $12 like I did to go and sit down, you don’t want to just eat some fruit. So, that being said, I decided to be bold and brave the side with all of the fried food that looked so good, but make some healthier decisions.

Thankfully, the buffet has a sushi bar, so I got some yummy sushi, I also got some steamed vegetables and some baked roll thing that tasted kind of similar to an egg roll just not fried. I let myself have one crab rangoon, and was going to have a baked mussel with some cheese, but decided against it once I got back to my seat so I stole one of Jared’s crab rangoons. Ultimately, I walked out of there feeling satisfied and okay with the fact that I had spent $14 (tax and tip included) for a night of not having to cook and deal with cleaning up, not to mention Jared was happy, so that’s always a good thing.

Speaking of Jared, I’m sure some of you are wondering what his plate looked like. Well, for those of you who are, here you go:

Fried everything…

Hey, I never said that he was going to be doing the whole healthy thing willingly. No matter what he ate, it’s a matter of portions for him, and one plate of food really isn’t that bad so I won’t give him too much crap for eating so much fried food.

Now, back to the library to do homework until I die. Okay, that was a little dramatic, but that’s what it feels like. I’m going to sit here with my water and my chocolate rice cakes until this paper is done.

As always, I want to hear from you! Tweet me @shoppinhealthy, email me at shoppinghealthy@gmail.com, comment here, and be sure to check me out on Pinterest!. 

Hope to hear from some of you!