Healthy Chinese Fried Rice
Healthy Fried Rice
If you don't start exposing your kids to whole foods or clean eating early on (as I did with my first three kids), the shift can be met with a surprisingly modest and coordinated rebellion. Or, as in the case of my eldest son, a massive rebellion.
The point is, he eats it, and brown rice is now a regular part of our diet.
My initial attempts to introduce brown rice and quinoa are excellent examples. despise her. I hated him, as in gagging, sweating, and crying. To overcome this strong reaction,
I mixed it with plain basmati rice and gradually increased the proportion of brown rice to the proportion of basmati. He's eating it now without much of a fuss.
This is an excellent nutritious fried rice meal to gradually introduce brown rice to your kids. It's delicious, and veggies include regular broccoli, cabbage, and carrots. May be mixed and matched.
I advocate introducing your kids to one new ingredient at a time, so don't overuse vegetables you know will scare them. By the way, this is only for picky eaters. If your kids gobble up everything, ignore anything above.
Ingredients
When you use thighs, you get more chicken meat. They have a bad reputation because they are fat, but they are also tastier. Clean eating is real food.
so I'm not concerned about the level of fat as long as the food is nutritious, unprocessed, and in the case of meat, raised in such a way that the animal leads a decent life.
You can substitute the breast meat for the thighs if you like, but the fat in the thighs helps the rice cook, so chicken thighs are the way to go for this dish!
Brown rice and quinoa
For this, I prefer to combine these two. It offers some variety, and if kids object to one or the other, there's not so much of it that they really come off. And anyway, even if they differ at first, the flavor comes to them... they can't stop themselves!
fresh vegetables
Chopping and grating the fresh vegetables for this recipe is simple. There is no need for precision here. Simply chop and roughly melt it, and it will give you a nice splash of color.
Is Chinese fried rice good for you?
This dish of Chinese fried rice is clean, nutritious, and healthy. It's sautéed in heart-healthy olive oil and filled with fresh vegetables. On the other hand, the kind of Chinese fried rice we used to get from a restaurant is not nutritious at all.
White rice is the main ingredient in a ready-to-eat dish: it has virtually no fiber and few, if any, vegetables. Then there's the oil used to cook rice, which is almost certainly hydrogenated vegetable oil, which is high in dangerous trans fats.
It was the taste of the fried rice that made us feel very tempted. However, the lack of fiber and vegetables meant that it didn't really satisfy you. This healthy version is full of fiber, rich in veggies, and tastes just as good as the ready-made version.
Healthy fried rice options
Vegetarian - To make it vegan, simply leave out the chicken and increase the number of vegetables. Traditional Chinese fried rice is heavy on rice, but I prefer to make the dish evenly made up of vegetables.
Fill in the blanks with whatever you choose. You don't want the rice to get saturated with water as the vegetables cook, so keep it fresh instead of freezing and use products with low water content.
Shrimp - I've used shrimp in this meal previously and it works just as well as chicken. Because shrimp are drier than chicken thighs, you will need to use a little extra oil while frying.
Meat - For an even more unique fried rice meal, add diced pork to this rice. Alternatively, if your kids eat it, you can add shrimp and pork for extra flavor :)
Making Healthy Chinese Fried Rice
Ingredients
- 1 cup uncooked brown rice
- 1/2 cup uncooked quinoa
- 4 chicken thighs, cut into thin strips
- 1 onion, finely chopped 2 cloves garlic, minced
- 1/2 teaspoon grated fresh ginger, salt, and pepper
- 2 cups vegetables (mixed) For this meal, I used broccoli, shredded cabbage, and sliced carrots.
- 2 teaspoons olive oil
- Optional: 1 coarsely chopped hot pepper
Processing
Bring rice and quinoa to a boil with 4 cups of water in a large saucepan.
Simmer for 15 minutes, or until rice is soft but not chewy. Remove from heat and set aside to absorb excess water.
Heat a frying pan. Cook until onion, garlic, ginger (and if using cayenne pepper) soften. Cook until the chicken is fully cooked and well browned Cook vegetables with chicken until tender.
Mix rice with chicken and vegetables. Fry for a few minutes, or until the rice makes a nice frying sound and all the moisture has evaporated from the bottom of the pan.
Chinese-style fried rice recipe
This nutritious Chinese fried rice is something I can eat over and over again. And I will do that. In the fridge, there is a small lunch box with leftovers. Just enough for myself and whoever happens to be there when I cook it :)
Of course: dinner
Kitchen: clean eating
Keyword: healthy Chinese fried rice
ingredients
- 1 cup uncooked brown rice
- 1/2 cup uncooked quinoa
- 4 chicken thighs, cut into thin strips
- 1 onion finely chopped
- 2 cloves minced garlic
- 1/2 teaspoon grated fresh ginger
- Seasoned with salt and pepper
- 2 cups vegetables (mixed) For this meal, I used broccoli, shredded cabbage, and sliced carrots.
- 2 tablespoons olive oil
- Optional: 1 coarsely chopped hot pepper
direction
1-Bring rice and quinoa to a boil with 4 cups of water in a large saucepan. Simmer for 15 minutes, or until rice is soft but not chewy. Remove from heat and set aside to absorb excess water.
2_Heat a frying pan. Cook until onion, garlic, ginger (and if using cayenne pepper) soften. Cook until the chicken is fully cooked and well browned.
3_Add the vegetables to the chicken and cook gently until soft.
4_Combine the rice, chicken, and vegetables in a mixing bowl.
5_ Fry for a few minutes, or until the rice makes a nice frying sound and all the moisture has evaporated from the bottom of the pan.