This is NOT your traditional fried rice. My grandma lived overseas for many years and taught me when I was a little girl the secret to making her fried rice (using bacon fat and egg among other things). Maybe I will share that recipe here on Home Baked Joy one day. That said, with six kids, there are some days when you are hungry and need to eat QUICK before leaving for choir practices, sports, etc. This is such a meal. I needed to make lunch for my kids and I had about 15 minutes to do so. I haven’t gone shopping yet for the week/month and so I knew it needed to be something fast using what I had on hand. No bread, no pasta, no milk, just food storage items and frozen items. (Yes, I need to go to the store!).
So I thought to myself, I do have some white rice (I prefer brown, but I needed something quick – food storage to the rescue!). But rice alone, isn’t enough. I always like to include vegetables and/or fruit with all of my meals. I had some frozen mixed veggies and I also had some frozen pre-cooked hamburger meat. (The biggest time saving tip for meals I can give is to buy your hamburger meat in bulk and cook it all within a day or two of bringing it home from the store. I then rinse it with hot water to get off excess grease and fat (personal preference) and then bag it up in 1/2 lb. – 1 lb. serving sizes for quick meals. This one thing has saved many a meal.)
I decided to do an experiment to save time. I thought, “What if I add the cooked hamburger meat and vegetables to the rice while it is cooking?” Success! Not only was our One Pot Fried Rice done within 15 minutes, the kids (myself and husband included) LOVED it and wanted seconds. Not bad for cooking on the run.
So if you want a quick lunch or dinner recipe that satisfies and that takes less than 15 minutes, here it is:
- ½-1 lb. cooked hamburger meat
- 2 c white rice (I used what I had in food storage)
- 1 c frozen mixed vegetables
- 2 T butter
- ½ tsp salt (you can add more or less here)
- ¼ tsp pepper
- 4¼ c water (I added a little bit of extra water for the vegetables. I gave a nice consistency for me. It depends upon what kind of rice you are using.)
- Add all ingredients to a medium sized sauce pan (make sure it has a lid).
- Cover the pot.
- Turn burner on high and bring to a boil. Watch closely because if you walk away, you are likely to have it boil over (yes I speak from experience).
- As soon as the mixture comes to a boil, turn to low and simmer until the rice is completely cooked. Mine took about 10 minutes, but it really depends upon what kind of white rice you are using.
- Stir mixture together and serve warm.
- Quick meal, happy family!
On a side note, we had some leftover faux cheese sauce that my husband made. It was the perfect topper for the One Pot Hamburger Fried Rice! My kids said it tasted like macaroni and cheese:)
