This sweet Asian-Hawaiian fusion dish was crazy-lazy easy to make. Dude, I was being so casual about it that I finished making the dish and took a bite before I remembered to add pineapple. I mean, like, DUH! I’ve often heard that fried rice is cooked best when using day old cold rice. With that in mind I bought one of those little “fully cooked” bowls of plan rice. I never bought one of those before. It’s youtube. All those broooos showing “what I eat in a day” or casual vlogs with food. I’ve seen some body builder chick use of one those pre-cooked rice packets (different brand). Another was vegan cheetah’s bruh use daiya brand cheese. These are 2 purchases that were subconsciously influenced by youtube. Fuckers. Making my life taster. So I think we pay 50 cents-$1 a lb for rice (I know aldi has even cheaper). Let’s compare that to my little precooked cup of rice cost $1.69 for 7.5 oz. Dude, more than $3 a lb. I really feel myself relaxing and not sweating the small stuff lately. It’s still a cheap delicious meal. I’d say this was a single serving. Feel free to double the recipe.
1/2 cup dry rice (or 8 oz pre-cooked), 1-2 TB soy sauce, 1 TB fresh grated ginger, slice of onion chopped, chopped garlic clove, 1/2 cup pineapple chunks, 1 cup frozen veggies, 1 TB sesame oil, salt, sesame seed & green onion for garnish
- Cook 1/2 cup of dry rice with 1 cup of water
- Put 1 TB of oil in skillet and saute onion & garlic with salt. Add ginger after a few minutes.
- Once onions are softened add cooked rice and pour soy sauce to taste. Stir fry around and add 1 cup frozen veggies. Add a few drops of water if rice starts to stick. Once veggies are soft throw in the pineapple.
- Pour in bowl and garnish with green onion & sesame seed. ENJOY
For more details on this recipe watch my video below. This was inspired by Vegan Huggs recipe.
Rich Bitch Cooking 
Yum, thanks — I love every single ingredient so this dish sounds awesome! Plus I’m lazy, ha ha.
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PS You can use freshly-cooked rice to make fried rice, if you spread it out on a plate right after cooking and let it steam out some of the moisture. I was so happy to discover this, because I’m rarely organized enough to cook rice ahead of time…and too cheap to buy the prepackaged stuff, your inner voice isn’t the only one that has issues with that 😉
http://www.seriouseats.com/2016/02/the-food-lab-how-to-make-best-fried-rice-chinese-thai-wok-technique-right-type-of-rice.html
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DUDE YES! This is exactly what I need to know. I will be clicking that link. Me and you both with being cheap. Sometimes I can’t tell if it’s a superpower or insanity.
While I’m here I might as well ask you: How the hell do I spend $150 on groceries (lasts about 10 days)?? 99.9999% of my calories are rice & pasta which cost pennies per serving. What’s the deal? (Seinfeld voice)
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It’s an insane superpower!!
For starters, more than 1% of your budget went towards prepared rice! Not that I’m judging. (Well, my inner voice is, BUT I HAVE NO CONTROL OVER HER. Ahem.)
In all seriousness, I’ve blown serious money on groceries before. It’s so easy to get carried away, but then I hate myself if food winds up getting wasted. (Everyone just says, “Freeze your leftovers!” but what if you don’t have room? Not everyone has an enormous freezer. Plus I have a tendency to forget what’s in my freezer.)
I’m not working right now so money is tight, which definitely motivates me to pay attention when I shop. Here’s my strategy:
– Shop at home first. In other words, check my pantry to see what food I already have — in the cupboards, in the fridge, in the freezer.
– Read the grocery store flyers for deals.
– Make a menu plan based on the food I already have and what’s on sale. Seriously, I don’t like to plan but the fact is that it is AWESOME — I buy only what I need, I save a ton of money, and I eat well because I never have the excuse of saying I have nothing to eat. Also, I lose weight because — nerd that I am — I use MyFitnessPal to figure out how healthy my plan is, which makes me a lot more aware of what I’m eating.
– Rinse and repeat.
That’s why I’m such a big fan of your recipes and videos — I love getting inspiration and ideas! Eating cheap and healthy does not have to be expensive. (Even though we don’t have Trader Joe’s in Canada, which is a real drag. I love that place, it’s like a candy store for frugal health nuts.)
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I really like the ethos to freezer meals but they create no excitement in me at all.
I would eat the same handful of things everyday if it weren’t for this blog. I’m very glad to have this blog. Even though I have a habit of eating the same meals I can not officially plan them. My mind has 100% resistance to it. It’s so strange because I am by far a planner with every other aspect of my life.
2 months ago I started going to the grocery store on the 1st, 10th & 20th of each month. Going every ten days (three times a month) actually helps me from spending money. I find that my brain just has some magical set point. I’ll spend the same amount of money going to the store whether it’s every 7 days or 10 days. So far I am pleased.
I’m counting calories as well. I could write a whole novel about the experience, the trial and errors, etc. No matter how much I “get” how it works (CICO) I still find that I’ve made mathematical errors that cause plateauing. I’m adjusting for the 3rd time in 2 years. I really want to get a fancy fitness tracker for motivation to move more and have a better tracking on my energy output. It really comes down to how sedentary I can be most days and the fact that I’m 5’4″. I need to build some muscle. I wish my foot and knee were spring chickens so I could kill it in the gym and earn some more food points. Some days I need to act like a grandma and not harass my leg pains.
How did you figure out you needed to count calories? With all the gurus out there telling us that we can follow their magic how did you conclude otherwise?
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I was diagnosed with PCOS (polycystic ovary syndrome, which affects about 10% of women of childbearing age) when I was a teenager, but didn’t know until years later the root cause of all the associated problems was insulin resistance. Using conventional nutritional wisdom, I ate a low-fat (no more than 10%), moderate-protein (15-20%), high-carb (70% plus) diet and gained more and more weight even though my average calorie intake was only about 1500. Insult to injury, I ended up getting type 2 diabetes. Even though I followed all the guidelines typically suggested to diabetics, I ended up having to take stronger and stronger medication to control my blood sugar levels.
You know what they say about the definition of insanity — it’s doing the same thing over and over again, expecting a different result. So, when I read the book “The Obesity Code” by Dr Jason Fung IT BLEW MY MIND. Basically, the general gist is captured in this TEDx talk by a different doctor:
It turns out that in people who are insulin resistant (like me, pre-diabetic or diabetic), carbs spike insulin levels like crazy. Protein also raises insulin levels in us but not to the same extent. Moreover, while we need protein and fats to survive, carbs are completely optional. (Yeah, my head exploded at that part.)
So, now I eat the same amount of protein (15-20%) but have reversed fats and carbs. I restrict my carbs to no more than 10% and get most of my calories from fat. I was able to go off my diabetes medication from the very first day — no joke, it was a freaking miracle — and even though I eat more calories (usually about 1800, but then I’m full because fat is very filling), I have also lost weight.
TL;DR: I have to use MyFitnessPal to track my carb intake, in order to control my blood sugar levels so I don’t become diabetic again. For me, calories are pretty much meaningless because my hormones are f’d up — I gain weight if I eat too many carbs, even if my calorie intake is low.
I don’t like to plan my meals, either, even it’s totally in my nature to be organized, but I have no choice in order to manage my blood sugar levels. I will probably get to a point where I know what the carb levels are of various foods and which ones I need to limit or avoid, but I’m not there yet so I have to track every single bite.
Most of what you make these days I cannot eat — bread, grains, fruit (except 100g of blackberries or raspberries now and again as a special treat), legumes, starchy vegetables (no potatoes for me, sob) — however, I’m going to see if I can tweak the recipes to make them LCHF (low-carb, high-fat). For example, use cauliflower ‘rice’ instead of real rice and replace the pineapple with some fresh blackberries, use non-starchy veggies (such cabbage, mushrooms), and up the oil used.
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That’s amazing!!! Not only have you figured out what works for you but it works in such a major way. Getting off meds is such a big deal.
I have “Reversing Type 2 diabetes starts with ignoring the guidelines | Sarah Hallberg | TEDxPurdueU” video qued up.
I can very much see why you’d have to tweak my recipes.
Just out of curiosity what are some of your typical meals?
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Thanks!! I have to admit being able to reverse the diabetes has been super empowering!
My preference is to eat vegetarian, mostly vegan BUT that’s very tricky, because much of the core foods in a plant-based diet are loaded with carbs. Eating black beans is much healthier than eating chocolate, but the impact on my insulin levels is similar. Everywhere I looked on the Internet, everyone says that doing vegan LCHF is impossible so right now I concentrating on eating vegetarian LCHF.
Meat of any kind is generally zero carbs, whereas vegan ‘meats’ do have carbs. However, I have found some brands (Gardein, Yves Veggie Cuisine) where the carbs are fairly low. I should mention that when following a low-carb diet, the focus is on what’s called ‘net carbs’ – fibre is a carb, but doesn’t spike insulin the same way as other types of carbs – which are the total carbs minus fibre.
For example, instead of having a chicken breast (0g), I’ll have a Gardein Meatless Chick’n Breast (3g net carbs). Instead of beef ground round (0g), I’ll use Yves Veggie Cuisine Meatless Ground Round (3g net carbs). In both cases, I’m only adding 3g net carbs to my daily quota – that’s a worthwhile trade-off for me. Instead of real bacon (0g), I’ll have Yves Veggie Cuisine Bacon Strips (1g net carbs per slice) – again, totally worth it to me.
I should mention is that I have to avoid zero-calorie sweeteners, because they spike insulin levels, mess up gut bacteria, and whet the sweet tooth. From what I can tell, stevia seems to the only one that doesn’t do the first two but I still avoid it because I want to lose my taste for extreme sweetness. I also don’t snack; the less meals I have, the less my pancreas has to work and that’s a good thing since the poor thing is worn out by having been forced to pump out excess insulin.
Since I’ve only been doing this for a few months, I am still figuring stuff out and relying way too much on eggs and cheese. My goal is to find ways to replace those with vegan equivalents, but that’s a challenge. At least I buy eggs from free-range chickens fed a vegetarian diet, so that helps with my guilt.
Sample breakfasts – all of which I have with 2 cups black coffee mixed with 1 cup Silk unsweetened vanilla almond milk (0g net carbs):
– 3 eggs fried in 1 T butter, 2 strips Yves Veggie Cuisine Bacon strips (2g net carbs)
– A batch of cream-cheese pancakes (2 eggs, 60g cream cheese, 1 T coconut flour, 1 tsp sugar, 1/2 tsp cinnamon mixed in a blender) fried in coconut oil (8g net carbs)
– 2 eggs, some onion, 2 tsp butter, a small tomato, 28g cheddar – I fry the onion, scramble in the rest of the ingredients (6g to 10g, depending on the size of the tomato and amount of onions – yeah, I have to weigh it because I need to be accurate when it comes to anything with carbs)
Sample dinners:
– 2 cups lettuce, a Gardein Meatless Chick’n Breast, 1/4 cup salsa, 2.5 oz Good Food Greek Yogurt Guacamole, 28g shredded cheddar (11g net carbs)
– BudgetBytes.com Beef and Cabbage Stir Fry, where I increased the fat by a couple of tablespoons and replaced the beef with a package of Yves Veggie Cuisine Meatless Ground Round, making the whole thing into 3 servings instead of 4 (12g net carbs)
– Lemon cream zucchini noodles (AKA zoodles) with Gardein Meatless Chick’n Breast, loosely based on a recipe I found on the Internet (11g net carbs)
– Big ass stir fry of low-carb veggies fried in lots of fat – like asparagus, spinach, mushrooms, broccoli (varies, but usually around 10g net carbs)
Dessert is 100g blackberries (4g net carbs) or raspberries (5g net carbs), but only if I still have any carb allowance left – 20g net carbs is not a lot, especially since I’m spending some of those carbs on vegan meat substitutes.
So, you’re probably wondering – what about lunch? I’ve switched to eating only twice a day, for the same reason I don’t snack. Plus there’s also evidence that intermittent fasting helps control blood sugar levels. So, I only eat twice in a ten-hour window – say 9am and 6:30pm. That’s it. Dr Fung actually recommends spending a few days fasting but I haven’t tried that yet.
You’re also probably wondering if I’m getting enough calories. Trust me, I am – almost everything I eat these days is fried. Or if I have a salad, I will use a really oily dressing. Since one tablespoon of fat contains 120 calories, it’s easy to rack up calories like crazy. And, like I said, calories from fat just don’t impact me the way calories from carbs do. It’s still something I have trouble wrapping my head around, but I’ve lost weight despite eating more calories than I used to.
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Sounds like a pretty solid meal plan!
Those cream cheese pancakes sound insane 🙂 Oh my god!
I eat all foods but sadly I’m allergic to eggs & soy which are the corner stone of your diet. Dairy is a hit and miss with me so I try to avoid it unless I’m specially craving it. I wish I could live off dairy and eggs… they’re so delicious.
I hear ya on two meals a day. I don’t usually eat breakfast but I find that I require a snack before bed. It seems silly but the habit is there.
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Yeah, the pancakes are awesome — interestingly, that one teaspoon of sugar combined with the cinnamon and coconut flour makes them so sweet that I love eating them plain. Then again, what tastes sweet to me now is probably different than a few months ago!
Honestly, I didn’t eat eggs for YEARS. It’s just been since starting LCHF that I eat them daily. I’m so grateful that I’m not lactose intolerant, I’d really be screwed then because cheese (usually along with eggs) seems to be in almost every single vegetarian LCHF recipe in existence. It’s also shocking how versatile cauliflower is — you can turn it into rice, create faux mashed potatoes, use it to add fibre without changing the taste of a dish. I’ve discovered that I can use frozen cauliflower in place of fresh most of the time, which is much cheaper and convenient.
Also, spiralizers are a godsend. Zucchini is never going to be the same as real pasta, but still. That said, half the time I just use a peeler to make noodles because a) digging the spiralizer out is a hassle; and b) you need super straight veggies for it to work properly and veggies are usually anything but. I have a regular peeler and a julienne peeler, so I can get all fancy pants with my food.
I will say this: Eating LCHF is insanely expensive compared to eating vegan. No joke, I spend two to three times as much on food these days. Plus it’s a struggle to get enough fibre, something that was easy to do when I was eating lots of beans. Two more reasons to try to veganize my diet as much as possible!
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