Fried Brown Rice

Lately I've been someone a fan of Mel's Kitchen Cafe. Every recipe on her site looks super tasty to me. And they are generally healthy as well so I don't usually have much alteration to do - BONUS!

A few weeks ago she posted some AWESOME meal planning menus which I glanced at a last week while making my own meal plan. I noticed the baked brown rice recipe and was intrigued - I have never made brown rice that way. So I thought, why not?

I was making an Asian inspired recipe (more tomorrow) and thought that I could try the baked brown rice, spice it up a bit and turn it into fried rice. Now I know that fried rice isn't the healthiest creation ever BUT I tried to add extra vegetables to the rice. In my mind, the more the vegetables take up space on my plate, the less rice I actually put on my plate. It works in theory!

Fried Brown Rice

1 1/2 cups brown rice
2 1/2 cups chicken broth
2 Tbsp olive oil
1/2 cup chopped onion
1/2 cup chopped carrots
1 clove garlic, minced
1/2 cup frozen peas
1/4 cup lite soy sauce

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Lightly grease an 8x8 inch baking pan. Place the rice in the prepared pan and pour in chicken broth. Stir to equally distribute the rice. Cover tightly with a double layer of aluminum foil and bake for 1 hour and 10 minutes. Remove from the oven and let sit for five minutes before removing the aluminum foil and fluffing with a fork. Adjust the baking time if there is still left over cooking liquid or if it is too dried out. Set aside.

Preheat olive oil in wok or large skillet. Over medium heat, cook onions and carrots 2-3 minutes or until onions are translucent. Add garlic and cook one more minute. Add rice and turn up the heat to medium-high. Stir regularly to slightly brown the rice and coat in the olive oil and vegetables. Add frozen peas and soy sauce. Cook 2 - 3 minutes longer or until peas are hot.

Makes 8 servings (1/2 cup).

Per serving:

87.9 calories 3.9 g fat 12.0 g carbohydrate 1.5 g fiber 1.9 g protein