Better n' takeout.

Hello, my name is Hollee, and I am a carboholic.

No, really, I am.

Atkins...it can kiss my white flour loving behind. I love all carbs, but especially those that are "bad" for me: white rice, white pasta, white bread. One of life's simple pleasures is a PBJ made with my strawberry jam, all natural peanut butter, between two heavenly slices of plain 'ole white bread. Yum-O!

Now, clearly I can give up other things in favor of carbs - namely meat. I could give up dairy before I gave up carbs. Easy.

Why am I talking about carbs? Well, it leads me to my favorite part of Chinese takeout: fried rice. I love the stuff. But there's a certain flavor that seems elusive to most westerners in their cooking. And that, my food lovin' friends, is oyster Sauce.

We were out and about this weekend, and I did feel like cooking tonight. I had to run to the store, as we were out of items like milk and butter. So, while there I grabbed a bag of frozen vegetables. I had a big bowl of leftover rice unused. I also had (at home) eggs, soy sauce, peanut oil, garlic, and (optional) fresh tomatoes.

In a dutch oven (it's easier to stir in the rice), put down a couple of tablespoons of peanut oil and some garlic (a clove is sufficient), heat over medium to medium-high heat. Then toss in the entire bag of vegetables. Cook until warm. You really want the vegetables to be crisp-tender to contrast with the rice.

If you really MUST add meat - go ahead and cook that up before you add the vegetables. It's really not necessary in this dish.

Add 2-3 cups of leftover white rice. It depends on your preferred ration of rice to vegetables. Stir in, break up clumps.

While this is happening, go ahead and scramble 3 eggs in a pan. You can do this without dirtying another dish. Put down a Tablespoon of peanut oil, then drop in three eggs. Once the whites have turned opaque, but before the yokes have really begun to set, break the yokes and begin the scramble. No, these won't be the prettiest scrambled eggs, but they will be fine camouflaged by the soy and oyster sauces.

Now add soy and oyster sauce. Oyster Sauce is pretty thick, and it depends on how flavorful you like your rice. I added about 1/4 cup. I then added about 1 Tablespoon of Soy Sauce. Toss in the eggs, stir together, taste, and adjust flavor. Do NOT add salt, all the sodium you need will come from the soy. If there is not enough flavor, add more soy or oyster. Taste each to see which you prefer, and that way you can add more of what tastes good to you.

Last thing, remove from heat and add tomatoes. Let sit, covered, for just a moment. That will heat the tomatoes through. Tomatoes in fried rice? It's a Thai thing, but I really love it. Even in Chinese-inspired fried rice.

Another variation? Those of you who like yoke-y eggs can go ahead and fry one or two on the side, keeping it REALLY runny. Toss those eggs on top of your rice, break the yokes, and let that be a sort of gravy. This is very "Hawaiian style" and is actually a common breakfast in the islands.

This goes together so quick, and was a very easy "I don't want to cook tonight" dinner from my kitchen. I'm even going to get some more of those frozen vegetables the next time they go on sale, just to go on hand.