Kitchen Fake Out

We had boneless country style ribs to eat up. I had planned to make them with potatoes and make chicken fried rice another night. DD2 and I were thinking Chinese food all weekend when DH was gone, but pushed ordering aside, remembering our savings targets. Instead, I decided to make a fake Chinese take out last night. I put a bit more sauce on the ribs and put in the oven to slowly warm and let the new sauce bake in. While those were heating, I made a couple cups of minute rice and took pup for a long walk while the rice absorbed the water. I had added a stock cube and a little soy to the water to give the bland rice a bit of flavor.

When we were back, I made my quicky fried rice, without chicken. I'll save the chicken for a hot dish later in the week I guess. Here's my fried rice fake out, not really a recipe, plan.

After making the minute rice, push it all to the sides to leave a patch of pan in the middle and heat up a couple tablespoons of vegetable oil.. The oil starts to bubble, push around a bit under the rice, and then scramble three eggs, one at a time, stirring each egg into the rice mixture after it cooks. Add a few more teaspoons of soy for flavor. 

Meanwhile you shift the rice and egg mixture around the large frying pan, steam a bag of mixed vegetables.  Once done, add to the rice and egg mixture as well. Voila, easy veggie stir fried rice. 

It went  well with the the leftover ribs, which almost had a pork satay flavor with the double cook in BBQ sauce. DD2 is a meat nibbler these days, and liked the ribs, but she loved the rice. There were two good size ribs for DH and plenty of rice, leaving a portion for DD2 to heat up after her track meet tonight. I feel quite successful in turning leftovers and simple ingredients into enough of a fake take out that our hankering for Chinese was put at bay for a few days. Anyone have some successful trials in your kitchen lately?