Simple(r) Hibachi Shrimp Fried Rice

 Recipe courtesy of Heather McCroan

Ingredients

• 4 tablespoons Butter

• ½ cup diced Red Onion

• 1 cup Birds Eye Frozen Mixed Vegetables

• 2 Eggs, whisked

• 4 cups Cooked Rice

• 2 teaspoons Garlic Powder

• ½ teaspoon Salt (more to taste)

• ½ teaspoon White Pepper

• 2 tablespoons Soy Sauce

• 1 tablespoon Roasted Sesame Oil

• 6oz Great Value Cooked Shrimp, (peeled, deveined, tail-off) X-Small, chopped into smaller pieces

Instructions

1. Heat a large skillet to high heat, add butter and let it brown slightly.

2. Add diced onion and saute, tossing regularly with spatula, for about two minutes.

3. Add vegetables and saute for about two minutes.

4. Push vegetables to the side of the skillet, pour in whisked eggs, and scramble.  Once scrambled, mix with vegetables.

5. Add rice, garlic powder, salt, white pepper, soy sauce, and roasted sesame oil, tossing until all rice is mixed thoroughly and brown.

6. Add chopped shrimp to rice and toss. Serve.

Long Story

This recipe piggy-backs off of the Hibachi Fried Rice recipe from Whisk Affair that you can find here.  As I get older, and subsequently more tired, I find that I am pleased enough with semi homemade food.  So I look for ways to simplify cooking so I can spend my time doing things I enjoy more.

In this recipe, I decided to use the Birds Eye frozen mixed vegetables instead of just peas and carrots.  Why not?  Fried rice isn’t probably all that good for you, especially if it is completely devoid of any vegetables, and this is what I keep on hand.  It has green beans, corn, carrots, and peas.  I highly recommend it as a freezer staple.  This mix is also great for making my Simple(r) Chicken Pot Pie.  

Additionally, I substituted garlic powder for fresh garlic.  Garlic powder keeps longer and the prep is non existent.  LOL.  Right up my alley.  I also moved adding the garlic powder to after you add the rice because typically in a recipe you add fresh garlic and only saute it for about 30 seconds, until it is aromatic.  I moved it’s placement because I wanted to make sure the powder didn’t get overcooked or burnt.

Lastly, I added shrimp because I wanted this to be an entree instead of just a side dish.  Simple… one pan dinner.

One last note, the vegetables and shrimp were frozen when I tossed them in the pan.  This is another time saver and last minute dinner saver if you are a last minute cook-er like I am.  I just hope a zombie apocalypse isn’t anything like The Walking Dead where we actually have zero power and I can’t use my freezer, then I will be in trouble.

Gluten-Free Cookies with Milk-free Chocolate Chips

Ingredients

• 1-1/2 cups Bob's Red Mill Gluten Free All Purpose Baking Flour
• 1 tsp Bob's Red Mill Xanthan Gum
• 1 tsp salt
• 1/2 tsp baking soda
• 1/2 tsp baking powder
• 1/2 cup butter, softened (1 stick)
• 1 cup sugar
• 1 tbsp molasses
• 1 egg
• 2-3 tsp vanilla extract
• 1/2 cup Nestlé Allergen Free Chocolate Chips

Instructions

1. Combine flour, xanthan gum, salt, baking soda, and powder in a bowl and set aside.
2. Cream butter, sugar, and molasses.
3. Add egg and vanilla to butter mixture and stir until combined.
4. A little at a time add flour mixture to butter mixture, then add chocolate chips.
5. I scooped about 2 tbsp per cookie (#40 cookie scoop) onto a pan, six per pan because they spread and baked at 350° for 12 minutes.
6. Remove from pan and place on a cooling rack or on top of a granite countertop covered with foil or parchment paper to cool.Makes about 24-ish cookies, but it is hard to know because we sampled the dough several times just to be sure. LOL

The Long Story

I had to write this recipe down because I combined two recipes. My son has a friend who has Celiac Disease and is allergic to milk. I attempted to make some chocolate chip cookies for her and it was like eating sweetened sand. Needless to say, we didn't pass on the gift.

I think it was partly a failure because the recipe author had decided it was possible to make gluten-free cookies without "any weird ingredients" like xantham gum. My understanding is that xantham gum replaces the job of the gluten and keeps things sticking together.

I also don't know if the gluten-free flour by King Arthur was the right choice either. It is rice and tapioca, I saw on the label. It was terribly grainy, even the cookie dough had a grainy mouth feel. But I didn't want to risk using the same flour again so I went with Bob's Red Mill Almond Flour.

At the time I was making those cookies, I added chocolate chips then had to pick them all out (I had not mixed them in yet and I have a daughter who was happy to pick them out and eat them for me) when my son said his friend was also allergic to the milk in chocolate. I instead ended up rolling them in sugar and cinnamon to make a snickerdoodle instead.

I would probably be sick all the time if I had these allergies because I have a love of all things sweet with a blatant disregard for my well-being.

So today, while grocery shopping, I grabbed some xanthan gum while on the baking aisle. But while there I walked down to the chocolate section to see if I could find a substitute for chocolate chips. Lo and behold...

I could not believe I had stumbled upon a milk-free chocolate chip. I was thinking I would find carob chips or chocolate melts! Thank you Nestlé! I bought these at Publix, which is where I can usually find odd things like xantham gum, almond flour, pepper drops (check out Delallo Pepper Drops if you like Peppedew Peppers) and apparently allergen free chocolate chips. Yes, I came home with all those things TO-DAY. I sent a picture to my son who shared my enthusiasm.

Out of necessity we both tasted the allergen-free chocolate chips and approved. They aren't exactly like regular semi-sweet chocolate chips, but they are a fantastic substitute.

When I got home, I started making the recipe from the back of the Nestlé bag, but it called for "weird ingredients" (e.g. palm oil) that I didn't have so I looked up a recipe from Bob's Red Mill and combined the two because I had already mixed the powdered ingredients together from the Nestlé recipe.

I worried, after tasting the flour, that the texture would be similar to the first version I made, but luckily it wasn't. The cookie dough has a odd flavor in my opinion, but that entirely cooks off once they are baked.

The cookies are lightly crisp on the outside, have a great chew on the inside, and taste completely normal in my opinion. My son and I actually think they might be the best chocolate chip cookies I have ever made.

I think I am even more excited than my son to have these cookies delivered to his friend so that she can have a chocolate chip cookies without having to "regret it later."