Not my Mother's fried rice

I think all Asian families have fried rice as a staple. For my family we usually had fried rice on Sunday mornings, it was either that, or omelets over rice. My Mom would make it with left over rice, bacon, bologna, and onions. Although it is called 'fried' rice, my Mom never used oil, (who needs oil when you are frying bacon!) so the 'fried' in our fried rice was always the frying pan it was cooked in. My favorite part of the meal was the crispy bottom. My Mom would let it cook at a low heat until the rice got nice and brown, it had to be scraped off the bottom of the pan, yum, my mouth is watering just thinking about it.

Ryan has found a obsessive love of rice. He loved to eat it off of my chopsticks. Now that he is asserting his independence, he eats it with his hands and a fork. Almost every day he asks for rice. I've taken to making HUGE batches of fried rice and freezing it just so I have some on hand. (I took a picture of the two frying pans full, but it doesn't look that appetizing so just imagine two large frying pans full of rice.)

Every time I make fried rice for Ryan, I think about just how different my version is from my Mother's.

I use chicken breasts, organic green beans, organic carrots, and any other organic vegetables I can throw in there. I would never consider nitrate laden processed lunch meat! I do however make sure there is a nice crispy layer, and it is Ryan's favorite part too.