Best Simple Fried Rice Recipe

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I love, love, love fried rice! When you combine it with easy and get a simple fried rice recipe, it’s a winner all around!

best simple fried rice recipe

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Secret ingredients are always a good sign! This recipe has a couple and the extra pop of flavor makes it the best fried rice.

I love using basmati rice when making this. I’ve even used brown basmati. If you don’t have that, try using a long grain white rice.

Try using cauliflower rice if you are limiting your carbs. Shredded cabbage you saute with the rest of the veggies would also likely work.

bowl of dry rice for simple fried rice recipe

If you have a super busy day, this recipe is perfect because you can prep your vegetables the day before (or even several days before). You can also use leftover rice because day old rice makes the best fried rice. See, I told you this is a simple fried rice recipe. 🙂

Did you know you can also freeze fried rice? (I wouldn’t do this with cauliflower rice.) Simply make the fried rice and let cool completely. Place in freezer storage bags or food storage containers and place in freezer. Pull out of the freezer the night before or morning of when you are going to use them and let thaw in the fridge. Saute in a skillet for 5-10 minutes until warm

simple fried rice recipe ingredients

If you don’t mind reheating in the microwave, this would also be perfect to freezer in single serving amounts to pack for work lunches.

Secret Ingredients!

There are a couple ingredients that put this simple fried rice recipe over the top.

  1. Fresh ginger. Of course fresh garlic is involved, but the ginger adds a little something special.
  2. Toasted sesame oil. If you’ve never had this, you are missing out! My picky, opinionated 5 smelled the bottle and proclaimed how good it smelled. Do yourself a favor and get some for this recipe and for making the best Asian salad dressings. (I’ve linked to it on Amazon, but I’ve found it at Aldi for a great price before.)
  3. Sambal. Okay, this is totally optional. My kids don’t use it, but I’m obsessed. It adds a kick and a little extra punch of flavor. I blame my dad for turning me onto this years ago. You could also use siracha (I’ve also found the equivalent of this at Aldi).

simple fried rice recipe square picture

Favorite tool!

I LOVE using a microplane for the ginger and garlic. It makes it fast and super easy.


P.S. I love using fried rice to sneak in lots of veggies. 🙂  In these pictures, it’s the amounts listed in the recipe, but often times I add in extra.

Simple Fried Rice Recipe

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Best Simple Fried Rice Recipe
 
Ingredients
  • 1 cup diced onion
  • ½ inch ginger, peeled and minced/micro-planed
  • 3 cloves garlic, minced/micro-planed
  • 2 cups shredded carrots
  • 1 cup frozen corn
  • 1 cup frozen green beans
  • ½ cup frozen peas
  • 6 cups cooked cold rice
  • 1-2 cups cooked, diced meat (optional)
  • 3 scrambled eggs (optional)
  • oil
  • 1 tablespoon toasted sesame oil
  • ¼ cup soy sauce
  • Salt and Pepper
  • Sambal or siracha (optional)
Instructions
  1. Heat a large pan over medium heat and add a little cooking oil (can use butter).
  2. After heated, add the onions and stir and cook 5 minutes. (Lower heat if needed.) When beginning to soften add garlic and ginger and continue to cook another 3-7 minutes until fragrant and tender.
  3. Add carrots and continue to saute. After a few minutes add the frozen vegetables and continue to saute until everything is hot and tender. (Add meat at the end of this time if using.)
  4. Add rice to the pan and stir over medium high heat for 3-5 minutes. Add soy sauce and and sesame oil and stir to combine.
  5. Take off heat and adjust soy sauce and salt and pepper if needed.
  6. Add scrambled eggs if using.
  7. Serve with sambal or siracha on the side.

 

The best simple fried rice recipebest simple fried rice recipe ingredients

 

Easy Ways to Save Money On A Tight Budget

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I’m sure there are a lot of us wanting easy ways to save money on a tight budget. Whether we are trying to save money up for a big savings goal or because of the lack of money coming in.

picture of small plant surrounded by coins and words easy ways to save money on a tight budget

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When we were in the middle of paying off our house early we were always looking for easy ways to save money on a tight budget. Every little thing added up.

Now that our house is paid off, we are still trying to save money where we can. Retirement needs more put towards it, taking a vacation, and saving some money up for kids’ college funds are all on the list of goals. Watching what we spend, budgeting, and making our money work for us is a part of life.

Some of them we are doing for a season and others are a pretty permanent part of our lives but together they are allowing us to live on less so that we can put more toward whatever our savings goals might be.

10 Easy Ways to Save Money on a Tight Budget

1. Lower Your Grocery Budget

This is one of the first things to look at when you are trying to save and my personal favorite of the easy ways to save money on a tight budget. It’s easy to gradually start spending more and more on groceries over time. If you don’t want to keep it super low forever, that’s fine but do it to help out while you income is lower or your are trying to reach a savings goal.

This is a big one in our house. In fact, our most popular post is on how I keep my grocery budget at $150 a month. Over the next year, these tips are especially important  for us as our extra money that sometimes went toward grocery splurges is now all going to the house.

Some favorite ways to lower your grocery budget: cook from scratch, menu plan, and using meat as a condiment.

I have my favorite menu planning template available for all of my newsletter subscribers. A lot of money has been saved using this method.

2. Simplify Birthdays, Christmas, and Holidays

It is super easy to go overboard. How often do we keep on finding one more present for our child or want to give them the newest and best gadget. Even the Easter basket has to be piled high.

There’s nothing wrong with any of these things, but you might want to consider scaling back. Set a smaller budget and stick to it. Spend time with your kids and make memories with them instead of spending.

You or your spouse can consider doing without gifts altogether. As an adult, it’s easy to understand why and see the big pictures. Shaun and I aren’t giving each other birthday or Christmas presents and we keep things simple with the kids.

If you minimize your gift spending try using the next tip and you might be able to cover a good portion of your gifts without spending anything out of pocket! Here I have some tips on Christmas Presents on a budget and taking the emphasis off of gifts at Christmas!

pictures of clock and stacks of coins

3. Earn Gift Cards with Swagbucks for Presents

I love Swagbucks. It’s an easy way to earn points you can redeem for gift cards. If you follow tip number two and cut your birthday and Christmas spending down, the gift cards you earn will pay for a good chunk of the presents.

If you work at using Swagbucks (and have a smart phone) you could earn over $300 in a year. This post has some of my favorite easy ways to earn Swagbucks on your computer and this one is about earning them on your smart phone!

4. Drink Water

Forget the pops, juices, coffees, and teas for a while and just stick to water! Not only is it good for you, it’s also the most affordable! The costs of all those other beverages really add up. I promise your kids won’t die without milk at every meal and juice for breakfast.

Milk for drinking and juice are super rare purchases in our house and it really helps save money. Over three years later, this is still true at my house.

5. Skip the Vacation

Our vacations consists of trips to see family and a season tickets to a theme park 5 hours away. This year, since we knew we were going to be pinching pennies, we decided to forgo the season tickets.

We aren’t saving a ton on money because as far as vacations go, it really is quite affordable but the ticket purchase and gas costs for driving there several times still will save us hundreds of dollars. If you take bigger vacations, this could equal thousands of dollars.

I know it doesn’t mean skipping out on the vacation is easy, but remember the big picture and make it a goal to save up for a fun little trip down the road.

In the meantime, find ways to have fun and memories locally.

6. Shop Your Closet

Avoid the mall and all the clothing deal sites for a while and just wear what you have. I’m already a big fan of buying used clothes and shopping clearance racks but sometimes you just need to take a break from even that.

A perk of this, is after wearing all your clothes (instead of having the stash you never touch) you’ll know what items you want to keep and which you should pass on. A more organized closet is never a bad thing. 🙂

7. Eat at Home

It’s nice to get a break from cooking, but restaurants aren’t cheap. You have the cost of a meal and then add the tip in and you could cook a lot of meals at home with what you just spent. Even at a fast food or fast casual restaurant things add up when you are buying for a family.

If eating out is something you love, put gift cards on your birthday and Christmas list (and use coupons when you go out to make them go even further). Otherwise, think about your big financial goal or view it as something you are giving up until your finances increase.

8. Cut the Cable

Get rid of your paid television service. No more cable or dish.

It’s okay. I promise you’ll survive. I know these might be ones that don’t seem like an easy ways to save money on a tight budget. 😉

When we got rid of it several years ago I think my husband was pretty skeptical. It really hasn’t been that bad. Then take it a step further and don’t replace it with Hulu Plus, Amazon Prime, or Netflix. How much TV do we really need to watch anyway? Utilize your library, free Hulu, and free streaming on network sites so you can keep up with your favorite shows.

dollar bills with easy ways to save money on a tight budget on top.

9. Cheaper Cell Phone Rates

Cell phones are straight up expensive but there are a few things we’ve found to do to save money.

  • Save money by negotiating lower rates with your cell phone provider. We saved an additional $15 a month by talking to the retention department.
  • My husband has a smart phone and uses Google Voice instead of paying for a texting plan. It has its quirks, but it is fine for his needs.
  • Use a dumb phone. I’ve occasionally thought about getting a smart phone over the years but it’s something I can’t justify doing right now. An extra $15 to $30 a month might not seem like a lot, but all those things add up so I keep my basic talk only phone. (Yes, I even have texting turned off). Maybe after we get our house paid off or our income increases I’ll reconsider, but right now it works.
  • 3 years later and I now have a smart phone. It wouldn’t have happened except that I was needing a new phone and we found a great deal and a new affordable plan.

10. DIY Lawn Care and Pest Control

Okay, so honestly weeds in the yard are something that doesn’t really bother me. Let them grow. (Bonus: it would  mean no toxic chemicals I have to worry about.) My husband, on the other hand, can’t stand them. Plus it makes all your the people in your neighborhood upset if you don’t take care of your yard. Instead of paying a lawn care company to come take care of it, he went to the local lawn and garden store and got their recommendation on what to use and when. It takes a couple hours a few times a year but it saves a lot of money and we can put the money saved toward something else.

The same goes for spiders and insects. I’m not a lover of toxic chemicals being sprayed around the house, but I’m also really not a fan of venomous spiders (or actually any kind-of creepy crawly insect) in my house. You can pay someone or once again you can go to the local store and get recommendations for your area and do the spraying yourself.

11. Read Good Books!

Go to your local library and find some books with inspiration to help you come up with easy ways to save money each month. Try The Tightwad Gazette, More Than Just Making It, You Can Stay Home with Your Kids!: 100 Tips, Tricks, and Ways to Make It Work on a Budget or even Dave Ramsey. If your library doesn’t have any, don’t forget you can ask them to purchase or interlibrary loan them.

This is just the start of the easy ways to save money on a tight budget that we’ve used in our house. I think a part two might be coming.

Those little things that you don’t think make a difference really do add up. Put them together and you’ll find you are saving a decent amount!

What are some of your favorite easy ways to save money on a tight budget? 

Be sure to join our community on Facebook and follow us on Pinterest!

plant and stack of coins with words easy ways to save money on a tight budget square stack of dollar bills saying easy ways to save money on a tight budget

Chocolate Banana Oatmeal Muffins

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Chocolate banana oatmeal muffins. Don’t those just sound yummy?! But I suppose it’s hard to go wrong with a recipe that calls for cocoa powder and chocolate chips. Even better when it’s not horrible for you. 🙂

chocolate banana oatmeal muffins in tin and on a plate.

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We don’t always eat gluten free (<—- click there for a great list of gluten free recipes) but we have needed to on a few occasions. These muffins are a yummy treat the kids and I both enjoy (whether or not we are gluten free 🙂 ).

I don’t put much sweetener in my muffins and quick breads, but if your family is used to things pretty sweet just increase the sweetener a touch.


Because these chocolate banana oatmeal muffins are made with oat flour and rolled oats, the texture isn’t quite the same as traditional muffin. It is a cross between a muffin and baked oatmeal but they are quickly gobbled up by everyone in my house. They are great for breakfast or snack. Don’t tell my kids how healthy they are because they’ve even made an appearance for dessert.

They are also perfect freezer food. Cool completely after baking and freeze in a zipped storage bag. Thaw a short time and reheat slightly before eating. Yum!

baked chocolate banana oatmeal muffins in tin and a muffin split in half

I don’t like my muffins super big, (small size is slightly more kid friendly) so I make 12 regular muffins and 12 mini muffins. Use the longer baking times if you are making larger muffins.

Speaking of muffins, I have to share with you my favorite muffin pan. I discovered these last year and have fallen in love. Get this, I don’t need to grease the pans and everything has come out easily. I have the standard size and the mini pan.

Chocolate Banana Oatmeal Muffins

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5.0 from 2 reviews
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Chocolate Banana Oatmeal Muffins
 
Ingredients
  • ¼ C. honey (or use ¼-3/4 C. sugar)
  • 1 C. milk
  • 2 T. coconut oil or butter, melted
  • 2 eggs
  • 2 t. vanilla
  • 3 ripe bananas, mashed
  • 2 C. old fashioned rolled oats blended to oat flour
  • 1 C. old fashioned rolled oats
  • 2 t. baking powder
  • ¾ t. salt
  • ½ c. cocoa powder
  • ½ c. chocolate chips
Instructions
  1. Preheat oven to 350 (325 if dark coated pans)
  2. Combine honey/sugar, milk, fat, eggs, vanilla, and bananas.
  3. Mix well.
  4. Mix in oats, baking powder, salt, and cocoa powder.
  5. Stir in chocolate chips.
  6. Bake for 15-18 minutes for regular muffins or 10-11 minutes for mini muffins.

 

If you like this recipe, you might also be interested in these Gluten Free Oat Flour Banana Muffins that are also dairy free!

close up of chocolate banana oatmeal muffins in tin and on platechocolate banana oatmeal muffins stacked on napkin and in tin

Recipe adapted from Lynn’s Kitchen Adventures

Easy Ways to Avoid Raising Ungrateful Children

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Do you ever wonder if you are raising ungrateful children? Our kids have long lists of wants. Wants that they think are needs. My kids have all their needs met and have so many extras yet they still complain about what they don’t have.

picture of boy jumping with text that says easy ways to raise grateful children

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What are some easy ways to avoid raising ungrateful children?

I’m learning as I go. My children are still young. I don’t know what I am doing. If it makes you feel better, Kristin Welch at We Are That Family says that the secret to raising grateful kids doesn’t exist. (Bummer, I know!)

Yet I do know I want to raise grateful children. I do know I get tired of hearing “I wants” and that what they have is not enough in their little minds.

Thankfully, I think as parents there are some simple things we can do to help cultivate gratitude in our children.

7 Ways to Avoid Raising Ungrateful Children:

1. Serve

Isn’t there something about serving that takes your eyes off of yourself? Be there for those around you. Serve not only financially but also with your time. Have your kids be very involved in the process.

Here are some simple ideas to get you started:

  • Making cookies for someone that recently had a loss
  • Delivering a meal for a family after a surgery
  • Doing yard work for an individual who can’t
  • Volunteering at a refugee center, homeless shelter, or crisis pregnancy center

2. Don’t Give Your Children Everything

Just because your child wants something, doesn’t mean you need to buy it for them! It might feel mean to say no when all of their friends have it but it’s okay to tell your child “no, you aren’t old enough or it’s not appropriate” or “you are right, that sounds like a lot of fun. If you want it, you will have to save up for it”.

When you work hard for something, it’s tends to be appreciated (and taken care of) a lot more. It will also help your children learn that money doesn’t magically appear – they learn and appreciate its value.

Not only will your kids be grateful for their prized item when they save up and make the purchase, they will also be more grateful in the future for things that are given them.

3. Gratitude List

Anyone else guilty of sometimes forgetting the big picture? Of sometimes only seeing the negative and stressful moments? I know it can’t just be me. Our kids are the same way! Having a gratitude list is a great way to help change their mindset and how they view life.

Buy a simple notebook for everyone in your house and challenge them to start writing down 2 or 3 things they are thankful for everyday. Even the little ones can get involved – have them dictate to you their “thankfuls”. You can also print off one of the free gratitude printables in the resource library you receive access to as a subscriber!

4. Thank You Cards

Did you grow up writing thank you cards? Keep the tradition going with your kids! After their birthdays and Christmas have them sit down and write (or draw) notes before they spend the money or use the gifts. My mom was great about doing this with us. I’ve tried to continue doing it with my children. I need to work on being a little more prompt with it. Thank you cards months late just aren’t quite the same.

5. Ditch the Media

Companies everywhere are trying to get our kids to want to have (have to have) their products! If the “gimmes” and “I wants” are a big problem in your house, consider how much screen time they have. Commercials, YouTube channels, ads on electronic devices, and kids’ shows can all contribute to the need for more. Limiting media might also just help your kids enjoy and utilize the toys they do have!

6. Read the News

Read the news with your kids or give age appropriate summaries. Learn about other countries and cultures around the world. Being aware of the world outside of their own community broadens their horizons and gives them a bigger picture. Learning about natural disasters and fighting in another country suddenly makes your want seem not quite as important.

7. Leading by Example

This is a little scary, isn’t it? Our kids are watching us and how we react. If we change our tune and start responding to circumstances differently, they probably will too.

As parents, do we have to have the latest and greatest gadgets, best vacations, nice cars or are we content with what we have now? Are we okay with taking the time to save up for a purchase?

Instead of seeing the glass half empty, purpose to look for the little glimmers of hope, the gifts in our lives, and all that we have to be grateful for even when life isn’t going the way we want. What an example we would be to our children.

We need to give thanks in everything. Not just the good, not just the exciting. Not just when life is going well. Even when it’s a struggle to find one thing to be thankful for.

When we do, and we let our children hear us give thanks, we are influencing them and how they respond. How can we do that – give thanks even in the bad? There’s only one way – looking to Jesus. Our joy has to be found in Him.

What ways have you found to avoid raising ungrateful children?

Don’t forget to check out the resource library for the free gratitude template downloads!

If you want to read an entire book on this subject, check out this one by Kristin Welch:

picture of balloon with chair and text about ways to avoid raising ungrateful children

picture of table with journal and text about ways to avoid raising ungrateful children

Easy Gluten Free Meals You Need to Try

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Easy gluten free meals.

Easy gluten free meals that are tasty and healthy! These will make menu planning to much easier. Ideas for breakfasts, lunch, snacks, supper, and dessert!

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We’ve been talking wheat free the past couple of weeks. I shared about our wheat free experiment and gave 9 suggestion to make going gluten free easier for your family (and on a budget). One of the hardest things can be coming up with recipes. A comment I heard several times from friends was “I just don’t know what I would do if we had to go wheat free. I wouldn’t know what to eat”.

Today, I’ve compiled a list of easy gluten free meals to help make your menu planning a little easier.

They are recipes that use ingredients you likely already have in your house or can easily purchase at your local store. Hopefully you can find some great meal ideas whether or not you are wheat free and also see that there is an abundance of food you can still enjoy even if you are cutting out wheat.


If you are new to gluten free eating, on the recipes that use soy sauce, be sure you read the labels because many contain wheat.

Easy gluten free meals that are tasty and healthy! These will make menu planning to much easier. Ideas for breakfasts, lunch, snacks, supper, and dessert!

Easy Gluten Free Meals:

Breakfast:

Lunch:

Supper:

Snacks:

Desserts:



Easy gluten free meals that are tasty and healthy! These will make menu planning to much easier. Ideas for breakfasts, lunch, snacks, supper, and dessert!

What are your favorite easy gluten free meals? I’m always looking for new, tasty recipes to try!

Easy gluten free meals that are tasty and healthy! These will make menu planning to much easier. Ideas for breakfasts, lunch, snacks, supper, and dessert!