dinner in a hurry

The past couple of weeks have been a bit busy with something after school for the boy most days. Wednesday is the hardest, as gymnastics doesn't finish until 6:45 and then we have to get home, have dinner, and all the other things that come at the end of the day. This week I changed it up a bit and took the boy to the rec center a good bit before his class, and we hung out together, he worked a bit on his mathematique homework and had a snack before he ran up the hall to the gym for his class. And I had prepared for dinner before we got home.

Tuesday morning, instead of dashing off to work at my usual early hour, I had an appointment so I tried to get a jump on Wednesday. I put a pot of rice on. (That I forgot it a half hour later when I ran out to door to my appointment and had to have my husband go and rescue it is one of those oops moments - thank goodness everything was ok. From now on, doing my dinner prep in the evenings). Anyway, when I got home on Wednesday night, I had some cold rice, some leftover pulled pork from the freezer and made up pulled pork fried rice using a recipe from Jenny of Dinner, A Love Story, that was in the March Bon Appetit.

So make the rice ahead of time (but not in a way that threatens to burn your house down) and this is a good and quick dinner for those crazy no time to make dinner nights.

Pulled Pork Fried Rice (adapted from Bon Appetit)
1 tbsp olive oil
3 shallots, minced
2 garlic cloves, minced
1 tbsp grated ginger
3 c cold, cooked rice
1 egg, beaten
1 c pulled pork, thawed
1/2 c frozen peas, thawed
1/2 c frozen corn, thawed
3 tbsp soy sauce
2 tbsp unseasoned rice vinegar
1 tsp toasted sesame oil

Heat the oil in a large saute pan over medium-high heat. Add the shallots, garlic and ginger and cook for about a minute. Add the rice and stir to coat with oil, breaking up the lumps with a spoon. Cook for about 2 minutes. Push the rice to one side of the pan, and add the beaten egg on the other side. Push the egg around the pan to cook and then mix into the rice. Add the pork and peas and cook for a couple of minutes to heat through. Then add the soy sauce, rice vinegar and sesame oil and cook, moving and stirring for another minute. Serve.