Pineapple Black Fried Rice

Last week, when I was sick, I was particularly bummed out that I didn't have the stamina to cook myself something wonderful from the most recent Food & Wine magazine. But not this week! The only stipulation for this week was that everything I made had to be easy and quick. But no one said anything about it not being special. Enter: this brand new recipe from this month's Food & Wine for Pineapple Black Fried Rice.

Quick, simple, and super special. Plus, a ton of my favorite flavors! Extra extra bonus!

Planning!

As this is a new-to-me (and everyone else) recipe, I did run the nutritional numbers on it. It turns out to be a fairly light dish, even though it is packed with delicious ingredients and has a huge wow factor. For my needs, I felt that it could benefit from more protein, and I personally love a ground pork in a stirfry; ground pork can take on a beautiful carmelized crust, giving it a really nice flavor that boosts a stir fry. Plus, it is fairly lean. And it goes great with pineapple. Decision made.

Also, as I have mentioned previously, I'm not a huge fan of reheated bean sprouts, so I decided to leave those out.

Here's the nutritional breakdown from Fitbit...

Groceries I had on hand...

• vegetable oil
• onion
• carrot
• garlic
• mustard greens (from this week's soup)
• sweet chili sauce
• soy sauce

Groceries I had to buy...

• chile pepper (.01lb @ $6.99/lb = $.07)
• black rice ($5.19)
• frozen edamame  ($4.99)
• pineapple ($3.42)
• scallions (1 @ 3/$1.99 = $.67)
• ground pork (.94lb @ $5.99/lb = $5.63

Total monies spent for the entire recipe: $19.97

Total monies spent for each of these 4 meals....

$4.99 per meal...

Cooking!

Stir fry comes together in a flash. My biggest concern was about the black rice, because I've eaten it (delish) but not yet made it til today. The magazine said to steam it for 20 minutes. After 20 minutes, I was skeptical so I checked the back of the bag. It said 35 minutes, so I kept it on the heat for another 15 minutes, and voila! Black rice!

Other than that, stir fry!

here goes nothing!

mmmmm... steamy yumminess

mustard greens, waiting patiently set aside from soup prep

ground pork went in after the onion, before the garlic and chile

yes, crusted pork bits

plus aromatics

looks like a lot of mustard greens, but...

can you find the greens now?

in goes the rice

plus pineapple, edamame, and soy sauce

all cozy together

and finally the scallions and chile sauce

Yummy, crunchy, sweet, savory, salty, veggie-y, protein-heavy, luxurious stir fry!