Weeknight Beef Fried Rice

Busy weeknights call for easy recipes like this beef fried rice. Add this 15 minute recipe to your meal plan and enjoy restaurant quality food at home. This is budget friendly and so delicious you’ll want to add this in your rotation of go-to meals.

MEAL PREPPING IS IMPORTANT

There’s nothing worst than dinner time approaching and there’s nothing prepped to make for dinner.

To make this quick and easy 15 min recipe, prep your rice and ground beef in advance. I like to make my rice in the Instant Pot because it’s done in 6 mins. Leftover rice makes the best fried rice.

If there’s one trick I learned in the kitchen recently, it’s prep as often as you can. For me that’s once or twice a week. I’m also very new to meal planning and meal prepping.

Here’s what I’ve learned so far…

1. By meal prepping some of my ingredients, it allows me to make meals much faster and overall ensures we have less food waste and stress in the kitchen.
2. By meal planning our meals, I save on the budget because I shelf cook as much as possible.

WHAT IS SHELF COOKING?

Shelf cooking is simply cooking with mostly what you already have. It allows you to shop your indigents at home and intentionally make recipes using those ingredients instead of buying more ingredients for every meal.

WHAT TO PREP

To make your life easier, chop your onions in advance. I like to chop my onions with my food chopper I got on Amazon.

 Use my affiliate link to get one if you’re interested. (I earn a commission if you use my link to purchase the food chopper.)

To prep the beef for the fried rice recipe, I simply

• portioned out my organic ground beef
• browned it in oil and added 1 tsp sea salt, 1 tsp black pepper, 1 tsp onion powder

Groceries are getting super expensive these days and for the price I’m paying, I wanna eat good at home. It’s the only way to stay on budget and still have healthy and delicious options your family will actually want to eat.

If you’re struggling to stay on budget, I recommend incorporating at least 1 meal per week using what you already have and you’ll instantly start saving money on groceries.

Stay tuned for more tips to cut cost on groceries as the prices for food is still on the rise.

INGREDIENTS YOU’LL NEED

All the ingredients for this recipe I purchased at Costco. Here’s what you’ll need to make your 15 min beef fried rice. This will make a total 6 servings or 4 large servings.

Ingredient list:

• 1 small/medium onion
• 1 cup thawed frozen organic mixed veggies
• 1/2 pack of organic ground beef or 300g ground beef
• 3 cups cooked basmati rice or any rice you like
• Soy sauce (to taste)
• Salt & pepper (to taste)
• 1 tsp onion powder
• Avocado oil

HOW TO MAKE 15 MIN BEEF FRIED RICE

Follow these simple instructions to make your 15 min beef fried rice.

Instructions:

1. First you’ll want to add some oil to your pan. I’m using a cast iron pan with some avocado oil. Add enough oil to cover the bottom of the pan.
2. Chop your onions and add them to the oil. Brown the onion until they start to get translucent. This usually takes 2 minutes.
3. Add your frozen veggies to the pan. Sauté the veggies with the onions for 2 mins.
4. Season your veggies with salt & pepper. You can add as much as you need. This will serve as a base for flavour when we add in the rice.
5. Add cooked ground beef to the pan. Sauté everything together until the ground beef starts to get some crisp. This adds texture to the fried rice and helps the flavours combine really nicely.
6. Add cooked rice to the pan and mix everything together really well. Allow the rice to fry together with the other ingredients.
7. Add soy sauce until the rice gets to the colour and flavour of your liking. It’s important to taste-test as you go to ensure your seasonings are enough for your portion size.
8. Plate & enjoy.

WHAT I LOVE ABOUT THIS RECIPE

I love that this recipe is mostly organic. So if you’re trying to convert to more organic products, this is definitely the one for you. A common thought is that organic foods is too expensive however eating organic doesn’t have to be expensive if you shop smart.

This recipe is so good you have to try it out. It’s a go-to for us and I love that it’s kid-friendly and you can garnish with green onions or red chilli flakes for more flavour and spice. You have to add this to your monthly meal plan and make this as often as you’d like.

RECOMMENDED SIDE FOR YOUR FRIED RICE

Although beef fried rice is perfect on its own, it’s even better when you add a veggie as a side. For me, the more veggies the better. If you’re trying to make your meals stretch further and overall healthier, I recommend adding veggies because it’s a healthy side and veggies normally take little time to put together.

The perfect side for my 15 min beef fried rice is sautéed garlic zucchini. It’s colourful, healthy and the perfect additional to make your beef fried rice look like something you ordered at a restaurant.

 If you’re interested in making easy sautéed garlic zucchini, I shared how to make it alongside my beef fried rice in this video.

THE SHOPPING LIST

When you make this recipe, add all of the ingredients I purchased from Costco to your shopping list and pick them up on your next shop. A nice bonus is, most of these you’ll already have on the shelves at home. That’s a shelf cooking win!

Add to basket 🛒 

• KS basmati rice
• KS organic frozen mixed veggies
• KS organic ground beef
• Seasonings
• Soy sauce
• Zucchini
• Avocado oil
• Lodge cast iron skillet

For more easy recipes like this, visit my YouTube channel where I share recipes, hauls and the latest deals available at Costco Canada. Also, check out my Instant Pot review here on the blog if you’re considering getting and IP too.

Enjoy this delicious recipe and come back for more! So, what’s for dinner this week?