I’m sure you’ve heard a thousand reminders to donate food or money to your local food banks, but allow me to be voice one thousand and one: Please, please remember to support your friends and neighbors who are experiencing food insecurity.

I won’t presume to tell you where to donate, but there are plenty of community organizations, churches and even schools collecting food for distribution right now. Choose one you trust and give what you can. If you don’t have any spare cash, remember that you can also “shop” your pantry. Check the expiration dates, of course, but I bet there’s a rogue box of pasta or a sack of flour or a couple of cans of soup your family just didn’t love.

In case you haven’t noticed, I have a little bit of a fixation with cooking – specifically with cooking on a shoestring. I love watching YouTube channels that specialize in budget meals and have probably watched hundreds of videos focused on feeding a family for under $5 or $7 or whatever. I’ve learned a lot from those women that I would never have otherwise thought to try: substitute hot dogs for sausage, use beans or eggs for the protein in a meal.

All good ideas, but I haven’t seen an idea yet that would top the recipe I ran across many years ago when I was a brand-new cook: scrambled rice.

Is it basically fried rice? Yes. Yes, it is. But calling it scrambled rice somehow gave me permission to play with the ingredients a bit.
You really need only three ingredients to make a big batch of scrambled rice: cooked, cold rice; eggs; and some type of cooking fat. While I typically do add soy sauce or coconut aminos and onion to the mix – maybe even some leftover vegetables or meats – those are not necessary. Even if you use them, the variations are infinitely adaptable to what you have on hand.

You can make a meal out of just the rice and eggs – and I’ve done it more than once.

Regardless of your financial situation, this is a meal worth trying. Broke or not, I’d happily eat it any day.

And hey – maybe if you make this almost-free meal this week, you could donate the money you would have spent on a dinner out. (Make that reminder one thousand and two.)

Be well, y’all, and remember to love your neighbor.

SCRAMBLED RICE

Prep time: 10 minute
Cook time: 15 minutes

Ingredients:
3 tablespoons cooking fat (butter, bacon grease or oil)
1 onion, chopped
1 tablespoon minced garlic or 1 teaspoon granulated garlic
3 to 4 cups cooked, cooled rice
3 to 4 eggs
Salt and pepper, to taste
Soy sauce
Optional: cooked vegetables or meats, diced into bite-size pieces
Optional: other seasonings, such as ginger or onion powder

Directions:
■ Set the largest deep skillet you own over medium heat. Place the cooking fat into the skillet and melt. Add the diced onion. Sauté onion until it begins to turn translucent, about 5 minutes. Add garlic to the skillet and cook for about 1 minute.
■ Pour the cooked rice into the pan and stir until the rice begins to turn golden. Push the rice to the outer edges of the pan. Add more fat to the skillet if the bottom of the pan appears dry. Into the bare space you’ve made in the skillet, crack the eggs. Add salt and pepper to the eggs. Using a fork or other utensil safe for your pan, stir the eggs to cook as you would scrambled eggs.
■ Try not to stir the rice into the eggs if possible. (If you do, it will simply take longer to cook the dish. Just continue cooking and stirring until the rice is no longer shiny.) When the eggs are cooked through, mix the entire pan of food together.
■ If you are adding precooked vegetables or meats, add them now to heat through. Add 2 to 3 tablespoons of soy sauce and taste for flavor. Add more soy sauce, salt, pepper or other seasonings if desired. I usually use onion powder in addition to the fresh onion and about 1/4 teaspoon of ginger powder.

Amelia Plair is a mom and high school teacher in Starkville. Email reaches her at [email protected].

Amelia Plair is a Starkville resident who writes occasional food columns.

READER FAVORITES

• 

  ‘Bears, beets, brownies’

  By Ashlynd King • 2 days ago