One of the main issues for college students is not having enough time to eat healthily on
a budget. With this in mind we decided to make a recipe full of vegetables that tastes good, helps students get the nutrients they need, and doesn’t take much time or money. This Budget-Bytes vegetable fried rice recipe is something simple that many students will go out of their way to buy at a restaurant. However, fast food options cost more per serving (ours is only $1.13) and take more time than you would realize, due to driving there and waiting in line.

On the flip side, we were able to get this done in about 30 minutes, even faster than a
takeout delivery! Like we mention in the video linked below, this recipe really isn’t too hard to make. The recipe instructions are straightforward and all it takes is washing and cutting the vegetables, cracking/whisking eggs, heating oil, and sauteeing it all together with rice! We’ll give you more details below

This recipe can be done even quicker with various strategies like prepping vegetables
beforehand or using pre-minced garlic and ginger paste (or the powdered forms). Another thing that helps is to make the rice ahead of time (the day before) and refrigerate it overnight. Something interesting to note is that leftover/day-old rice is actually better for this recipe than fresh rice because it’s less sticky.

Cost Breakdown

Take a look at the cost breakdown for this meal:

Preparation Techniques

All the preparation and cooking techniques for this recipe are super simple- great for
college students just getting into cooking. All you’ll need is a knife, cutting board, stovetop or induction burner, a few bowls or plates, and one pan (or wok, if you have one). Once the
vegetables are cut up, the process is pretty quick moving! So go ahead and get in the zone to chop those veggies and get cooking! If you wanted to dirty one less bowl, the rice could be pushed to one side of the pan after toasting with the garlic and ginger and you can scramble the egg on the other side of the pan.

Take it to Another Level

In our kitchen, cooking sustainably and keeping it budget-friendly is important to us!
So here are a handful of possible options to lift some weight o your wallet while still enjoying what you eat:

• Sustainability: Use whatever vegetables you have that may go bad in your fridge! Broccoli, cauliflower, mushrooms, onions, cabbage, and zucchini would all make a great addition to this simple veggie-lled recipe! You could also add in some leftover chicken, ham, or even lunch meat for some extra protein.
• Easier additions: A frozen stir-fry mix could replace whole, fresh ingredients to make prep easier and cut down the cost even more! If grating ginger is too much of a hassle, feel free to replace the fresh ginger with the powdered form or ginger paste (although it can be quite expensive), the same thing with garlic (possibly a jar of minced garlic).
• Budget-friendly options: As mentioned above, a frozen stir-fry mix would be cheaper than buying individual, fresh vegetables. The SNAC pantry on campus has lots of groceries available to students for free! Rice is a staple in the SNAC pantry and could cut down the cost even more. SNAC also carries a variety of produce, meat, and canned goods that you could substitute to make things even cheaper.
• Tips and tricks: use long grain white rice to avoid clumpy, sticky, fried rice. If you prefer spicy fried rice- feel free to add sriracha, chili powder, or red pepper akes when cooking your vegetables! If you want a lower sodium meal, make sure to use a low sodium soy sauce as well as watch how much salt you add in. The seasonings we used were super flexible, so feel free to measure with your heart, and add in what you like!

References: https://www.budgetbytes.com/vegetable-not-fried-rice/

Cost Breakdown

About the Recipe

I was excited to try this recipe, as I have cooked tofu before for soups, but never thought to incorporate it into a salad. About half the ingredients are fresh produce, which were very easy to find in a grocery store, and all the other ingredients were fairly easy to find as well. The original recipe called for optional sriracha in the dressing, but I decided to omit it for the sake of cost and preference. I had vegetable oil on hand, so I substituted that for canola oil in the recipe for personal ease. Some ways to make this recipe more budget friendly include buying generic brands when possible, buying produce in season, and if desired, omitting certain ingredients to cater to personal preference. One of the best parts of this recipe is that it is using tofu in place of meat, which is more sustainable versus consuming meat. Another way to make this recipe more sustainable includes composting the vegetable scraps.

This meal was fairly simple to make. Chopping all the vegetables did take some time, but it wasn’t unmanageable. For the sake of this assignment, I prepared a mise en place for a picture, but when I make this recipe again, I would start pan frying the tofu first and then chop all of the vegetables so that they aren’t sitting out as long. Other than that small detail, I didn’t have any issues preparing this meal. Once the tofu was done and I blended the ingredients to make the sauce, I was able to easily throw everything together into one big salad bowl.

Overall, I really enjoyed this recipe. To serve, I used a bowl and put about two large handfuls of spinach in, then added the vegetables and tofu on top. To eat, I mixed everything together. I prepared this meal alone, so for the other three servings this recipe made I put the rest of the meal in another bowl for me to save as leftovers. In the future, I may omit the sesame seeds in the salad itself, but would keep them in the dressing. I recommend anyone wanting to try incorporating tofu and more vegetables into their meals to give this recipe a try.