30-Minute Dinner Solution – Pork & Fried Rice

This is a sponsored post written by me on behalf of Smithfield® Marinated Pork.

If you’re looking for a quick dinnertime solution, you’ve come to the right place! Today I’m sharing an easy fried rice and pork dish that goes from kitchen to table in about 30 minutes!

Weeknights have become mighty busy for us lately, with the girls practicing soccer and cheerleading in the evenings. John usually gets stuck at work, so it’s up to mom to shuffle everyone around, plus have dinner ready to go after practice. The girls have just enough time to shower and eat dinner before bedtime on these evenings, so it’s important to have dinner made quickly.

Even on the busiest of days, I prefer to make dinner at home. With a tiny bit of planning, we can have nice hot meals waiting at the table by the time everyone is done getting cleaned up from practice.

The commissary has everything necessary for making fried rice, including Smithfield® Sweet Teriyaki Marinated Fresh Pork Tenderloin. I started buying these Smithfield Fresh Pork Tenderloins when John and I got married years ago, because of how flavorful and easy to prepare they are! There are SO many flavors to choose from, making it simple to incorporate fresh pork into any meal!

I can even on save prep time by grabbing a bag of frozen peas & carrots or even a container of diced onion. What I love about the Ft. Knox commissary, is that even on payday, shopping is a breeze! Just me and the retirees! 😉 I can quickly swing by before or after preschool pickup/drop off, or even while I’m shuffling the girls between practice on post. 

I started making my own fried rice, while stationed in Hawaii. The Americanized Chinese food that most of us are used to isn’t the norm there. After a few years of living without good take-out, one starts to develop quite the craving, so homemade it is! We ALWAYS have some leftover cooked rice in the fridge, so tossing everything into a pan for fried rice is simple!

First things first, the oven needs to be pre-heated to 425 F, and the Smithfield® Sweet Teriyaki Marinated Fresh Pork Tenderloin needs to go in as soon as the oven is hot. The tenderloin takes about half an hour to cook, and cooks while the rice is being prepared.

For this easy fried rice, start with some sesame oil in a pan, then toss in the onion and frozen vegetables to saute for a bit. The next step is to toss in cold rice and mix everything well to combine! When it comes time to add in the eggs, I prefer to drop unscrambled eggs into a well in the pan. Scrambling the eggs in the pan gets you lots of the little white bits that I love in my eggs.

Don’t make the mistake that John made the first time we tried making fried rice. Scramble the eggs in the well before combining them with the rice. Otherwise, you’ll end up with ricey scrambled eggs. Not good!

The final step is pouring in some soy sauce and stirring everything well to combine! Once the pork has cooked, slice it into medallions to serve on the side, or even dice it up and mix it into the rice.

Ta-da! In 30 minutes or less, you have a complete meal ready to eat! Perfect for those busy weeknights!

If you have a 30-minute meal to share, enter the Smithfield Real Flavor Real Fast Contest for a chance to win a trip or hundreds of other great prizes!