Making dinner from dust

The mother's after-school prayer: "Oh God what am I going to cook?"

OK, so it's not exactly Old Mother Hubbard, but what am I going to cook for dinner?  It has to appeal to children of 12 and 8 (one gastronomically extrovert, the other who prefers junk), to be nutritionally sound and on the table in less than 30 minutes.

Fortunately, I have a fridge as well.  And in it lurks a packet of chicken breasts and a few vegetables on the brink of decay.  Tonight we will be having glazed chicken and fried rice, with strawberry fro-yo for pudding if I can chip it out from the permafrost in the freezer.

The cupboard wasn't bare but it wasn't very inspiring

Glazed chicken:

Mix together 4tbsp balsamic vinegar, 2½ tbsp brown sugar and 1 tbsp tomato puree.  Brown chicken in pan and remove from heat.  Pour in balsamic vinegar mixture, bring it to a simmer and stir until the sugar has dissolved.  Put the chicken back in the pan and cook, turning occasionally.

Fried rice

Dice a couple of carrots and cook them with the rice.  Add a few frozen peas/sweetcorn a couple of minutes before draining the rice.  Drain the whole lot.  Gently fry a well-chopped onion until transparent and sweet (or fry a few spring onions for a couple of minutes instead), add the rice and veg and a few sploshes of soy sauce.

Score extra nanny-state-5-a-day points if you have another vegetable to serve with this.

Serve it up and wait for the whoops of appreciation...