Day-old cold cooked rice works best. Prepare it the day before and refrigerate; or use leftover white rice from Chinese takeout. To make your own, add water, butter, and rice to heavy saucepan, bring to a boil, stir gently, reduce heat to medium-low. Cover and cook for 15-20 minutes. Remove from heat and fluff with a fork. Allow to cool completely, and refrigerate in a covered container.

Prep all your optional ingredients so everything's ready to throw into the skillet when the time comes. I usually do this the day before too. Ingredients should be cut into bite-sized pieces. Things you don't want to be super crunchy in the rice (yellow onion, carrots, bell pepper, water chestnuts) will be added to the skillet before things that basically just need quick warming (green onion, bok choy, snow peas) which get added during the last minute.

Whisk together all sauce ingredients and set aside.

START COOKING: Add about 1 tablespoon oil to large, deep skillet or wok. On high heat, cook any meats and shrimp you're using until just done, then remove from skillet and set aside. Next, if you're using scrambled egg, fry that and set it aside with the cooked meat(s). Do the same with mushrooms; I find caramelizing the mushrooms a bit brings out more flavor.

Add another tablespoon of oil to the pan. Toss in the longer-cooking veggies and stirfry about a minute. Add the cold cooked rice and break it up with your spoon. Stir in the sauce. Continue cooking, stirring, another minute or two. Add all the ingredients you pre-cooked in the previous step and stir to combine. Stirfry 1 minute then add the quick-warming ingredients (green onions, bok choy) and stirfry just enough to warm, 30-45 seconds. Enjoy!

OPTIONAL: I usually have a bottle of my Asian Marinade & Stir-Fry Sauce in the fridge and sometimes use it in place of the sauce recipe given here. Both ways are delicious!