Fried Rice

So, to take a turn from baking, I decided to try a little typical family meal, and it seemed easy enough. I'm half Filipino, so growing up around my Grandma, we ALWAYS had her fried rice (which is of course, the best). So, trying to take in a little bit of my heritage, I tried to (sort of) recreate her meal but also using the recipe.

The normal recipe:

2 1/2 cups white rice

1/2 cup of diced carrots

1/2 cup of bell-peppers

1/2 cup of thinly sliced green onions

1/2 cup of peas

Grandma, though, decided to substitute a few things, and after debating a bit, we came up with this recipe:

2 1/2 cups white rice

1/2 cup of diced carrots

1/2 cup of peas

1-2 egg

Sliced ham

The first step was to heat up the rice in a pan until it turned slightly dark, but still white (p. 62). So, after tossing around the rice for a bit, we sliced up the carrots and added them in the pan, as well as the peas and some leftover ham we had from a weekend before. The directions say to keep the heat of the oven low while mixing all these together, careful not to burn the rice (p. 62). Then, we cracked open the egg in a separate pan and cooked it until it was scrambled. Grandma showed me how to toss the scrambled egg into the pan and cut it up while mixing the rice together. It was already lookin' pretty good!

After we finished up cooking the rice, my Grandma helped me pack it into small tiny bowls, and then turning it over on a plate, releasing the rice. It made it look like we were eating at some sort of fancy Asian restaurant!

My question is if it's okay to do this with other recipes. Mix them around a little and add just enough of your own ingredients to make it your own, or does it only work with some?