Batch Cooking: 4 Meals in One Hour

Have you got about one hour?  You can cook four meals and be ready to start your week! 

The menu?  Fajita Beef Strips, Taco Meat, Lemon Greek Pork Chops, Eggplant Pasta Sauce, and Roasted Garlic Hummus. (Now, the hummus takes longer than one hour due to the cooking time for dry beans and roasted garlic but you can just leave them cooking while you do other things.)

What you need for now:

• Pork Loin Chops (4 pack)
• Beef Round Steaks (1 inch thick)
• Lean Ground Beef (1 lb)
• Eggplant
• Onion
• Spinach or Mixed Salad Greens
• Garlic (3 bulbs)
• Dried Chickpeas (2 bags)
• Olive Oil
• Dried Basil
• Lemons
• Dried Oregano
• Southwestern Seasoning
• Tomato Sauce (8 ounce can)
• Tahini or Sesame Seeds
• Salt & Pepper
• Petite Diced Tomatoes (2 – 14.5 ounce cans)

For later:

• Cheese Tortellini
• Parmesan Cheese
• Instant Brown Rice
• Frozen Vegetable
• Pita Chips
• Tortilla Chips
• Toppings of choice for Taco Salad
• Flour Tortillas
• Fajita Vegetables of your choice (an combination of peppers, onion, mushrooms, etc.)

Step One: Gather ingredients and make your plan.

I pulled out everything I needed for the recipes and quickly thought through how to get everything done at about the same time with very little effort.  I repeat… VERY LITTLE EFFORT, because I am really very lazy!

Step Two:  Grab your pans and line them up.

First, I put two bags of dried chickpeas to simmering on one burner.  Then, I pulled out a medium Stoneware bar pan for the pork chops and set the oven to preheat at 350 degrees. Next, I grabbed a large (12 inch) skillet and set it on another burner (to set to medium heat in a minute) for my fajita strips.  Last, I placed a medium skillet on the third burner for the ground beef.  That left one burner free to boil water for tea.

Step Three: Prep your meat and get it cooking.

In a bowl, combine 4 tablespoons of olive oil with the juice of one lemon, 1 tablespoon dried oregano, 1 pressed garlic clove, 1/2 teaspoon salt, and 1/4 teaspoon pepper.  Whisk well.  Drop in pork loin chops and toss to coat. Leave on the counter for ten minutes.

Slice the round beef into 1/4 inch strips and place in another bowl.  Season heavily with cumin, salt and pepper.  I wish I could tell you how much but it is only a guess…  1-2 tablespoons cumin, 1 teaspoon salt, and 1/2 teaspoon pepper. Toss it well to coat and allow to rest.  Turn the burner on medium-high heat for the large skillet.

Put ground beef in medium skillet and turn the burner to medium heat.

Step Four: Chop, slice and dice your way to an easy week!

That left me to pull out the cutting board and wash my vegetables. I set up a little station with my “trash” bowl, large Santoku Knife and vegetables, ready to go.

Time out: Put the pork on the baking pan and place it in the oven for 30 minutes.  Pour 1-2 tablespoons of olive oil into the large skillet.  Lay half the strips in the skillet, not crowding the pan so they will brown and not steam. Wash your hands and head back to your cutting station.

Dice the onion. Peel, slice and dice the eggplant. Coarsely chop the greens. As an optional step, you could prep your vegetables for fajitas. Go ahead and take an extra five minutes to prep any other veggies you need for the week for lunches and snacks.  My array of vegetables included my taco salad toppings (avocado, tomato, greens and black olives) since I decided that we would have that tonight and I prepped that last.

Step Five:  Finish up your meat.

Flip the fajita strips.  If you do not use lean ground beef, you will need to drain it.  Add the tomato sauce and 3 tablespoons of southwestern seasoning.  Mix and allow to simmer for five minutes.  This gives you time to set the table for dinner.

Remove the fajita strips from the skillet and start the last batch. 

Place two heads of garlic on a small baking pan.  Slice off the tops.  Drizzle with olive oil and sprinkle with salt.  When the pork is done, remove it from the oven and put in the garlic (for about one hour or until the top bubbles and browns.)

Flip the fajita strips and turn off the taco meat.  Make the tea and start cleaning up your mess. Remove the remaining fajita strips from the skillet.  Wash the skillet and return to heat.  Add 2 tablespoons of olive oil to the skillet and then put in the eggplant, onion and garlic.  When it becomes tender (about five to ten minutes), add the greens, two cans of petite diced tomatoes, 1 teaspoon dried basil, salt and pepper.  Heat through and turn off the skillet.

Sit down and have dinner with your family!

After dinner, put the pork chops and fajita strips into freezer containers.  Place the eggplant sauce in a container too.  Remove the garlic from the oven and allow to cool.  When the chickpeas are done, allow them to cool and drain. Squeeze the garlic into a bowl and mash.  Add the garlic, chickpeas, lemon juice (half a lemon), about 2 teaspoons sesame seeds, 1/2 teaspoon salt, 1/4 teaspoon pepper and 2 tablespoons olive oil to a food processor.  Pulse until smooth.  Add more olive oil if necessary.  Divide in half.  Put half in the refrigerator and half in the freezer.

Finish cleaning your kitchen and turn off the light!

Night One:  Cook cheese tortellini according to package directions.  Drain and place in large skillet with thawed eggplant sauce.  Cook through about five minutes.  Top with Parmesan cheese and serve.

Night Two: Make brown rice and a frozen vegetable according to package directions. Heat pork loin chops in the microwave.  Serve with pita chips and hummus on the side.

Night Three: Place 1 tablespoon of olive oil in a hot skillet.  Add fajita vegetables, salt and pepper.  Cook until crisp-tender and then add the thawed fajita strips.  Heat through and serve with warm flour tortillas.