A Look at an Efficient Cooking Session

As a challenge, I decided to see if I could prepare two Shabbat (sabbath) meals in an hour, not including cooking time.

Here’s the menu:

  • Roast chicken with garlic, lemon juice, and oregano
  • Potatoes in the pressure cooker
  • Roast vegetables: Turnip, onion, garlic, beet, sweet potato, yellow pepper, rosemary.
  • Cholent (a stew in the crockpot)
  • Techina (sesame paste dressing).
  • Cake, challah and soup from the freezer. I try to separate baking from cooking when I can, because they use different ingredients and tools.
  • Salad, made by my kids closer to the meals.

Simple Microwave Recipes

In my recipes, I like to include instructions for using a variety of cooking methods. Some people don’t own microwaves, but in a dorm or hotel room, that may be the only cooking tool available. Different methods work better for different people and situations.

Reader Ilana-Davita’s stovetop broke, and in the absence of a crockpot she requested microwave recipes. Here are a couple of simple ones. They all require microwave-safe utensils, like toughened glass, ceramic, or silicon.