to cook well, then (1) make a menu, and (2) use parallel processing.

occasionally i adjust my strategies, in efforts to cook more often.

one of them includes writing a menu for the week. by necessity they require ingredients and preparation times, which immediate gives rise to setting up schedules and shopping lists.

anyway, here's a rough draft of this week's menu:

southwestern special:

spicy black bean stew w/ adobo,
savory corn muffins,
vegetable fajitas [1]

lazy noodle bowl [2]:

miso soup with rice noodles,
sauteed choy from the asian market
pan-fried gyoza.

proper stir-fry:

curried asian eggplant, mushrooms, and tofu,
rice-quinoa pilaf.

soup which i can cook, while writing a seminar talk:

as made with potatoes, lentils, peas, carrots, maybe fish or seafood, too, and served with good bread and hommos.

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cooking notes:

[1] along with the standard saute veg like bell pepper, mushrooms, and such, i'll follow a friend's style of adding mashed potato or yam, as a twist on refried beans. it would save me the stylistic redundancy of having beans in two dishes.

[2] this is not so much 'lazy' as impatient. if you stack the steps, then it takes very little time to make this.

it's the cook's version of parallel processing. if you know how to code, then think of the soup as one thread. the gyoza and choy form another thread where the racing condition for the saute pan is solved with a lock; since the choy needs more prep than the gyoza, it goes last.

the key is that you don't have to watch the saute pan every minute. if only for reassurance to newbies -- for a conventional stove on "high" heat settings, there wouldn't be enough time to burn anything anyway ..

first,
(1a) boil water for the soup,
(1b) wash/chop the choy,
(1c) thaw frozen gyoza in microwave (1min),
then add with oil to a frying pan -- 5 minutes.

then,
(2a) add noodles to the boil,
(2b) turn the gyoza over,
(2c) smash/chop a clove of garlic -- 3 minutes.

and then,
(3a) place the gyoza in a separate bowl to cool,
(3b) turn off the boil, remove from heat -- 30 seconds.

lastly,
(4a) add miso paste to the noodles & water,
(4b) fry the choy and garlic,
(4c) dice 3 fingers of tofu, 1 finger of green onion,
add to the noodles, raw -- 3 minutes.

(5) add everything together,
voila: a noodle bowl in <12 min: game on!