After getting through the first trimester of my pregnancy, where we relied on take-out dinners far more frequently than usual, I’ve been trying to get back into the habit of daily cooking and adopting some new strategies that’ll make it easier to get dinner on the table when dealing with two kids underfoot. My favorite trick: cooking a Sunday supper that can be re-purposed into different quick meals during the week. This has the added benefit of stretching the budget for local, pastured meats.

First up, Cuban roast pork. Pork shoulder is a less expensive, higher fat cut of meat that benefits from a long cooking time. Once prepped and placed in the oven, you can head out to the playground for a while and let it cook. I served the pork, sliced, with brown rice and black beans cooked with bacon and garlic. If you can’t find a blood orange, a regular one will do.

Recipe: Cuban Roast Pork

Ingredients:

• 3 to 4-pound pork shoulder (also called Boston butt)
• 1 yellow onion, sliced
• 1 blood orange, cut into eighths
• 1 tablespoon olive oil
• kosher salt
• pepper
• smoked paprika
• 2 bay leaves
• 8 ounces salsa verde
• 1 bottle Mexican beer

Instructions: Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Season pork generously with salt, pepper and a touch of smoked paprika and set aside. Heat oil in Dutch oven over medium high heat. Sear pork until browned, 4-5 minutes on each side. Spread onions around and under pork, and arrange orange slices around pan. Add bay leaves, salsa and the beer. Cover and cook in oven for 2 hours. Remove lid and cook 1 hour more, until pork falls apart when prodded with a fork.

Remove from oven and let rest 10 minutes. Cut out excess fat, and slice a portion for the first night. Serve with rice, black beans, fresh cilantro and additional orange slices.

Prep for Night 2: Shred remaining pork, using two forks, and removing excess fat. Refrigerate shredded pork. Check back Thursday for the second recipe: carnitas!

The nice thing about Meatless Monday falling on a Monday is that it’s good incentive to eat something lighter after the heavy foods typically eaten on a weekend. Particularly a weekend such as ours, with two toddler birthday parties = pizza for lunch and dinner and way too much birthday cake. In the summer I often have a smoothie for lunch on Mondays just to detox from all the carbs I seem to stockpile on the weekends. And if the weekend was too busy for shopping, well, what better excuse to raid the pantry and clear out some pasta or grains, canned beans, and any of last week’s vegetables still languishing in the crisper.

It also helps to have a ready list of fall-back recipes, as the last thing I want to do on a Monday evening is scramble to come up with something new to cook. So I scanned through the FoodieTots archive for a list of meatless — or easily adapted — recipes:

• Baked Macaroni and Cheese with Roasted Red Peppers
• Baked Ziti with Carrots and Kale (omit the sausage)
• Organic Carrot Risotto (use vegetable stock instead of chicken)
• Sweet Cherry Coconut Kugel
• Roasted Tomato Pappardelle
• Zucchini Tagliatelle Alfredo
• Asparagus Chive Quiche
• Curried Squash Stew
• Creamy Lima Beans
• Apricot and Pepita Quinoa

What meatless recipe have you enjoyed lately?

Visit Meatless Monday’s website for more menu suggestions, and to take the Meatless Monday pledge!