Cooking food is one more step between you and eating, but also one step away from explosive diarrhea and salmonella. All in all, that means you have to cook most foods – here is a list of the top 5 that don’t require much time, skill, or effort to do so.
- Eggs – The nice thing about eggs is there are countless ways to cook them and make them more than a Spartan meal if you’ve got accessories. Hard boiling, sunny side up, and scrambled are the most convenient. Add some salt, pepper, and tomatoes to fancy them up, if you can be bothered.
- Rice – Remember, boil 2 cups of water for every cup of rice and make sure to add salt as you do. Salt increases the boiling point of water; the hotter the water, the less time to cook. Add 1/4 stick of butter per cup of rice for quick flavor.
- Pasta – You can boil the hell out of this stuff and never go wrong. Add some melted mozzarella for about 5 minutes after yo’ve strained the water. Leave the burner on low and stir. Butter and red peppers and you’ve got a 15 minute meal.
- Vegetables – Steam, boil, or better yet microwave them. Microwaving veggies preserves the most vitamins than other forms of cooking (about 89%). Buy frozen so you can stay stocked up and add some olive oil and salt for zing.
- Chicken – Boil at high heat for around 30 minutes. It won’t taste that great, but next to some of the above dishes i’ll pass. Black pepper and sour cream make great additions.
Some of the key rules of thumb to remember are buy frozen, if you can boil it it’s easy, and salt and pepper go along way. I once read a famous chef describe the difference between gourmet and standard food. The key? It’s all about the spices, leverage them and you can whip up a quick treat in no time.
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Skip boiling the chicken and use an outdoor grill. Mine is propane, takes less than 10 min to come up to temp, slap the chick breasts on the lowest setting for 15 min, smothered in your favorite BBQ sauce or dry rub, flip and let sit for another 10-12 minutes, remove and enjoy.
Most people don’t understand that when you open your grill hood, the temp can drop 100 degrees in 2-3 minutes, and there is no benefit to flipping food 4-8 times. I’ve been flipping chicken and steak once for the last few years of grilling with GREAT results.
The only thing I don’t like about the propane grills is lack of “smokey flavor” (aka. carcinogens).
If you’re out to the grill, I’d recommend also throwing on some veggies – especially tomatoes (whose lycopene is more effective when heated).
aop1980 – I’m with you on the smokey flavor – but you can get wood chips for most propane grills, they take less time to heat up, easier to maintain a solid temp and are far easier to clean up. If it’s about time savings, propane is the way to go.
Why isn’t baked potatoes on this list? Clean them and throw them in the oven for 45-60 min… enjoy.
I’ve gotta agree with you on this one – there are many potato products I should have included.
Potatos = lazy person’s dream.