* Garbage bowl: allocate a mixing bowl on the counter to collect garbage and drop cuttings and other refuse in there. Saves you from having to go to the trash bin every time.
* Preheat watery vegetables in the microwave. Things like onions, mushrooms, etc. are mostly water, and you can avoid having to wait for them to reduce in a pan by nuking them for 2 minutes in the microwave first.
* When boiling water or cooking almost anything in a pot, cover it with the lid! It will trap the heat inside the pot and boil/cook faster. So many people don’t use the lid just to save themselves from having to wash it. The only time not to use the lid is if you need to reduce the liquid or allow volatiles to escape.
* Cooking bigger batches of food takes essentially the same amount of time as smaller batches. Make portions big enough that you can get at least two or three more meals from it.
* Learn to use your oven! Too many people get enamored with single use gadgets when the oven already does so many things. People complain that it takes too long to heat up but it really doesn’t.
* Keep your knives sharp: Do NOT use an electric sharpener, just a simple drag over a stone every few months is probably all you need. A sharp knife is SAFER than a dull one.
* Throw away all cutting boards not made of wood or plastic (dump the plastic too if you’re concerned about it). Any cutting board made of glass, marble, metal, or any other hard material is destroying your knives.
There's actually a lot of stuff you can halfway-heat in the microwave.
Air frying frozen <anything>? Nuke it for 2 min and air-fry for 3 min, instead of air-frying for 12 min.
Ice cream rock solid? Nuke a pint for 15 seconds. It won't melt, just soften.
Cold ketchup in a dipping bowl? Nuke for 5 seconds to bring it to room temperature, so you're not putting cold ketchup on warm food.
But the best? You know how tomatoes get a mealy texture when kept in the fridge, which is why everybody says not to keep in them in the fridge, even though they last so much longer that way? That's only as long as they're chilled. Nuke for 10 seconds to bring back to room temperature. The texture returns 100% to normal.
I do a lot of cooking and own quite a few kitchen knives, most of which have bitten me at some point. I understand the idea around sharp knives being safer...but I don't agree.
If a razor sharp 210mm Japanese carbon steel knife touches your finger, it's split open and might need stitches or glue. A less-sharp knife would need more weight behind it to cut effectively which can lead to you completely severing a finger, but simple slices are a much more likely scenario than your finger being completely under the knife to the point where it's effectively a digit-guillotine.
If your knife is sharp enough you will eventually cut the shit out of yourself because it slices so easily. You’re essentially waving around an 8 inch razor blade.
If your knife is dull enough you will eventually cut the shit out of yourself because it takes so much effort to cut that a slip becomes a stab. The amount of effort you have to put in to do basic stuff like cut carrots can be high enough that give up some control of the blade.
A knife at a good level of sharpness will cut with reasonable effort but not be a giant razor blade. I think for most people this is likely the safest level of sharpness.
There was a long thread here where people were arguing about this topic.
My take is that people saying sharp knives are safer don’t understand how average people are using knives.
Totally different than in restaurant setting or ‘self proclaimed chef’ setting where you are going to chop loads of stuff fast or you get angry customers or you take pride in your chopping and slicing skills.
Worst offenders were sharpening knives for other people and then they were surprised that those people would cut themselves with sharp knives… none of the story included a person who was perfectly happy with their dull knife cutting themselves with that dull knife.
I have one of those rubbermaid tall/thin trash cans where my kitchen island used to be. Sometimes I will pull my fridge into the middle a little bit so it's easier to get at. That's the kitchen optimization advice that I would offer - The kitchen island is often a productivity & convenience scam. It took me a long time to learn this. From a simple geometric & topological perspective, being able to walk directly between everything without having to always pick a direction around some obstruction will reduce your cortisol levels by a scientifically-quantifiable amount.
Same thing with giant peninsulas and breakfast bars. They're there to look nice for real estate photos, not to be a useful thing that gets used often. If you want a table in the middle of your kitchen rip out the island and put a kitchen table there. It's more comfortable and you can actually look at the people you're eating with.
> * Garbage bowl: allocate a mixing bowl on the counter to collect garbage and drop cuttings and other refuse in there. Saves you from having to go to the trash bin every time.
How about just put the garbage near your workspace while you're working so you can more easily dump stuff into it? I just generally put a bag on the floor near the sink
I bought a really powerful disposal so I cut next to the sink and slide any organic matter right into it. Cannot recommend upgrading your disposal highly enough. Mine says in the manual to clean it by tossing a lemon in.
> * Garbage bowl: allocate a mixing bowl on the counter to collect garbage and drop cuttings and other refuse in there. Saves you from having to go to the trash bin every time.
My wife has got the ultimate solution. She cooks (I really suck at it) but I clean the kitchen. And, well, while she cooks she hardly puts anything in the bin: mostly everything stays on the countertop, which becomes a gigantic mess.
She empties the cutting board on the countertop. Rinse and repeat. Easy. Well, for her at least ; )
> When boiling water or cooking almost anything in a pot, cover it with the lid!
Blows my mind when I see people boiling water (huge pots of water!) with no lid on. In many cases, they were waiting around 30 minutes for the water to boil. It surprises them to learn that a lid will speed it up.
I never see anyone trying to bake with the oven door open, but somehow boiling water without a lid is okay?
Or throw away blunt knives and purchase new ones every once in a while. Many people can't be bothered with sharpening their knives, so it's better for them to just get new ones. Or send them to professional sharpeners.
For people like this, the best path is probably to buy cheap knives and a one of those cheap knife sharpeners that destroys the blade over time. One of those angled carbide sharpeners believe a terrible edge, but better than a dull knife.
I guess if you prefer nicer knives, you could always buy new ones periodically and give the old ones away on buy nothing to someone who will take care of them.
Pay someone to sharpen them for petes sake. I can't fathom why you would suggest that seemingly off hand, secondary to throwing away and buying new knives.
The argument for not using electric sharpeners is that they (1) cut down the lifetime of your knife substantially and (2) they do a mediocre job of sharpening.
Mechanically, it's just high-abrasive motorized spinning discs at preset angles. So rather than getting a good edge by taking a few microns of material off by doing it manually, you get an OK edge by taking 0.2mm off at a time. (If 0.2mm doesn't sound like a lot, think about how many mm wide your knife is.)
---
I'm personally 50-50 on this advice: most people don't sharpen their knives at all, and I think people are better off getting 10 OK years out of a knife than 50 terrible years out of it.
The thing about giving advice is that some people will think it’s obvious, but those aren’t the people who need the advice, it’s the people to whom it wasn’t obvious.
And I don’t see what country/location has to do with this, as I imagine plenty of places use bad materials.
When I read the above comment I couldn't figure out what material they were using other than wood or plastic. I don't think using glass is common, at least I've never seen it in the US.
I find mis-en-place is a great optimization, especially if you have kids.
For hot water, I have a 2L thermos which I keep filled with boiling water to make hot drinks, with a quick reboil if necessary, and also to use as cooking water. I think there are plumbed in versions of this which would be even better.
Bread-making - I just use a bread machine to make day-to-day bread (specials hand baked etc on weekends sometimes.) For the daily, I pre-measure ingredients (both wet and dry) for 10+ loaves, individually packaged (kids are a great production line again). The to make the bread, just throw in the packets and press the buttons...
No doubt most people already do this, but for some reason my wife can't get it .. keep everything in the same place all the time. It really wastes time and 'stressergy' to have to hunt for the measuring spoons or the molasses or whatever because they were put back in a different place.
I'm sure commercial chefs could add a huge list of tricks that are still applicable at home to this.
Or if you have an already incomplete set of scrabble tiles: attach magnets to the backs of the ones that spell "dirty" and "clean". Whichever isn't scrambled on the door is the state of the dishwasher.
Or simply don't rinse the dishes before you put them in[0]. I've never had trouble telling.
[0] Exceptions: uncooked eggs, yogurt, and for some reason, salsa? None of which ever come off for me if they sit for long before you run the dishwasher.
I've often wondered why the dishwasher vendors didn't put a label on the little flip open door so that it actually said, "dirty" on the outside, and "clean" on the inside.
That's a good one. One I tend to do is, once I know i will run the dishwasher overnight, I will set it to run with a delay. That way, even if I forget to put in the last few items, it's going to run and I will not run out of clean stuff. (My dishwasher is fairly slow, as it's a built-in one and can't pop open to dry).
I'm fully convinced that dishwashers are a hoax. Doing the dishes manually is far more efficient, both in water used, energy and time spent. Things to consider: time spent determining if the item is dishwasher proof, time spent playing dishwasher tetris, time spent filling and emptying, time pre-cleaning before putting things in the dishwasher, time spent re-washing after it turns out that the dishwasher did not clean your as well as it advertised on the box.
I can do the dishes after a family meal just as fast, and with better and more consistent results en less water, than when using the dishwasher.
> time spent determining if the item is dishwasher proof
It's done once per item. In my case I have just a few things I know are not dishwasher proof.
> time spent playing dishwasher tetris
Get a bigger dishwasher.
> time spent filling and emptying
The same time you'd spend putting things in the sink and taking them out after you've washed them.
> time pre-cleaning before putting things in the dishwasher
No need to that, unless you leave actual chunks of uneaten food on your plates.
> time spent re-washing after it turns out that the dishwasher did not clean your as well as it advertised on the box
Try powdered detergent. There are a few Technology Connections videos discussing dishwashers, including how capsules are inefficient - basically they're used up on the "pre-wash" cycle. There are a few other tricks to improve the efficiency of the dishwasher, too.
So you have a few things to do once and a few things to do always, which you'd do with hand washing anyway. Having a dishwasher is a game changer. If you're not happy with the results, don't give up just yet. Think of how to improve the process, because it's possible. At first I was also skeptical and disappointed in my (first) dishwasher.
Any modern dishwasher is very efficient on water (and on heating). That said, I don't have one myself. Dish washing time is thinking time or podcast time for me.
The issue comes when there are multiple people using the kitchen. Sometimes my wife runs the dishwasher when I'm not around, or vice versa. We usually rinse our dishes, so there is not always a lot of visible evidence.
The problem is when you have a dirty dish and assume that the dishwasher contents are dirty too (because usually we unload the dishwasher soon after it finishes). Then you put a dirty dish in, possibly making other dishes dirty. So you have to either hand-wash several dishes or re-wash the entire load.
Less known optimisation: have a slide rule handy[1]. They are amazing for working with proportions which happens all the time in the kitchen.
Just today I needed 200 g of chocolate for a dessert. The bars were 160 g each and made into 21 rectangles. Set the slide rule to 200:160 and read out the value of x:21, which turns out to be 26.25 -- the number of rectangles needed. So convenient to be able to do that quickly and with messy hands.
- I need 200g
- Bars are 160g
- So I need 1 bar + 40g
- 40g is 25% of 160g (this one's easy, but precision is rarely critical -- and if you think it is, ask Siri)
- So I need 1 bar + 1/4 bar
Kohler makes a touchless faucet. You wave your hand under the faucet and it turns on and off. I've had one for years, and it's great in the kitchen. Most commercial lavatories have the same technology.
I so desperately want this, I think about it about 5 times a week and probably mention it to my wife as often. But in my old small house I doubt I could ever get one set up. Much better than a touch less one.
Oh wow, I've never even heard of these. Now I want one, though my daughter is within months of being able to crawl, so maybe I'd better skip it for now.
Load stuff directly into dishwasher and as soon as you decide you don't need it.
In general small cleaning tasks are great filler for any wait in dish-making
I got a bunch of time-saving (or at least time-sync-effort-having) from just air-fryer option to run 2 programs at time (basically set different times and it will take care of starting them in such way they both finish at once).
Put carbs like potatoes in one chamber, meat in other, set and start it, make some salad/tea/whatever else in mean time, 15 minutes and done.
> Especially because getting the water boiling is so often a limiting factor, it's worth considering this sort of optimization. I probably spent extra hours per year cooking before I changed how I boil water. There are many common tasks like this in the kitchen; it's worth thinking carefully about them.
Prepare stuff while it boils, like, you either boil stuff into stew in the water or boil some kind of pasta or other carb there, surely there is plenty of other parts of the dish to make in meantime?
I've found that cooking extra food with the intent of freezing it in individual portions is a game changer for when I'm alone at home - my fiancée can also pack them for lunch. Rice, curries, ragoûts are really nice to get out of the freezer, put on a plate in the microwave and eat a few minutes later.
Look at Souper Cubes (or any silicon knockoff) for the molds.
Living with a shared kitchen I had a neighbor (+gf) once who hated cooking. His solution was to cook only once per month. It was quite hilarious, he made about 40-60 meals in one day. Giant pots everywhere.
He would print a menu card for the month with all the 3-4 course meals. He would set the table, light candles, poor the wine and argued what to microwave.
I forgot to add that he bagged the food, freezes it in containers then pulls the brick out of the container. That way they are all the same width and height and he can fit 150 in his freezer.
And last but not least, he also printed a checklist and a map to navigate the freezer.
Batch cooking is the only way to have two working adults.
I love to cook though, so at home, one cooks the batch part and the other does a different meal for the weekend.
We think our cooking is much better than almost all restaurants we go (and we heard from others that our guests usually thinks the same).
Embrace asynchronous cooking with a rice cooker. Maybe you can cook rice in a pot, maybe you can't, but you definitely can't do it while you're busy working or when you're out of the house. It cooks the rice and waits for when you're ready.
In my opinion this is one of the under-rated advantages of sous vide. Most proteins have a very wide range of time in which they are appropriately cooked; often between 1 and 4 hours. Having the meat be ready to go, with at most a few minutes of searing time, at any point in a couple of hour window is really convenient.
Our go-to "we didn't plan a meal tonight" is to pull an already-seasoned-in-the-sous-vide bag chicken breast out of the freezer, throw some rice in the rice cooker (I agree with the original point about rice cookers), and microwave some frozen vegetables.
It's a pretty well balanced (if somewhat unexciting) meal that takes ~10-15 minutes of active work, is extremely flexible on timing, and has pretty minimal cleanup.
It does take a few different levels of prep though:
Packaging the chicken breasts (and having the freezer space to store them), and then realizing you are going to make this meal at least 2 hours, preferably 3, beforehand to start the sous vide
Seriously. Add a pressure cooker in here too: you can put the rice cooker on, then chop and prepare your pressure cooker items, put that on for 20 minutes and then it basically all finishes at the same time.
Readit News
* Garbage bowl: allocate a mixing bowl on the counter to collect garbage and drop cuttings and other refuse in there. Saves you from having to go to the trash bin every time.
* Preheat watery vegetables in the microwave. Things like onions, mushrooms, etc. are mostly water, and you can avoid having to wait for them to reduce in a pan by nuking them for 2 minutes in the microwave first.
* When boiling water or cooking almost anything in a pot, cover it with the lid! It will trap the heat inside the pot and boil/cook faster. So many people don’t use the lid just to save themselves from having to wash it. The only time not to use the lid is if you need to reduce the liquid or allow volatiles to escape.
* Cooking bigger batches of food takes essentially the same amount of time as smaller batches. Make portions big enough that you can get at least two or three more meals from it.
* Learn to use your oven! Too many people get enamored with single use gadgets when the oven already does so many things. People complain that it takes too long to heat up but it really doesn’t.
* Keep your knives sharp: Do NOT use an electric sharpener, just a simple drag over a stone every few months is probably all you need. A sharp knife is SAFER than a dull one.
* Throw away all cutting boards not made of wood or plastic (dump the plastic too if you’re concerned about it). Any cutting board made of glass, marble, metal, or any other hard material is destroying your knives.
There's actually a lot of stuff you can halfway-heat in the microwave.
Air frying frozen <anything>? Nuke it for 2 min and air-fry for 3 min, instead of air-frying for 12 min.
Ice cream rock solid? Nuke a pint for 15 seconds. It won't melt, just soften.
Cold ketchup in a dipping bowl? Nuke for 5 seconds to bring it to room temperature, so you're not putting cold ketchup on warm food.
But the best? You know how tomatoes get a mealy texture when kept in the fridge, which is why everybody says not to keep in them in the fridge, even though they last so much longer that way? That's only as long as they're chilled. Nuke for 10 seconds to bring back to room temperature. The texture returns 100% to normal.
Everyone laughed at me.
I'm still pissed off about it.
Use 50% power and check in 10 second increments:
* ATK: https://www.youtube.com/shorts/FZCgQp8D2Xw
If you think ahead, put it in the refrigerator 30 minutes before you need it.
I do a lot of cooking and own quite a few kitchen knives, most of which have bitten me at some point. I understand the idea around sharp knives being safer...but I don't agree.
If a razor sharp 210mm Japanese carbon steel knife touches your finger, it's split open and might need stitches or glue. A less-sharp knife would need more weight behind it to cut effectively which can lead to you completely severing a finger, but simple slices are a much more likely scenario than your finger being completely under the knife to the point where it's effectively a digit-guillotine.
If your knife is sharp enough you will eventually cut the shit out of yourself because it slices so easily. You’re essentially waving around an 8 inch razor blade.
If your knife is dull enough you will eventually cut the shit out of yourself because it takes so much effort to cut that a slip becomes a stab. The amount of effort you have to put in to do basic stuff like cut carrots can be high enough that give up some control of the blade.
A knife at a good level of sharpness will cut with reasonable effort but not be a giant razor blade. I think for most people this is likely the safest level of sharpness.
There was a long thread here where people were arguing about this topic.
My take is that people saying sharp knives are safer don’t understand how average people are using knives.
Totally different than in restaurant setting or ‘self proclaimed chef’ setting where you are going to chop loads of stuff fast or you get angry customers or you take pride in your chopping and slicing skills.
Worst offenders were sharpening knives for other people and then they were surprised that those people would cut themselves with sharp knives… none of the story included a person who was perfectly happy with their dull knife cutting themselves with that dull knife.
I googled around and the best I could find was https://skeptics.stackexchange.com/questions/23661/are-sharp... (11 years ago) which could only speculate that sharp knives reduce RSI.
This is also one of the central ideas around making computers go really fast.
> Throw away all cutting boards not made of wood or plastic
https://www.johnboos.com/collections/cutting-boards
> Garbage bowl
I have one of those rubbermaid tall/thin trash cans where my kitchen island used to be. Sometimes I will pull my fridge into the middle a little bit so it's easier to get at. That's the kitchen optimization advice that I would offer - The kitchen island is often a productivity & convenience scam. It took me a long time to learn this. From a simple geometric & topological perspective, being able to walk directly between everything without having to always pick a direction around some obstruction will reduce your cortisol levels by a scientifically-quantifiable amount.
This is the classic kitchen work triangle, popularized in the 1950s. It's still true today!
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kitchen_work_triangle
Plastic cutting boards will contaminate whatever you are cutting on it with a load of micro and, in many cases macroplastics.
Seriously, give your plastic board some action without food on it and then carefully collect the shavings.
How about just put the garbage near your workspace while you're working so you can more easily dump stuff into it? I just generally put a bag on the floor near the sink
Use a produce bag for what little is left.
My wife has got the ultimate solution. She cooks (I really suck at it) but I clean the kitchen. And, well, while she cooks she hardly puts anything in the bin: mostly everything stays on the countertop, which becomes a gigantic mess.
She empties the cutting board on the countertop. Rinse and repeat. Easy. Well, for her at least ; )
Blows my mind when I see people boiling water (huge pots of water!) with no lid on. In many cases, they were waiting around 30 minutes for the water to boil. It surprises them to learn that a lid will speed it up.
I never see anyone trying to bake with the oven door open, but somehow boiling water without a lid is okay?
If you compost, your in-kitchen compost tote works really well to move near where you're trimming veggies.
Or throw away blunt knives and purchase new ones every once in a while. Many people can't be bothered with sharpening their knives, so it's better for them to just get new ones. Or send them to professional sharpeners.
I guess if you prefer nicer knives, you could always buy new ones periodically and give the old ones away on buy nothing to someone who will take care of them.
Why?
Mechanically, it's just high-abrasive motorized spinning discs at preset angles. So rather than getting a good edge by taking a few microns of material off by doing it manually, you get an OK edge by taking 0.2mm off at a time. (If 0.2mm doesn't sound like a lot, think about how many mm wide your knife is.)
---
I'm personally 50-50 on this advice: most people don't sharpen their knives at all, and I think people are better off getting 10 OK years out of a knife than 50 terrible years out of it.
I'm also not willing to learn how to use a whetstone, so I landed in the middle on this: https://worksharptools.com/products/precision-adjust-knife-s...
I've never understood this. Those things are/were just used to prevent counter-top damage here in the UK (hot pans, things that would stain etc).
We never considered them chopping boards.
Did the USA not get the memo?
Deleted Comment
And I don’t see what country/location has to do with this, as I imagine plenty of places use bad materials.
Demonstrably false:
https://www.ebay.com/itm/114968917182
Perhaps do a basic internet search before speaking for an entire nation.
I find mis-en-place is a great optimization, especially if you have kids.
For hot water, I have a 2L thermos which I keep filled with boiling water to make hot drinks, with a quick reboil if necessary, and also to use as cooking water. I think there are plumbed in versions of this which would be even better.
Bread-making - I just use a bread machine to make day-to-day bread (specials hand baked etc on weekends sometimes.) For the daily, I pre-measure ingredients (both wet and dry) for 10+ loaves, individually packaged (kids are a great production line again). The to make the bread, just throw in the packets and press the buttons...
No doubt most people already do this, but for some reason my wife can't get it .. keep everything in the same place all the time. It really wastes time and 'stressergy' to have to hunt for the measuring spoons or the molasses or whatever because they were put back in a different place.
I'm sure commercial chefs could add a huge list of tricks that are still applicable at home to this.
Signed: A pedantic French guy (pleonasm)
Result:
If there’s a tablet: it’s dirty.
If there’s no tablet: it’s clean.
Or simply don't rinse the dishes before you put them in[0]. I've never had trouble telling.
[0] Exceptions: uncooked eggs, yogurt, and for some reason, salsa? None of which ever come off for me if they sit for long before you run the dishwasher.
I can do the dishes after a family meal just as fast, and with better and more consistent results en less water, than when using the dishwasher.
It's done once per item. In my case I have just a few things I know are not dishwasher proof.
> time spent playing dishwasher tetris
Get a bigger dishwasher.
> time spent filling and emptying
The same time you'd spend putting things in the sink and taking them out after you've washed them.
> time pre-cleaning before putting things in the dishwasher
No need to that, unless you leave actual chunks of uneaten food on your plates.
> time spent re-washing after it turns out that the dishwasher did not clean your as well as it advertised on the box
Try powdered detergent. There are a few Technology Connections videos discussing dishwashers, including how capsules are inefficient - basically they're used up on the "pre-wash" cycle. There are a few other tricks to improve the efficiency of the dishwasher, too.
So you have a few things to do once and a few things to do always, which you'd do with hand washing anyway. Having a dishwasher is a game changer. If you're not happy with the results, don't give up just yet. Think of how to improve the process, because it's possible. At first I was also skeptical and disappointed in my (first) dishwasher.
Can you please make your substantive points thoughtfully? There's no need to snark or get personal.
If you wouldn't mind reviewing https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html and taking the intended spirit of the site more to heart, we'd be grateful.
The problem is when you have a dirty dish and assume that the dishwasher contents are dirty too (because usually we unload the dishwasher soon after it finishes). Then you put a dirty dish in, possibly making other dishes dirty. So you have to either hand-wash several dishes or re-wash the entire load.
Just today I needed 200 g of chocolate for a dessert. The bars were 160 g each and made into 21 rectangles. Set the slide rule to 200:160 and read out the value of x:21, which turns out to be 26.25 -- the number of rectangles needed. So convenient to be able to do that quickly and with messy hands.
[1]: https://entropicthoughts.com/kitchen-slide-rule
In general small cleaning tasks are great filler for any wait in dish-making
I got a bunch of time-saving (or at least time-sync-effort-having) from just air-fryer option to run 2 programs at time (basically set different times and it will take care of starting them in such way they both finish at once).
Put carbs like potatoes in one chamber, meat in other, set and start it, make some salad/tea/whatever else in mean time, 15 minutes and done.
> Especially because getting the water boiling is so often a limiting factor, it's worth considering this sort of optimization. I probably spent extra hours per year cooking before I changed how I boil water. There are many common tasks like this in the kitchen; it's worth thinking carefully about them.
Prepare stuff while it boils, like, you either boil stuff into stew in the water or boil some kind of pasta or other carb there, surely there is plenty of other parts of the dish to make in meantime?
Look at Souper Cubes (or any silicon knockoff) for the molds.
He would print a menu card for the month with all the 3-4 course meals. He would set the table, light candles, poor the wine and argued what to microwave.
And last but not least, he also printed a checklist and a map to navigate the freezer.
We think our cooking is much better than almost all restaurants we go (and we heard from others that our guests usually thinks the same).
Our go-to "we didn't plan a meal tonight" is to pull an already-seasoned-in-the-sous-vide bag chicken breast out of the freezer, throw some rice in the rice cooker (I agree with the original point about rice cookers), and microwave some frozen vegetables.
It's a pretty well balanced (if somewhat unexciting) meal that takes ~10-15 minutes of active work, is extremely flexible on timing, and has pretty minimal cleanup.
It does take a few different levels of prep though:
Packaging the chicken breasts (and having the freezer space to store them), and then realizing you are going to make this meal at least 2 hours, preferably 3, beforehand to start the sous vide
Sweet potato in rice cooker pot
Filet of Tuna/Salmon/Chicken breast in steam basket
Also some veg like cauliflower/brocolli Kale/Spinach in steam basket
Add 1 cup water, press quick cook/steam.
Season stuff after.
Easy cleanup - nonstick pot.