Ashley,

I cook lots of stuff in those times when I'm doing other things 
somewhere near the kitchen and can just give something a stir every 5-10 
minutes without devoting much attention to it.  I saute up onions and 
mushrooms, and keep them on hand.  It does take a bit of time to peel 
the onion (I have an onion chopper that takes no 30 seconds to mince an 
onion), or wash and slice the shrooms, but then I'm done with that task 
for a week or more.  I also steam a green veggie while the onions are 
sauteing.  I do a feast of a morning scramble with meat, onion, 
mushroom, and veggies in it, and I take that to work with me.  I don't 
like eating first thing in the morning, and don't want to take the time 
then anyway.  I eat breakfast at work while reading my email in the morning.

I bake chicken a family pack at a time...put meat in pan, put pan in 
oven, set timer, don't think about until timer goes off...lunches for 
the week.  As for roasting, my indispensable kitchen tool is the 
programmable meat thermometer.  You set the thermometer for the 
temperature that you want to take the roast out of the oven, poke the 
probe into the roast, put the roast in the oven, and when the thing 
starts beeping, take the roast out.  The probe attaches by a thin, 
flexible cable to the temperature setting/beeper part, which is magnetic 
and sticks to the side of my stove.  No more checking on the roast, no 
more overcooking because I got busy doing something else.  Wipe off the 
probe and cable with a damp cloth after use, and it's ready to go 
again.  It was a little pricey, but so worth it!

I very rarely eat food at the same time as I cook it.  Yep, that would 
take more time out of my day than I'm willing to give.  But by doing 
large batches of meat and veggies, I've always got stuff ready for quick 
eating.  In the morning, while my scramble is cooking, I cut up meat for 
lunch, add raw fruit or veggies, and I'm good to go for the day.  I keep 
nuts at my desk.  If I have nuts, I often don't finish lunch, which then 
becomes dinner.  Just as often, I eat enough earlier in the day that I'm 
not hungry for dinner, so I just don't bother. 

I am lucky in that I don't mind leftovers.  I live alone, but I can 
finish a large batch of something over the course of several days.  If I 
had to cook a full-fledged meal every day, I'd end up eating crappy 
foods that my body doesn't handle well.  If eating through the day and 
not eating after about 3 p.m. means I'm doing IF, then that's what I'm 
doing most of the time. 

But check out that programmable meat thermometer!  Simplifies roasting 
considerably.

Lisa in Alaska

Ashley Moran wrote:

> On 30 Apr 2008, at 14:41, Robert Kesterson wrote:
>
>>> How about fixing things that don't take so much time and effort?
>>
>>
>> I second that.  I make breakfast and lunch at the same time (lunch  goes
>> to work with me), takes about 30 minutes or so.  I typically make a
>> stir-fry -- they're fast, easy, and tasty.  Dinner usually takes a
>> similar amount of time, so all told that's an hour a day.
>
>
> Ha, my meals are already about as simple as I can make them!  I eat  
> one meal a day currently, and it is usually one of these:
>
> * Mince meat fried with veg
> * Roast meat with veg (some roast, some steamed separately)
>
> Mince meat is about half an hour to prepare and cook, half an hour to  
> eat, 15 minutes to clean up.
>
> Roast meat is more difficult.  I prefer to cook meat slowly over  
> several hours, but it still needs watching.  Then there's preparing  
> any veg that needs steaming (15 mins), steaming it (15 mins) and  
> putting veg in the oven at the right time.  It's more the constant  
> interruption checking how things are doing than the amount of time.
>
> Thinking about it, perhaps I just have been roasting more meat  
> lately.  Mince meat is much easier to cook, but practically it's 
> about  an hour and a half from walking in to the kitchen to walking 
> out,  everything cleaned up and put away.
>
>
>> I don't know about the adrenal issue, but I do know that intermittent
>> fasting is natural and not harmful to a healthy person.  It's not like
>> paleo man had a supermarket he could run to if he was hungry.  Some  
>> days
>> the hunt was good, some days he went home empty handed.
>
>
> I'd actually like the benefits of intermittent fasting.  It boosts  
> your immune system and slows aging.  It's like calorific restriction  
> but you get to stuff yourself, which appeals to me :D
>
> I'm half tempted to try it anyway, just to see how I go.  I didn't  
> have much trouble switching to eating once a day after all.
>
> Thanks for the replies
> Ashley
>