I think the ultimate time saver for cooking good tasting food with little effort is a crock pot. Anything that cooks food over low heat over a long period of ti

I think the ultimate time saver for cooking good tasting food with little effort is a crock pot. Anything that cooks food over low heat over a long period of time. This method always seems to produce food that has that special "something" where all the ingredients meld into something magic. It's virtually impossible to mess up and it's good for getting rid of odd bits left in your fridge. It can also be easily adopted to your nutritional requirements, and to any type of cuisine. Basically every single culture on earth has a version of stuff-thrown-in-pot-and-cooked-for-a-long-time. The secret to success is to begin with similar ingredients. Usually onions and carrots and garlic- then celery for something european, bell pepper for something south american, maybe ginger for something asian. Then you add some kind of cheap cut of meat, chicken, pork, beef, it doesn't matter, (sausage or ham, leftover meats- doesn't matter if they've been cooked already) then some other appropriate long cooking vegetable (potatoes, corn, anything that won't fall apart during cooking, an hour before eating, you can put in the more delicate vegetables). Then some water. Cover and leave it for like 4 or 5 hours and when you come back it'll be amazing. If it's appropriate, you can also add any kind of dried beans. Prep is also easy, because you dont really have to worry about cutting the vegetables carefully. Just cut them any way you like and dump them in. You can make rice or cous cous or quinoa (starch) to go along with it, or you can have it with bread or crackers. Some specific examples: osso bucco, coq au vin (adding alcohol in really helps make it good) cassoulet, chili, goulash, tangine, gumbo, indian-style curries, etc., you can see how versatile this method is.....