I hardly ever spend more than 20 minutes, and of that most of it is waiting for things to bake/cook. Take piece of meat (selection of about 20-30 at my superma

I hardly ever spend more than 20 minutes, and of that most of it is waiting for things to bake/cook. Take piece of meat (selection of about 20-30 at my supermarket), some vegetable (about 15-20 to choose from); come home, put on pan and pot with water; heat oil/butter and boil water (5 mins); put in meat, bake for 10-20 minutes (depending on type), meanwhile boil vegetable (6-15 minutes) and you're done. Every couple of minutes, turn meat around and stir vegetables. Meanwhile, read mail or magazine, unload dishwasher, set table, make phone calls, do online banking, etc. I mean there's cooking and cooking - one is 'prepare great dish to delight taste buds', other is 'transform ingredients with sufficient nutrients to make it through the next couple of hours into a form that is easily digestible, sanitary and doesn't make you vomit when eating it'. Doesn't sound very romantic when I put it like that, but that second form is by far the most common way of 'cooking'.