Some people just don't like cooking. I guess the magical kitchen gadgets may appeal to them in the sense of "this might make me like cooking" because it looks easy.

No... You order takeaway. Or you buy ready meals from the store. Or you go to subway.

There's plenty of alternatives to actually cooking.

That's absurd. If you don't like to cook or you aren't good at it, ordering food is not lighting money on fire.

That's like saying that you're lighting money on fire when you play video games or watch tv. You could have just went to the library and rented a book for free. It's the same logic and could be applied to almost any aspect of entertainment or really anything that could ever be considered "extra."

You're lighting money on fire by cooking all that food. Eat rice and chicken broth and take a multivitamin. You're probably getting more nutrients that way than most of America anyway. So anything extra would be lighting money on fire right? That steak cost way more than those eggs, that bread costs more than rice; light the money on fire.

See what I did there?

Just because there is a cheaper alternative out there does not automatically mean that the more expensive option is a waste of money...

So, I eat out and order takeaway a lot. The average cost for this is roughly $8-$14. I could cook, I suppose, spending an hour or two every day, and cut that cost to.. $3-$5? But just for the heck of it, say I save the whole damn cost, because I grow my own rice on the windowsill or whatever.

So, by spending an hour every day (excluding going to the store to buy ingredients, which we all know takes no time, or browsing the specialist windowsill rice growing forums, which of course also take no time) I can save $10, give or take. If I work that hour, I will make, well, it doesn't matter, but it's more than $10. So, every time I order takeaway, I save money.

I know this reasoning may not apply to everyone, but saying that it's like "lighting money on fire" is quite simplistic.

(My local currency is not $, but whatever)

We had brown rice and broccoli for dinner last night. Time to cook the rice was about 45 minutes, the broccoli about 5. Time involved was maybe five minutes: measure rice and water, bring to boil, put on the lid. Later on, peek at it for progress. For the broccoli, wash, cut up and put into the pot, bring to boil, prod with fork.

Of course there is a time cost in shopping, but the broccoli and rice made up a small part of the shopping runs that included them.

hmmm... I live in western Europe. Today I've cooked something for 6 servings (I know it's 6 because family eat 4 and it remains 2). I had something like 6€ meat, 2.5€ vegetables and say, 0.5€ for the rest. Total 9@ for 6, so I'm somewhere like 1.5€/serving. Doing so I also the had the opportunity to control the level of fat and, more significant, the level of salt (takeaways are super salty).

For a comparison, down here, we make 3 servings of a pizza which is around 10€. A McDonald is 8€ for 1 serving. A Chinese meal is around 9€ for 2 servings. French fries + meat balls are 10€ for 4 servings. SO the cheapest is more than the double of the price I pay to make my own stuff.

Today, I've spent 1.5 hours cooking (but that a more involved recipe, I do the usual stuff twice faster), and I'll spend an additional .5 hour on the dishes. Ordering takeaway, and going to take them at the shop is about 30 min. So that's much faster for the takeaways.

But as I said : I control what I eat (more vegetables, less salt, less fat, less sugar), I enjoy a lot of variety too (I can cook a hundred dishes, with various level of complexity). Also, I enjoy it, but as said before, that's quite personal.

Oh, btw, today's recipe :

- grounded pork/veal 600grams

- mince a big carrot and the equivalent volume of onions. Slowly cook them with olive oil (let the pan covered, it will cook with its water)

- heat a good glass of white wine to remove alcohol (say, boiling during 3 minutes). Put the white wine on the cooked carrot/onions.

- cook some green cabbage leaves, say 15 big ones in boiling water for around 7 minutes. Cold them in cool water, dry them.

- put the leaves on a big plate, then put the meat iin one layer on top of it.

- roll the whole thing, put it with the carrot/onions/whine

- add garlic

- cover and cook slowly for 30 to 40 minutes.

- instead of waiting, take 20 grams of wheat, 20 grams of butter and mix them together (no heating !).

- once the meat is cooked, remove the big roll, and put the cooking juice away, in another pan, bring it to a boil. Lower the heat. Put your wheat/butter (say 20 grams at once). Whisk that, the sauce becomes more creamy.

- and now, serve slices of the roll, the carrots/onions, add the sauce and some regular rice. Et voilà

You can say that about literally everything you don't do yourself.

That is a very nice summary! By then I recently discovered utility of a special bag to bake potatoes in the microwave . It does work even if takes longer than promised 5 minutes, but the result is very tasty and I have no idea how I would reproduce it in an owen.

Wrap potatoes individually in foil, bake until you like the texture (definitely more than five minutes).