Get a rice cooker. A rice cooker is a multi-purpose cooking device. You can cook everything in there, not just rice. Caseroles, Pasta, Soup, Porridge, Rice, etc.
I've been on a diet of Self Made Chicken Soup for the past 6 days trying to be productive while sick (4 types of onions, ginger, chicken thigh, pasta, black pepper, potatoes, parsley all went to the boiling water in the rice cooker). I hate flu medication because it renders me useless.