[gumpzilla]

If you're doing things like macaroni and cheese, it really wouldn't take too much longer to do a pasta with some simple sauteed vegetables. While the water's heating up, you chop the vegetables - zucchini, summer squash, broccoli, onions, spinach, mushrooms, bell peppers, eggplant are all pretty good here - and cook them in a little bit of olive oil until it softens up a bit. You can then use a store-bought tomato sauce, or do what I usually do, which is just to add a small amount more olive oil to the drained pasta, some crushed garlic, and some salt and pepper. Stir that all up, throw in the vegetables, delicious. It's also worth splurging on real Parmesan that you grate, in my opinion. Tastes great, and completely different from the pre-grated Kraft powder stuff.

Baked potatoes can be done pretty quickly in the microwave, as El D mentioned, and take about zero effort. You might also consider investing in a slow-cooker, which would allow you to cook a bunch of things where you throw stuff in and walk away, basically. Soups and stews are the most natural, but you can do some other things as well.