Theoretically, I like cooking, and ideally, I would cook for myself not only supper, which I do, but even lunch, which, again ideally, I would take with myself to work. But in reality I do not do so for two reasons: I can save time of cooking by eating lunch cooked by someone else; I am likely to get bored less by eating lunch cooked by someone else. On the other hand, if I cook for myself, I can save money and eat what I consider healthier. In other words, there are two conflicting pairs of factors in cooking for myself vs. eating outside: money and health vs. time and boredom.
Are these two pairs of seemingly conflicting factors really incompatible? Unfortunately, I have to find a solution as soon as possible as I am also left with no choice but to prepare lunch for myself in my sabbatical in the next academic year. I am very excited that I will be able to return to my Jewish alma mater, an American Lithuanian-style haredi yeshiva in Jerusalem, spending four hours every weekday studying the Talmud there. As a formal student I will be entitled to have lunch for free there, but it is both unhealthy and boring. So the only benefit I will have is that I will be able to save time, but I am afraid that if I eat lunch there every weekday, my health will be seriously damaged. It is so sad that an institution that excels in developing intellectual and spiritual health of its students puts so little emphasis on their physical health.
So my "mission impossible" now is to find a solution for cooking something healthy every weekday without getting bored with it and without spending too much time in preparing it. The interim solution I have found so far after spending days and nights on the Internet is to use a steam case by a Spanish company called Lékué. I have not tried it yet, but I am planning to buy and try it in the near future. From what I have read in many testimonies of its users, it seems an ideal solution: it will allow me to prepare a variety of healthy foods within a short period of time, thus liberating me from the burden of daily cooking. If this method works, I will take with me what I prepare in a lunch jar made by a Japanese company called Zojirushi.