I made the cardboard dehydrator of Lex Rooker fame see here http://www.traditionaltx.us/images/JerkyDrierInstructions.pdf

I bought a Cuisinart ice cream maker for when I want some ice cream (which used to be all of the time, but now I never get it out).

However the biggest change for me has been in the area of prepping food before I need it to cook with for a meal. I used to come home from the grocery store and immediately put everything in the fridge, that's it I'm done with my gathering :) But that also made for a convenient excuse to order pizza instead of cook because it would take too long to put a meal together or I wouldnt have any meat thawed, and so I would mostly cook on weekends. This also led to quite a bit of spoiled unused food. Since changing my lifestyle, I wash all produce, chop onions if needed, and throw some marinade or spices together on my meat on Sundays. Now cooking a meal during the week takes less than an an hour from start to clean-up.

I prep meals for the week cut marinade spice etc on one day and freeze all but the first two I'm goin to cook. I then pull out a meal a day from freezer and move to fridge to thaw. So it's 15min meals or less when it's time to eat.

For chicken, I take boneless skinless that have flattened just to make them uniform thickness for grilling and 1 gallon bag, marinade for 24 hours (48 if they have a good exp date) and then grill all at once. Let cool completely. AFterwards, I leave 1/2 of them whole and the other half I cut into strips...some thin in one backand some cubes in another. Same for bacon. some strips some crumbled.

Bought a bunch of beef cubes, for fam, since I cant eat red meat yet, maybe after gut heals, then put into two large pans, drizzle with garlic olive oil and about 8 mashed cloves each, (diced tomato if you can handle niteshades), white onion and cook at 325 till cubes are tender. Throw all into serving size bags and freeze until I need.

I buy frozen vegetables because they're precut. Instead of chopping up a head of cauliflower, I can just throw it in a pan while I leave to go read paleohacks :). I also don't have to plan as much because if I don't feel like eating it it won't go bad. I still buy some fresh, but the majority is frozen.

My paleo cooking has been reduced to either really fast in a skillet, or slowly using the slow cooker. In the cooker I might fit in multiple animal parts that cover a few meals. I have no real "hacks," but one of these days I plan on using Alton Brown's jerky technique that uses box fans and furnace filters.

two words:

pressure cooker.

Personally, I'm so much more into food now that I'm paleo then I was before. Before, it was a hassle to find recipes that were satisfying for me as a diet-a-holic trying to cut out fat and bad foods and too much meat and that my boyfriend would eat on a regular basis (him enjoying meat and potatoes and fatty sauces). It stressed me out to no end.

Now, though - I can EAT the fatty food and the bacon and the eggs for breakfast and NOT FEEL GUILTY. This is the best diet ever.

Anyway - my biggest suggestion if you don't have one already is to invest in a crockpot, some microwave steamers of some sort and spend some money on high-quality spices (check out Penzeys if you have one near you or their online catalog.) I'm constantly trying new foods I've never had before (liver, etc) and its SO EXCITING :)

Immersion circulator, low temp salmon and meats are great! And you can use it to render lard and tallow at optimal temperatures.

Before I went Paleo cooking was a hobby I enjoyed. Since Paleo it has become less hobby and more necessity

Incidentally, for me it is exactly the other way round. Let me explain.

Before Paleo, I usually cooked meals trying to follow exact recipes. These made cooking a hard task because, being an engineer and therefore of the optimizer type, everything "had to come out right" (That is not to say I did not enjoy it then. But it left me more exhausted than Paleo cooking does). With Paleo cooking everything is much more relaxed. I know my base recipes. The basic ingredients (my staples) are fewer and I know them well. This simplifies shopping and cooking. I also usually have less things to prepare for a full meal, since for example I don't have to prepare the pasta and the sauce just the meat.

And cooking is much more fun too. Because I know my basic recipes very well I can now improvise. Cooking an omelette in the morning with a slice of apple and some bacon takes 10 minutes. And maybe I throw in some leftovers from last nights dinner or a tomato. And since I don't have to think about much it its almost a zen like experience or at least relaxing (which is hard to believe for my cigarettes&coffee roommates :) ).

So speaking from an engineering perspective maybe you should not worry so much about better tools or methods but instead simplify your cooking process and enjoy it too. :)

Sometimes I'll take whatever leftover veggies I have and make a couple fritattas- then I just take a big wedge to work with me for breakfast throughout the week; I've found that to be a great timesaver. When I make pulled pork in the crockpot, or chili, I make a big batch and put some in a large pyrex container to freeze for later on. I also gave in and got a food processor, just a $40 one from overstock. It's been great for making my own snack bars, sweet potato hash browns, grating cheese, and it's pretty easy to clean up. I hope you re-find your love for cooking! I've loved cooking since I was a kid, and it does start to feel like a chore sometimes :(

My love for food went into overdrive when I went paleo. I love cooking, but I still need to save time every now and then.

Tomato soup has been a huge time saver for me. I cook it once a week and can eat it as dinner or lunch 6-7 days. Add some royale or diced mozzarella to satisfy your protein needs.

Cooking it doesn't take much time in the first place if you use canned/pre-pureed tomatoes. To 4 liters of pureed tomatoes, just add half a cup of olive oil, handfulls of oregano and thyme each, some salt, pepper and chili, minced garlic if you like, bring to a boil for 2-3 minutes and your done (you might need to add up to 1L of water to dilute it). Reheating takes just a couple of minutes.

Also, going back to the roots helped me reduce cooking/preparation time to a maximum of 20-30 minutes every time: "Heat some vegetable. Heat some meat. Done."

Cutting and cooking some cauliflower/broccoli/savoy cabbage takes just 10-15 minutes and you can stir-fry your meat in the mean-time.

Boiling two dozens of eggs for a few days in advance for breakfast (add some apples/grapes/pears from your fruit bowl) also saves a lot of time.

I just wrote a blog article about this a few days ago: http://wenchwisdom.blogspot.com/2011/03/how-i-create-my-own-cave-kitchen.html

My main aim for efficiency is pre-cooking. Normally I'll boil a sweet potato for about 30-45 minutes before making it into a mash, but if I could parboil say, 5 of them, and store the pre-cooked ones in the fridge til I'm ready to use them it would be ideal. However, do the nutrients degrade quickly? How long could I store them for?

I know this isn't an answer, but another question...I'll edit when I find the answer.

(PS - someone should edit the title to something simpler, like "Cooking Hacks" or "Favorite Cooking Hacks?")