This is not a recipe node. This is an urban survival node.
Rice cookers are far more valuable in the humble kitchen than you can ever imagine. The rice cooker is a one-appliance meal maker that reduces preparation a healthy, balanced meal to about 25 minutes, 23 minutes of which you may use to do something else.
If you are not reading this with much interest because you don't have a rice cooker, take heart. You can use any container with a reasonably tight lid that you can heat up enough to boil water. The clever peoples of the orient can cook rice in things like bamboo, banana leaves and steamers, as well as your expensive electric computer-controlled kitchen appliance. Even clever westerners have cooked rice in empty beer cans on camping trips.
OK, sorry for the diversion. Here's how to prepare Rice Cooker Convenience Meal #1.
Put about 2 cups of rice in your cooker. Dump in one regular-sized can of diced tomatoes and one similar can of garbanzo beans, liquids and all. Add a careless tablespoon of dry yellow curry powder, or some other curry that you happen to like. Put some salt in there, too. You can add chopped onion or any number of other things you may have as well. Stir it up a bit, and lay some pre-cooked chicken left-overs on top. Then add enough water to cover it all with about 3/4 inch of excess water on top. Push the Cook button and come back in about 25 minutes. You can make a nice fresh fruit salad in the meanwhile.
Now, by some imaginative substitution, you can also make Rice Cooker Convenience Meals #2 through #10. Happy survival. | 
