so use chicken breast and lean cuts of meat, legs have fat but they also have more iron.
and if you have the spices available, it takes a couple minutes to get your spices ready. masala packets vary in the amount of sodium, but they generally are much better than canned or jarred stuff.
I am not sure who cooks for 3 hours for a meal, atleast in touch time, elapsed time may vary but if you are cooking something on low heat for 40 minutes its not like u cant chill in the meantime.
so desi food does not take too long to cook if people are organized and have sensible expectations.
rice cooker rock btw, u can do more with it than just make plain steamed rice..