If you practice and prepare you can cut down on some of the time. I used to live right next to a street of fast food joints so it was never worth it to cook myself from a time standpoint unless I was just having some frozen garbage. Now it’s a 15 minute trip to pick something up if there’s no line so I cook a lot more and with experience I’ve been able to streamline things so it goes faster. Also make enough for 2-3 meals when you cook and then “leapfrog” through the week eating the leftovers. That way you don’t have to cook every day but also don’t have to eat the same thing every day.
I was clearing 3 Goosebumps books a week at that age (Until I ran through them all and switched to the Redwall series). I didn’t have the internet back then though and had to share the TV and game consoles with my brother so there were less distractions. Good job to the kids.