It doesn't take more than a few hours to properly season a new Cast Iron pan. And if Cast iron is too heavy, but you want to stay away from non-stick pans, there are great, lighter alternatives, such as stainless steel, mineral pans, restaurant grade aluminum pans, and carbon steel. All of these, except for the stainless steel, can be seasoned and relatively non-stick. You wouldn't believe how easy it is to clean my aluminum pressure cooker since I seasoned it.
I know, very few people have even heard of seasoning an aluminum pan. I first tried it out of desperation while camping, about 25 years back. I had a set of aluminum camp pot and pans, you know, the ones with the removable handles that fit in little slots on the side of the pots and pans. I used them on a two burner Coleman white gas stove. Things stuck like crazy to them. It had been that way when I was in Boy Scouts, with my parents while I was growing up, and with everyone who used such pans while camping, that I had ever met. I got tired of it on that summer day, and as I knew how to season cast iron, I decided to try it on those cheap camping pans. It worked. The fried eggs and bacon, the pancakes, and everything else I cooked in them came out of the pans so easily. I was amazed. I never looked back. I season aluminum pots and pans.
It makes clean up so easy, and makes it so that I can cook acidic foots in the aluminum without worrying about leaching the aluminum into the food, or corroding the pans.
I still love and use my cast iron every day. I have two of my children who want my CI pans. They have good taste in pans, or maybe, they just have seen how well they work, all of their lives.
Seeeeeya; Chief Longwind of the North