BiziBB

When pressed for time or getting home late I have done these with success:
Irish Stew (chunky canned soup) with a microwaved cut potato added, plus an onion.

Aside from softening/heating the potato, the heating of the soup is almost set-and-forget, leaves just one thing to clean plus your bowl (unless you want to eat it 'cowboy style').



That's obviously a winter option and the soups are great for taking in leftovers like veg or meats in the fridge.

Good suggestions in the posts above, about pre-cooking some meats for use over three days.

Keeping it basic and fresh usually means a satisfying meal. Not necessarily with lots of time, effort or cleaning. Possibly a lot fewer calories, additives and fats than eating fast food, too.

BamaVol

Mrs BamaVol has always said that without me, she'd survive off grocery store salad bars.

I enjoy cooking enough to do it even if I'm the only one I'm feeding.

When I was really broke, I'd dress up a can of black beans with additives like Rotel, a sauteed onion, a can of corn or whatever I had on hand and serve over rice.

Today if short on time, I can still throw a salad together in 5 minutes and always have the basic ingredients on hand.

Non-NonRev

In my family, the default quick-n-cheap dinner was ground beef, chopped onion, and canned green beans simmered in tomato sauce. Surprising how filling that could be

BamaVol

Substitute elbow macaroni for the green beans and you have one of Grandma BamaVol's depression-era specialties. At the school cafeteria, it was called American Goulash. Her other depression food was a bowl of ritz crackers covered in warm milk. <shudder>