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Seconding oatmeal – it’s incredibly cheap and higher in protein than rice. Dried legumes (not just beans – lentils are also good) are much cheaper than cooked ones, and they last for a long time. Slow-cooked soy beans are incredible

Stew and stir fry are my two favorite techniques. Both are great ways to prepare vegetables and you can usually make them with whatever you have and it will usually taste good. Accordingly they both make good ways to explore how certain flavors go together. You can add extra firm tofu or tempeh or meat to a stir fry or medium tofu, meat, bones, or beans to a soup to get a nutritious meal. Stir frying is especially good in a heat wave because you can run the heat for a short time and not heat the house up, especially with induction. I use pretty short metal serving spoons for my stir fry, you probably won’t be able to get away with that if you use a gas burner though. I use coconut oil or olive oil for my stir fry most of the time as those are pretty healthy options and not too expensive.

Important to have spices for this. I recommend salt, cumin seeds, powdered or fresh garlic, fresh ginger for relatively cheap options. For stewing bay leaves and cinnamon sticks are also good choices. For the next tier up, whole cloves, Shaoxing wine, thyme, dark soy sauce, and Old Bay. Whole frozen red peppers if you’re so inclined.

Spaghetti aglio e olio is a good occasional meal too. Garofalo is the best bang for your buck pasta that I can get but it’s ok to make it with shitty store brand pasta too.

For equipment, victorinox fibrox knives are cost effective. Get the 6 inch chef’s knife and a 400/1000 grit whetstone. Any plastic cutting board is fine especially if you have a dishwasher you can put it in. I have three $2 cutting boards from Ikea. A cheap slow cooker is the next most important buy. After that, an induction plate costs about $60 and can give you quite good control over the cooking temperature. Pair it with a flat bottom heavy gauge carbon steel wok or skillet and an induction compatible saucepan and you’ve got a fully equipped kitchen that you can move easily for a total of about $200, or a half equipped kitchen with just the slow cooker, knife, whetstone and boards for about $70. Get Kenji’s book on wok cooking off libgen and go to town.

Note that you need to pressure cook or soak and boil beans separately before slow cooking.

Edit: I use a salad spinner every day to wash vegetables. First you fill the bowl with water, fill the inner bowl with vegetables, and let it soak while you check Twitter. Then you remove the inner bowl, empty the outer one, rinse the inner bowl and vegetables under the sink quickly to get rid of any remaining pesticide residue, and spin out the water. It speeds up prep for a stir fry significantly, so I recommend it as well.

Edit edit: inspired by this thread I decided to try something new with my oatmeal. I mixed in a tiny bit of powdered cinnamon and some Lao gan ma chili crisp. It’s good as hell, don’t sleep on the savory oatmeal comrades.

eggs + anything = pan-fried pie. Just toss your leftovers in there and let the eggs fill in the rest. There’s a name for this which makes it sound more appetizing, but that’s basically what it is. Use low heat all the way, flip it, done.

Veggies + (a) meat + rice / noodles in any sort of arrangement always works (e.g., tossing into one big wok / pan).

Noodles + scallions + soy sauce (dilute with water if it’s too much). Add a fried egg in there if you want.

Baked potato, add salt.

Diced Potato + soy sauce + sesame seeds. Let it cool and it becomes a refreshing snack. Add onions to it if you want.

Buy chicken tenders (or chicken in general) in bulk (raw ones) and brine em. You can do the same next time and use a different brine if you want something new. Eat it with rice or eat it protein style.

Stew is relatively easy and can feed you for weeks. Chicken soup isn’t too hard. Chicken and rice. Maybe find an easy chicken/ beef marinade. Marinade said meat, and that way, you can just pull it and cook when needed.

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Eggplant, cut it in slices, scramble some eggs, put the slices of eggplant of egg, now put that in breadcrumbs, cornmeal or something similar, fry.

I make avocado toast all the time and I snack a lot with hummus and raw veg. Also, overnight oats, once I started doing them are awesome! No cooking required, just throw whole, rolled oats and your milk of preference with some honey and anything else you want to eat, chia, flax, berries, etc and let it chill in your fridge for a few hours. I eat it for breakfast.

What is your budget like? I make a big ass casserole out of broccoli, cauliflower, carrots, brussel sprouts, chicken, shredded cheese, cream of mushroom/chicken, and some other stuff. I can type out the recipe later if you’re interested. It’s not the cheapest thing ever but it’s good and can go a long way. I also make my own cream of turkey soup and use frozen turkey from Thanksgiving. I always take the remains of any meat I cook and reuse them for stocks and stuff. I try my damnedest to have at little waste as possible. Bones, unusable bits, and vegetable waste for stock. Save fats for either cooking or soap making.