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Indomie! It's not instant ramen soup, exactly.
You cook the noodles, drain them, then mix the flavor packets in. I prefer using half the salt powder package.
They are the pretty much the best instant noodle, and available in the West too. Seriously, go try them sometime!
If I'm too lazy to cook, I open a can of fish and wash a pile of cucumbers to eat as side dishes with the Indomie.
This isn't what you're really asking, but I have a bunch of stuff in the freezer that I can pull out when I'm sick, don't have enough time to prepare a meal or am just exhausted from whatever.
Making lasagne? Make 4, freeze 3. Mex night? I make 20 black bean burritoes at a time. Check out https://onceamonthmeals.com/ for inspiration. Less cooking, less dishes and less food waste. Go pro and pick up a food saver. I make 8 cups of rice and freeze it in a pint food saver bag. It's winter where I live and I have "soup bags" in the freezer so I can take out veggies that were at their peak when they were frozen and put it in a crock pot so I can have summer fresh soup.
I have a small rice cooker perfect for 1-2 portions. Aldi sells asian-style pan-fry veggie mixes including spices and all in large bags, frozen. They also sell veggie balls for frying, frozen.
Between those three + some spices + soy sauce, I can always create something nice with just a small pan, plus with the rice cooker timing is unimportant. Takes about 10 minutes max, most of which is standing next to the pan waiting for something to fry. Stacks nicely in a bowl, looks fancy, takes 0 effort, and I can customize the taste with the array of spices I always keep at home nowadays.
While you cook up some boxed mac and cheese on the stove, cut up some broccoli and onions or whatever appropriate veggies you have lying around, and open a can of tuna (any kind of cooked protein is fine, so fry and shred some chicken breast or ground beef if you're feeling ambitious.) When that's done, mix it together in a casserole dish, throw some cheese on top and chuck it in the oven until it turns a bit brown.
Ravioli or tortellini.
Grab them in the premade packages dried or "fresh."
Boil them, drain them, dump the sauce in.
I'll never get tired of pasta.
1 pound of breakfast sausage. I pull it apart with my fingers to make interestingly-differently-sized chunks. Fry, then eat. Good with syrup.
Biscuits and gravy is my lazy but I don't want eggs or cereal breakfast (I make it once or twice a month). For the gravy:
Add 1 lbs breakfast sausage to pot, add salt, pepper, sage, red pepper flakes, and fennel seeds (last three are optional, but highly recommend). Break up sausage and stir while cooking over medium/medium-high heat
Once sausage is browned, try a piece and see if it needs more seasoning
Add 1/4 cup all purpose flour and stir until it's thickened and there's no white flour left, about 1-2 minutes (congrats, you have officially made a roux around your sausage!)
Stir in 2 1/2 cups milk (I prefer whole milk), stir often until it's thickened. Turn off the heat before it's the thickness you want, it will thicken as it comes out of the pot and cools on whatever you put it on. If it's too thick (aka if the thickness looks like it would be perfect on your food while still in the pot) just add more milk and stir in. If you add too much milk, just bring it back to a simmer until it reduces to an appropriate amount.
Add salt and pepper to taste, mix in, then serve.
I added more details than needed, it's honestly a super easy and tasty recipe, plus the most expensive part is the sausage. It makes enough gravy for 2-3 people, 3-4 if you don't each each a lot of the gravy which is... difficult.
For biscuits, I recommend Alton Browns buttermilk biscuits: https://altonbrown.com/recipes/southern-buttermilk-biscuits/
I personally make my own buttermilk substitute (1 tbsp lemon juice per 1 cup milk) and use butter instead of lard and they still come out fluffy and excellent. Also, the tip about putting them in a bowl lined with them covered by a kitchen towel makes a world of difference. It is well worth dirtying a cloth and bowl over letting them sit on a baking or cooling tray.
I should specify that I love cooking, this is low effort in my opinion since the gravy really can't be messed up unless you leave it and burn it, the biscuits are more effort but I bake a decent amount so I don't mind. Store bought biscuits from a tube work fine too if you aren't a morning person or don't like baking.
Rice, salsa, cheese, sour cream, wing it from there with seasonings and proteins like beans or meat.
Roasted peppers and pesto pasta with sun-dried tomatoes.
Tuna salad sandwich
Tuna, celery, onion, mayo, dry dill, garlic powder, pickles if you want in a bowl and mix. Spread on toast and that's it. Has plenty of protein and will keep you full.
Next is ramen.
Boil water to cook ramen noodles
Stir fry some onion, scallion whites, other hard veggies and garlic, once tender add some soy sauce, broth and some bouillon powder, and soft or leafy veg and the scallion greens.
Let that cook and add noodles and a light drizzle of sesame oil
Put 3 frozen chicken breasts in the instant pot, add 1 cup chicken stock, sachet of taco seasoning, half a cup of salsa, and a tin of kidney beans, pressure cook for 17 mins, break up the chicken and mix back in, serve with sour cream and grated cheese. Amazing.
Leftovers. Honestly, I cook like two times a week. Throw most of it in the fridge, some of it in the freezer, and grab a collection of whatever and microwave, air fry, or convention oven it. Even better is if the "cooking" is smoking or crock pot. You know, throw it in, check every few hours, kind of deals.
Otherwise, I'll just eat ingredients and pretend it's a charcuterie.
The other is sandwiches and eggs. Make bacon, use bread or eggs to clean up grease, throw some meat or cheese on it, season with bull shit (whatever premixed seasoning sounds good). I like mayo and balsamic on my sandwiches too. That's my easier than eating out and actually worth eating stuff.
Rice, pisto from mercadona and fried egg.
Meatballs and spaghetti :)