Do you have spices/basics in your cupboard already (salt, pepper, soy sauce, olive oil, butter, etc.)? If you have those you can do tons of stuff.
For recipes, both of these here can be done in 10-20mins.
Salmon on rice: Rice, salmon, salt, pepper
Optional - Lemon to squeeze over salmon, mushrooms/spinach/garlic/spring onions to mix into the rice
Cook rice (rice cooker awesome if you have one)(short-medium grain recommended)
Olive oil into a hot pan w/ a knob of butter, season salmon (salt, pepper, etc) and drop into pan
Cook until desired doneness
Drop on rice
Profit
For optional stuff:
Chop mushrooms then drop into pan with melted butter
Cook for ~5 mins until some of the liquid is released
Add chopped garlic, cook for 1 min
Add ~tbl spoon soy sauce, cook for a few mins
Mix into rice
Profit
I use skin on fillets because skin is heavenly, but for savings, Walmart sells 2lb bags of salmon fillets for mad cheap. Recommend using lemon on those to bump it up a bit.
Marinated steak salad:
Cheapest cut of meat you can find (I used rump)
Drop steak into ziplock w/ the juice of 2 limes, chili flakes, and a few crushed garlic cloves
Let it marinate for at least 20mins
Prep salad bits (lettuce, tomatoes, and crumbly feta works nicely)(a little bit of olive oil also works as a dressing and doesn't clash with the marinade)
Take meat out, salt and pepper both sides and cook to desired doneness
Let rest a few mins
Slice and drop over salad bits
Profit
You can add whatever you want to the salad bits and switch up the marinade easily.
I think both of these are nice, easy, and cheap, but not sure what your budget or skill level is.
