Please give a lazy girl some super easy ideas to cook for 2, sometimes 3. I’ve already discovered that breakfast (eggs, bacon, pancakes, etc) makes for a quick dinner, but I need to branch out. Any ideas you’re willing to share??
Honestly, the easiest thing is to cook for 4, and save half for lunch the next day.
I know that’s not exciting, or interesting, or whatever, but it’s what I’ve been doing for years. Soups and stews are especially good for this.
What is the difficulty? Just decide on your serving size and cook accordingly. You each want a chicken breast? Grill up 2. Or one big one and split it. Then decide on your sides - boil up a mess of green veggies, or toss a couple of salads. If you want filler/carbs, decide upon brown rice, quinoa, bread, or nuke a couple of potatoes. Same for a couple of pork chops, or a piece of salmon.
If you aren’t concerned w/ carbs, there are all manner of fresh pastas - noodles, ravioli, etc. Just choose a jarred red or white sauce, and an accompanying veggie.
None of these should take more than 30 minutes from fridge to table - chops might take that long to grill, but you only need to flip them a couple of times and slap on some sauce. If you don’t want to grill, then sauté the meat in a little oil, or bread it and bake it.
Variants on pasta bolognese and pasta carbonara. Add veggies to either – my favorites are mushrooms, onions, bell pepper, and peas. If you need more detail, I’d be happy to help.
Broiled bacon-wrapped fillet mignon with garlic mashed potatoes and creamed spinach with feta.
Obtain two fillets mignon (use Prime, but Choice is good too). Season them, wrap them in bacon, and use a toothpick to hold the end of the bacon. Broil them. Make mashed potatoes and put some garlic in them. The hardest thing is the spinach, because you have to squeeze out all of the liquid. Make a little bit of roux. Add cream and spinach to the pot. Heat until hot, and the sauce is thick-ish. Add cubes of feta cheese and heat a little longer. And there’s a quick, easy dinner for two. 
Best advice is to use the hell out of your toaster oven. You can bake a pair of boneless skinless chicken breasts - or even roast a bone-in and skin-on breast! - without having to wait for preheating etc.
You know those 1-sheet-pan recipes? For ex. roast potatoes then add broccoli and keep roasting, then add salmon and roast a few minutes more? They make too much for just two to eat IME but can be scaled down for a toaster oven.
Are you looking for recipes that are quick or just easy? There are plenty of awful crock-pot recipes where you simply dump the the ingredients in and let it crock for several hours, such as, chicken and salsa, chicken and bbq sauce, or chicken, corn and salsa. I’m not particularly fond of these recipes, but they are the kind of things my wife makes on the rare occasion that she cooks.
Pork tenderloin is also simple-- season it and let it roast in the oven for 40 minutes or so. Serve with steamed vegetables and rice, pasta or potatoes.
One of my go-to’s is browning ground beef or sausage in a skillet with garlic and then adding either green peppers or steamed broccoli along with a can or two of diced tomatoes and a can of black or kidney beans. Sometimes I add Worcestershire sauce. I even added some hummus yesterday because it was expiring soon. Then serve it with either rice or pasta. It can be done within a half hour.
You could also look into Egg Bake recipes or the very similar Frittata where you just put a variety of items into an egg mixture. Or you could go the route of eggs, bacon, and waffles or egg, sausage, and pancakes.
I don’t mean this to be snarky - I’m truly curious where the OP is coming from. Why is cooking for 2-3 any more difficult than cooking for yourself, or for a family of 5-6?
Is the issue that you’ve never cooked before?
How old are you?
Because when I was in college, I started having to cook for myself. When I got married, we cooked for 2. When we had 3 kids, for 20-some years we cooked for 3-4-5, however many were at home at the time. Now that we are empty nesters, we cook for 2 - and it is incredibly easy. Of course, we are not terribly adventuresome and probably have fewer than 10 meals in our general rotation.
All you have to do is buy the food you want to eat in the quantities you want to eat, and then cook it. If you want leftovers, that opens up a whole different set of possibilities. If you do not already have them, you’ll need to decide upon/invest in some pans/utensils/storage devices.
I’m in my 40s but am hopelessly inept in the kitchen, always have been. I finally got the hang of cooking for 5+ over the past decade , but twin boys (who ate a ton) went off to college & now my dinners turn in to leftovers & there is no enthusiasm whatsoever from daughter about my meals. She’s now become a vegan, which has added to my angst. I’m in a full on Dr. Phil cooking crisis.
ETA: toaster oven is a great idea. I don’t have one, but may invest as it pains me to heat up a huge oven to cook 2 baked potatoes…
You could do something like a veggie and noodle bowl. Get some rice noodles, carrots, green onions, and tofu. Chop everything but the noodles and put in a bowl or bowls. Mix some sesame oil with a vegan-approved sweetener, soy sauce, ginger chili sauce, lime juice, minced ginger and nut butter of your choice together and drizzle it over the noodles with a dash or two of sriracha.
Very easily scaled up or down, not difficult and vegan.
I keep meaning to get a toaster oven, like you, I hate having the entire oven up and running for an hour+ just for something like a baked potato (or any other little tiny thing for that matter).
A crock pot is another good thing. Once you learn how much or little to make, they work out really well. Make food for tonight, have leftovers tomorrow or the day after tomorrow and, if you want, toss the rest in the freezer. They’re great for stew that’s ready just as you get home and an absolute ton of other things.
For quick and easy, look into a George Foreman grill. If you like chicken breasts or hamburgers they work out well for that. A hamburger/veggieburger/Boca Burger goes from frozen solid to cooked in a few minutes. A chicken breast can be thawed, then cooked in about 20 (if you push it).
Beyond that, the best thing I can think of is to aimlessly google “best recipes for dinner” or “easy recipes” and go through the results. Allrecipes . com has a ton and they have star ratings to help, and there’s more blogs than you’ll know what to do with. Once you get an idea of what you like, start refining your searches. Just watch for easy stuff, I find it’s just as good. For many thing you don’t need 25 ingredients that need to be cooked multiple times to end up with something just as good as something that can be made in half the time with 5 or 6 ingredients.
Amazon should have a selection of cookbooks that would suit your needs. I have in my possession:
“Cookery for 1 or 2” by Barbara Swain. Plenty of good recipes.
“Cooking for 2” by Sunset. I almost prefer that one.
I would recommend the idea that you consider the humble casserole. It has the advantage of portionability (you can eat as much as each of you wants), combined with the advantage of extended use (you can save the leftovers for easy re-heating and consumption later). Many casseroles are easy to prepare within 30 - 45 min.
Thanks. Vegan, I’m not sure how to help you with, tho when my kids decided to be picky - even rejecting mac and cheese, we simply told them we’d always have PBJ, and they could make their own. it was really wonderful when we just decided we’d cook whatever WE wanted, rather than trying to please 3 kids.
But my wife and I don’t eat much meat, and could easily go veggie if not vegan. If you like pasta/rice, all you have to do is prepare whatever veggies you like, and choose a sauce to go with it. Like I said, there are a bunch of fresh pasta options, and hundreds of prepared sauces. Pesto, red, white, etc. Only question is if you worry about salt, fat, carbs and such.
Like I said, my wife and I aren’t too picky. I basically consider food to be fuel, and would eat people kibble if it were sufficiently palatable. Some days we’ll simply have nuked sweet potatoes and steamed broccoli - and be perfectly satisfied.
Do you have a grill? I use mine all year round here in Chicago. I’ll probably grill up chicken breasts, pork chips, and salmon once each per week.
But the main thing is portion size. And planning your meals when you shop, so you have the necessary ingredients on hand. We really like steamed veggies. And salads.
I don’t like most leftovers much but they’ll do. Makes more sense than cooking every night and either having too much or not enough left, or eating it all so it’s not wasted and then gaining weight.
So I make enough for two meals. The leftovers don’t have to be a whole second meal, something else can be added in the next day. If I go to the butcher shop on a Saturday I usually come home with a nice big piece of top round for London Broil. We’ll eat as much of that as want and then slice up the rest julienne style and make a big salad the next day.
I’ll also make soup, usually too much, but we can have soup and something else for several days. The something else is usually cold food like sandwiches and salad.
Breakfast for dinner happens every couple of weeks when there’s nothing else to do for dinner.