My pigs in a blanket are full hot dogs wrapped in pillsbury croissants.
Noodles, pizza sauce and Parmesan and lots of red pepper for quick meatless pseudo-spaghetti.
Cold noodles from the refrigerator with Parmesan cheese mixed in them for flavor. I find it both refreshing and filling on a hot day.
That’s what I’ve been served as pigs in blankets, although I’ve never been ambitious enough to make them.
Tonight I had a half pound of frozen (thawed) cooked shrimp with bread and butter. I figured out you don’t really need the tomato part of shrimp cocktail sauce so I just dipped them in straight horseradish.
This was one of my go-to’s coming home from high school. I still make it.
Four corn tortillas. Butter them both sides. Put cheese of choice on top. Melt.
In high school I used to use a lot of butter and stick them under the broiler for ten seconds, but now I’m more conservative with the butter and fry them briefly in a covered skillet with a splash of water to keep them soft. If I have a tomato, sliced that on top. I pretty much always have butter, corn tortillas, and cheddar around. It does dirty both a pan and a plate, but I always eat it with my fingers so it saves a utensil.
Can’t forget the classic baked Chili potato
I use canned chili with beans. Use whatever you like. Spicy or Mild.
Liberally pour over sliced open, baked potato and add grated cheddar with sour cream.
I used to stop by Wendys after work for the baked potatoes. Save the baking time.
Wendys has baked, chili taters. But they’re stingy with the chili.
Sweet potatoes microwave just fine. I usually zap them on high for two or three minutes, turn over and zap the same amount of time. Eat them then or let them cool and put in the fridge; they keep for a few days and you can take them out, cut them open, scoop out the orange goodness, mash it with a fork on a plate, slather with butter and microwave for a minute.
I often buy deli chicken salad, put a flattened dollop on the plate next to the sweet potato, spread some sauce like say maple and bacon aioli over the chicken, and heat the whole thing together.
Almost forgot – prick the sweet potato in several places to let steam escape when you microwave cook it.
This has real potential.
Oh yeah, when I was still working occasionally I’d stop by the store on the way home and buy a ring of cooked shrimp with cocktail sauce and some frozen garlic bread. Heat up the garlic bread, get some fruit out of the fridge and parcel out the shrimp. Done.
Although I do my fair share of fancy cooking and smoking of stuff, I’m very much not above eating stuff like Frito Pie (Wolf Brand chili!), and Campbell’s chunky soup. And stuff like the frozen orange chicken too!
If we’re talking unambitious scratch cooking, this Rick Bayless recipe is up there for ease. There’s some chopping, but that’s really about it. We rarely actually roast the poblanos either.
Slow Cooked Pork Stew with Tomatillos, Mushrooms and Potatoes - Rick Bayless
My wife has been making a black bean “soup” for lunch a lot lately. Combine a can of (rinsed) black beans, a can of diced tomatoes with chiles, about a cup of corn, and a little bit of chicken broth. Let it simmer for about 10 minutes. Put it in a bowl and top with shredded cheese.
Throw a flour tort into a hot pan, cover with cheese and top with another tort. Flip and brown the other side. Remove, cut into fourths and eat.
Egg in the basket (as you may have seen in the movie V for Vendetta) - basically three ingredients - bread, egg, butter, but greater than the sum of its parts
I would do that with bread and call it a grilled cheese sandwich.
Here’s one of my usuals:
Slow-cook a beef roast for eight hours or so, then shred it, then divide it up into 6-ounce-or-so bags and freeze it.
Take a bag out of the freezer, defrost it in the microwave, and then one of:
- Pour some beef gravy over it, maybe add some mixed vegetables, microwave it - instant pot roast.
- A few shakes of hot sauce, top it with cheese and lettuce - “taco bowl”
- As an alternative to (2), get 2 or 3 tortillas (either flour or hard-shell corn) - actual tacos.
Want a supply of unambitious lunches? Pigs in a blanket - take some hot dogs (4 ounce preferred, but if all you have are 3 or even 2.4, they will do), wrap them in either crescent dough or biscuit dough, then bake as per the dough directions.
Alternative, especially good with smaller (1.5-ounce) dogs: old school Beenie Weenie - open a can of Bush’s “original” beans, pour a cup or so into a bowl, add one or two hot dogs, and microwave. (Don’t overmicrowave, or the sauce that the beans come in gets hard.)
I’ll fix up concoctions similar to that, and any or all of those ingredients are certainly possible. I might include some rice (from one of those ninety-second microwave packages), diced onions, a chopped-up bratwurst, pico de gallo, A can of tomato soup. Some leftover taco meat from the night before. Whatever’s there. Quick and easy, and no two are alike.
Bread requires butter; too much work. 
Meatloaf is super easy. I used the recipe on the Quaker oats box. It’s basically oats, seasoning, 1 egg and one 8oz can tomato juice.
Slice in ziploc bags and freeze. A quick lunch. I heat it in the microwave. Add a teaspoon of water to keep it moist and break up with a fork.
Toast the bread and open the jar of Mayo. Cheddar or American cheese slice.
Two sandwiches in less than 5 minutes.
I found the original. I know it’s ridiculously simple and unambitious. I had it ready to bake before the oven preheated.
Ignore the food processor step. I didn’t own one until recently. Oats out of the box are fine.
There are 40 cocktail franks in a package, and 8 triangles of crescent roll dough. I cut each crescent into 5 strips (they don’t have to all be the same size, just enough to wrap some or most of the cocktail frank). Arrange in rows on a baking sheet, and you have a fleet of appetizers - never any left over! Only think bad is they’re SO salty, but it’s usually only once a year on New Years Eve, for us.
Put two frozen waffles in the toaster. While they’re heating up nuke a couple pieces of that pre-cooked bacon. Remove waffles from toaster, add butter and maple syrup to one. Crumble up bacon, sprinkle over waffle. Top with other waffle and more maple syrup and butter.