FWIW, last night was "smothered steak" (recipe on the back of a can of golden mushroom from 1960) - cheap round steak breaded, pan fried, then baked smothered in golden mushroom... it's one of my mom's staples (she was part of the feminist revolution when they refused to spend any real time cooking and just threw together stuff from canned/powdered etc - part of that whole late '50's to 60's women gonna work and not be house-wives).
I'd call that a step above micro/cold hot dogs, but I get you haven't had any chance to practice your culinary skills in a while and your palate has had to tolerate pretty dang horrible bad food too.
Night before that was "skillitini" - rip off copycat of Johnny Carino's plate by the same name (just google "copycat skillitini")
Tonight is a real cheap easy, "cowboy mac" - 1/2# of hamburger browned and mixed into a box of mac-n-chz then heavily seasoned with black pepper.
I spent several years as a waiter and line cook in college, including moving to the "back of house" and doing prep cook / salad... so while not formally trained at a french cuisine place or college, I can definitely hold my own in the kitchen... I spent 10 years refusing to eat any eggs at all due to cooking about 1000 of em each sunday morning.
I tend not post any recipe / picture that is not a new adventure (since post #1 said new and picture)... hence I tend to be kinda quiet on this particular thread - I got lots of well practices recipes in my stock.
Pro tip on the nuclear dogs Doug, wrap 1-2 dog in 1/2 sheet of paper towel, microwave on a more medium than high setting longer than you would full power (like 99 seconds on 60-70%) - heats it more evenly, doesn't overcook it, leaves more moisture in it while still getting it up to full temp evenly.