What do you eat when you don't have much time to cook?

I keep quick prep meals or ingredients in my freezer and pantry. I can microwave riced or mashed cauliflower from frozen in <5 minutes. I keep progresso light canned soups in the pantry that heat in <5 minutes. If I have thawed chicken breasts those cook on the George Foreman pretty quickly, or I have some deli meats and sausages in the fridge that are quick to prep. In a real emergency I could have some jerky or a protein bar/shake for dinner that's 0 prep time. And as you said, salads are virtually no prep.

I use a LOT of convenience products from Trader Joe's. One of my go to quick meals is frozen roasted potatoes with peppers and onions (6 min), frozen mahi mahi burger (10 min) topped with pesto, and some sauteed sugar snap peas (5 min). Works out to about 400 cals and it takes about 15 min max from start to eat.

Prepackaged salad kits from the grocery store, Greek yogurt with fruit, cottage cheese with salsa, granola bars, those microwaveable cups of soup..... can you tell I don't have much time to cook? Lol

These are my favorite to go things lately: https://www.veggiesmadeeasy.com/our-products/nourish-bowls/

1 cup of lowfat cottage cheese and about 4 oz of pineapple?
Protein shake?
Zero-fat 100 calorie Greek yogurt?
1 Fuji apple?

Sandwiches, pasta, or leftovers make up most weeknight meals. Maybe grill a burger or something.

I find things that cook well in the microwave. Salmon, frozen veg, lately I've been into Boar's Head buffalo chicken sausage. When Domino's comes out with their 50% off deal I get a couple of pizzas and freeze them, then nuke one slice at a time at half power. You can pre-boil eggs for a quick source of protein. I put them in salads at work.

We buy ready cooked meals from our local supermarket. We've found many which have great nutrition and low calories. Like a cottage pie for 380cal!

We have chickens so eggs are often our go to for a quick meal. Scrambled eggs with salsa, omelets, fritata, etc.

Also we usually have leftovers of something like pulled pork in the freezer and usually some canned venison in the root cellar.

We also usually have some pre-made burger patties that can be taken out and quickly cooked without any fuss.

Vegetable omelet.

Leftovers are something I usually try to have around too.

How very constrained is your time window for this discussion?

Meal prep grains then quick stir fry lean protein plus veggies.

Don't fall into the trap of thinking only boneless skinless chicken breasts are allowed if you're on a diet. Many cuts of steak are lean and grill on the stovetop in less than five minutes, and pork tenderloin is also lean - takes about 45 min in the oven but it's effortless, you just plop it in a roasting pan. Another no-effort meal that takes an hour is chicken thighs roasted in a pan with marinade (I use Wicker's). Open a can of field peas and a can of greens to go with and you have soul food, less than 500 calories, with less than five minutes spent actually in the kitchen cooking. You can start something in the oven and go do whatever you need to do. The same principle applies to crock pots - it takes planning, but your actual time spent cooking is minimal.

Frozen microwave steam veggies. Edamame is one of my favorites.

Egg sandwiches.

Cottage cheese and an orange. Greek yogurt and fruit.