what we have in our freezer is containers of cooked meat (sometimes mince, but usually diced steak with tomatoes, herbs etc), when I need them they're taken out and put in the bottom of the fridge to defrost. I don't like defrosting (or cooking) in the microwave - it changes the integrity and taste of the food.

With a little work they can be turned into sketti-bog (throw in an extra tin of crushed tomatoes when you reheat), lasagne (make up some white/cheese sauce & throw between pasta sheets), shepherds pie (make up some mash), individual meat pies (in a soufflé dish, scoop in the meat mix, top with frozen puff pastry, throw in oven).

Or a macaroni cheese, cooked & then frozen - defrost in fridge overnight and then throw in oven to heat up.

What else is brilliant are frenched lamb shanks (the small ones), put them and potatoes in the oven at the same time and in 30 mins you have a quick & easy roast lamb dinner.

Cook up a container of rice at the start of the week, use it for rice salads (can of corn, some celery); fried rice (corn, celery, diced meat, egg & some soy sauce) - heck I even love rice on its own with just some butter.

For salads - what about having a head of lettuce in the fridge, boil some eggs, have grape or cherry tomatoes (so you don't have to cut them up), cucumber, mushrooms and other salad stuff - just throw it together into a container and serve with a bit of steak.

When my SIL had her last, there were 5 of us at home (other than her & the baby) and there had to be easy to get together food for me to feed the family with (I was 14), so things that only needed basic cooking skills were great - hence the above stuff.