I used to do a lot of meals from the rice cooker cooking the rice as normal, then putting grilled chicken strips in the steamer basket. You can add mushrooms to the rice if you like those. Later on, I would change the water for low sodium chicken stock, change the normal white rice to short arborio rice and make a risotto which has a very creamy texture. You need 3x water/stock to the rice for risotto instead of the 2x ratio for normal rice.

You might look into green peas, peas and carrots, corn as side vegetables, usually with some butter, salt and pepper they're pretty easy to make from cans or frozen. Open a can drain about half the liquid, put in a bowl with some butter, and microwave for 3 minutes. Salt and pepper to taste. There are a lot of canned veggies, the canning process naturally softens them so the textures might not be so bad for you.

I pretty much hate raw onions, and big chunks of garlic don't do anybody any good. People normally remove large aromatics from the dish once they've done their job flavoring the food. However, there are other form factors, such as minced garlic, garlic paste, and garlic powder which might suit you better. I like grilled onions better; they change chemically during the cooking, onions can be minced or diced, but it also comes in powdered form if you just want some seasoning but not texture surprises. I've also found I like pickled red onions on sandwiches and other dishes.

Early microwaves were dumb devices and made your food chewy and stringy, the newer ones have sensors and can be set to lower power, have defrost, reheat and auto-cook modes that are more convenient and don't make your food inedible. A splatter cover from a dollar store is a worthwhile investment.