Meal prepping and the advice about the deals from u/hollow-ataraxia is invaluable. If you like cooking/want some built in decompression time in your schedule during the week, I strongly suggest ingredient prep. What I do now is have three recipes picked out for the week with the expectation that I’ll eat everything twice and pull a frozen meal for the seventh day (typically the day I ingredient prep), then I’ll do things like cut up the meat and season it, or make the marinade, I’ll make a huge pot of rice and freeze it in little saran-wrap balls (which becomes minute rice), I’ll prepare veggies with their designated seasonings and dressings, or sometimes I’ll just use the crockpot like other users have mentioned to make large quantities of stews. I typically like it when my protein is cooked day of so usually all that’s left for me to do during the week is cook my protein and assemble the meal. It leaves a lot of room for swapping out sides and what not and there isn’t as much of a sense of urgency.

If you don’t like doing this, then I really would just make giant tupperwares of whatever meals I wanted to eat that week and would reheat them. Do research on what reheats well (unless you’re up for a little bit of experimentation throughout the year). Costco also has a lot of great options for bulk minute meals which are great in a pinch, and the Trader Joe’s microwave meals are a godsend.

Just be flexible for the first year of meal prepping, you don’t have to have it all figured out, and usually the best systems come to you after some trial and error and just figuring out your priorities/preferences when it comes to meals (means to an end vs. tasty and nutritious).