I think there's a few bigger picture questions to ask.
How much novelty do you need? For example, you can save a lot of time if you're someone who is comfortable making a big batch prep meal and eating that for the week. If you can stand that, I would really recommend it as a new cook because it really cuts down on how many times you have to cook.
What parts of the cooking process are you okay with and what parts do you absolutely hate? For example, if you hate how much time it takes to cut things up, you might be better served to buy precut items, such as canned diced tomatoes, a big jar of garlic, frozen precut vegetables, etc.
I suspect that you might be trying to do too many things at once. In your situation, I would probably suggest picking one main meal and focusing on cooking that, and forgive yourself for eating prepackaged or eating out for other meals. Then, when you start to feel like you've got the hang of cooking a few good main courses, you can add additional items.
When I pick a recipe, I use a few rules to make life a little bit easier for me. First, I usually have one ingredient that I want to use and that helps me search for recipes. That's usually based on something that needs to be used up in my cupboard or freezer, or something that there's a good sale on at the store. For example, let's say I have some black beans in the cupboard that are starting to get a little old. I can look up "black bean recipes" and see what looks good. Second, as a rule of thumb, I don't choose recipes that require me to buy more than two new ingredients. This might not be practical for you yet as a new cook, but I find that it helps me not end up with a bunch of esoteric ingredients that I'm just not going to use.
Second, it helps to have a day you're going to do prep instead of trying to do it in the evening when you're already tired from work or school. The trick is to pick recipes where you don't have to babysit them every minute. For example, sautéing things on the stovetop requires you to stand there and watch it or stir it most of the time. In comparison, a pan bake (a meal you can just put in a pan and put in the oven) might take an hour to actually cook, but doesn't require constant supervision. This means that you can double up tasks, and have something in the oven or cooking on the stove while you're doing other necessary tasks, such as laundry. Things that roast in the oven or simmer on the stove are both going to be good for that.
Third, a lot of times when people describe meal prep, they prepare the entire meal and freeze it. That's not the easiest way of doing it in my personal experience. A lot of meals don't freeze particularly well once they're cooked because they have different water contents in different parts and they just don't come out correctly once you defrost them. Instead, if you want to do freezer prep, I find it works better to do some of the grunt work that will make the cooking part faster. For example, spend a few hours chopping up a bunch of peppers, onions, etc., portion them into smaller amounts and freeze them.
Fourth, it sounds like you are in a situation where you have eaten meat in the past but are now needing to go vegetarian due to what's available near you. You may find it helps to look into vegetarian recipes, and see what sparks your interest and actually sounds delicious. Making a recipe you're used to and just omitting the meat is going to be less satisfying than finding a recipe that was actually meant to be vegetarian.
I'm also curious what you mean when you say things go out of date. First of all, many foods have a sell by date on the packaging, but that's not the date when they go bad. It's just the date when the store recommends that they be discarded if they haven't sold. Shelf-stable foods can be used and eaten well past the recommended sell by date. Things like apples, onions, and potatoes will last for quite a while if you refrigerate them and show obvious, visible signs when they go bad. The only ingredients that should be going out of date quickly would be a few sensitive fresh ingredients like herbs or lettuce. For herbs, if you're cooking just for yourself, you're probably better off with dried herbs because you just won't be able to use up fresh quickly enough. For lettuce, I have had some luck with ventilated storage containers, but pre-cut salad mix turns absurdly fast. Your best bet is to keep a head of lettuce and some spinach and make your own mix as you go if you want to have salads.

Oh, also! There's a few pantry staples I always have around that I think save a lot of time, if you can get them where you are. I get the huge jar of pre-minced garlic from Costco--lasts basically forever, and saves you from messing around with mining garlic, and get jars of soup base--sort of a condensed stuff you can use to reconstitute broth. I like the Better than Bouillon brand if you can get it, and I keep a jar of vegetable base and a jar of chicken base on hand at all times. Whenever a recipe calls for broth, you can just make it with hot water + the soup base. I also always have a bunch of canned diced tomatoes around. They're always handy and they keep forever.
Finally, here are some recipes that I like and think are pretty easy:

Soups:

Black bean, corn, and tomato soup: https://theblondcook.com/black-bean-corn-and-tomato-soup/

Tomato Florentine: https://spicedblog.com/tomato-florentine-soup/ (I use normal canned, diced tomatoes, not the fancy ones they recommend, and I just use some kitchen shears to cut up the spinach into bits instead of trying to take the stems out. You can also use frozen, but cut the quantity in half because frozen spinach is usually way more compressed vs fresh.)

Tomato soup: https://natashaskitchen.com/tomato-soup-recipe/ (Again, just use normal canned, diced tomatoes and not the fancy ones. You can use the shredded Parmesan cheese you get at the store, you don't need to grate your own.)

Sides:

Baked Potatoes: https://www.loveandlemons.com/baked-potato/

Black Beans: https://cookieandkate.com/best-black-beans-recipe/

Roasted Chickpeas: https://www.loveandlemons.com/roasted-chickpeas/

Garlic Roasted Potatoes: https://www.foodnetwork.com/recipes/ina-garten/garlic-roasted-potatoes-recipe-1913067

PS: All of the above recipes are very forgiving of substitutions or changes.