I am not a fan of meat cooked in the crock pot or pressure cooker. I find I need to do a lot of prep work (browning, etc) if I want a flavorful meal, and more often than not, the meat ends up being dry and stringy. UGH.
I LOVE to cook but work full time and by the time I get home I am tired, so I am all about the easy meal during the week. It's not just about prep time and cooking, either- there's that whole "the kitchen is a mess and nobody has the energy to clean it" thing, LOL! It's just DH and me at home now, so it's pretty easy to come up with meals. I try to cook something "big" on the weekend, or even 2 "bigs" so we can eat leftovers during the week. This might be soup, meatloaf, roasted chicken, roast pork (with sauerkraut, apples, onions, prunes, caraway seeds... yum!), lasagne... you get the idea. This will give us another two dinners during the week, or one dinner and lunches.
I also keep my freezer stocked with individually-frozen meats (Buy chicken pieces, chops, steak tips or blades, hamburg made into burgers, etc. Put them on wax paper-covered cookie sheets and freeze, then pile into ziplock bags and back into the freezer). I'll pull out a couple of pieces of meat in the morning and put them in a ziplock with some kind of marinade, cooking sauce, salad dressing, whatever. They'll be thawed enough to cook for dinner. We often have salad with dinner, or I'll throw in a pan of veggies to roast. I cut up a pile of veggies on Sunday and store them, separated by veg type, in bags in the fridge. When I put the meat in the oven, I grab a few handsful of different veggies, toss them with olive oil, balsamic vinegar, S&P, and onion powder, spread them out on a foil-covered cookie sheet, and roast at 350-400 for about a half-hour- while the meat is also cooking. We detest frozen veggies, so except for a bag of mixed veg (for fast soup), we never have them. I always go for roasted veg or canned veg.
Sometimes I'll thaw meat and cook it on the stove. Sautee/braise, whatever you want to call it. Olive oil in a frying pan, thinly slice some onion, sauté. Add meat, brown, and then throw on a sauce- bottled marinades, teriyaki sauce, BBQ sauce, boxed/canned broth, orange juice, canned diced tomatoes, whatever. Add some dried spices that "go" with the sauce, put the cover on the pan, and let it cook for about 20 mins, depending on the type of meat. Pot of rice, can of veggies or a salad, and dinner is ready.
I have found that if I think a little bit and have stuff "ready to go" in advance, we stay out of the pubs and restaurants that are a 5 minute walk from our front door. However, if I plan something that takes too much work, or makes too much of a mess in the kitchen, we end up eating out... burger night, pizza night, wing night... all seem like they will be cheap, but by the time we order for 2 and there's a beer or three along with, well, it's not so cheap (or healthy, but that's another discussion for another day!).