Only a couple of things that might be helpful.

Rinsing rice: Much of the rice sold in US markets is "vitamin D fortified." If the package is so labelled, the vitamin D is added as a dry powder, and rinsing will remove it. If it's not labelled it may be preferable to rinse it; but I don't usually bother.

Stickiness of your rice can be minimized by bringing the water to a brisk boil before adding the rice, and using the minimum amount of water necessary. The 2:1 ratio is what it takes to soak and cook most rice. If you find you need more water, it's probably because your pan lid doesn't fit tightly, or your burner's too hot, and the extra that you have to add is what boils off during the cooking. I do find that my Basmati "likes to have" a bit of extra water (compared to lesser kinds) and an extra minute or two on the heat.

Cooking for one, a cup of dry rice is far too much. I saved a couple of cans from some chopped olives (4.29 oz) and one canful of dry rice, with two of water (measured in the other can so you have a dry can to measure the rice), makes a bit more than two of us usually want if we're having something else with it. (4 oz is a 1/4 cup measure in the US, but who keeps two sets of measuring cups?)

Lettuce: Assuming we're speaking of the "head lettuce" which is most common, sometimes called "iceburg lettuce." The best cook I've ever known quoted her teacher as saying "the best thing you can say about it is that you don't have to use it." That being accepted, if you hold your new head of the stuff with the core end down you can whack it on the table top and the "core" will separate and can be easily pulled out. With the core removed it's claimed that it will last about three(?) times as long as if you just toss the head into the refrigerator.

Although the decline of civilized eating began the first time someone said "take one can of cream of mushroom soup..." for small, simple meals, you can add this stuff to almost anything. Cream of celery or cream of asparagus condensed soups work similarly for a little variety. Cook any meat, preferably small pieces, add some rice (cooked), slather on one of these pastes, bring the whole mess back up to simmer temperature, and it will probably be edible - disgusting as it sounds.

For the single cook, lentils have similar protein content to dried beans, but don't need to be soaked before cooking and cook quite quickly.

I prefer a fair dollop of onions in my lentil soup, and often add a handful to stews. For soups and stews dehydrated chopped onions will reconstitute in the pot and keep indefinitely, so they're worth considering as a standby if you can buy them in reasonably large packs. (My "bulk store" has 14 oz "jugs" that last me several months.) For some uses of course you'll want "real onions."

Be adventurous.

The two rules of "bachelor cooking" are that:

           It must be reasonably identifiable at the time of preparation.

           It must be dead (if it may have wiggled when alive).

You can gnaw on anything that meets these two requirements.

John