As I made my "dinner for breakfast" I was thinking about breakfast for dinner, always a good way to mix up the same old things. Sandwiches made from french toast (which was made with stale/previously frozen bread), can help extend the filling between the slices when our budgets or our stores limit us to 1 only, and that egg wash counts as protein too.
My survival/food essentials used to include a lot of grains including corn meal. We don't really want to know about the insect particulates in corn meal except the standards are higher now than they used to be! But I always keep any cornmeal products sealed in its own sealed plastic bag. Anyway, I like corn meal mush, or as the fancy folks say "polenta". If you make it ahead of time and pour it into a loaf pan, then slice them the same size and shape as Spam. Fry both until you get that crisp skin and serve with syrup. Spam is ok, it's good stuff to have in the pantry because I'd rather have fresh things. You can chop up Spam and use it as a pretty good pierogi or dumpling filling or a good hash with some potatoes.
I'm just a big fan of a bowl of some sort of hot grain... it's hard on me being low carb. The ground lupine really helps a lot and we were able to get some of that at Costco with no limit. Since we already had one package at home I just got one to have on hand.
Peanut butter is another staple for me, very nutrient intense. Yes sandwiches, or as I already mentioned the No Bake Oatmeal Cookies, but for me personally, I also have canned coconut milk on hand as a pantry item, so along with the chili paste in the fridge, I have the start of peanut sauced something... frozen green beans with peanut sauce is pretty good for when nothing is fresh.
I have various success in keeping nuts on hand -- sometimes they are too tempting and don't last until the lean times.