After much experimenting, I've settled on the following as annual grows. A couple grow year round here in northern cal. All grown in large tubs set up on either the concrete walkway or an old wood deck one of which gets full sun all day and one of which gets full sun half of the day. On the drip watering system. Landscape fabric on top of the dirt to prevent weed growth. 3 month fertilizer granules. Pretty much go pick stuff when you want it, almost no maintenance.
Cherry tomatoes - Mature faster than the bugs can dig into them, and with a large shrub you can have 6-20 per day. $2 for six plants, I give four away to neighbors and relatives (here...have a tomato plant) and grow two. Cost is negligible. Taste is far superior.
Jalapeno peppers - Big bush, pick em young and green and they're like green peppers, pick em old and red and they'll steam your face off. At least where I grow them and how I grow them, the degree of heat and what causes it appears to be unknown. I get more than enough to supply any sauce/salsa/pepper bit needs for about 9-10 months of the year. When the bush gets too full, I pick and freeze the green ones and dry the red ones in the toaster oven on 'warm'. The dry red ones go in the blender and are reduced to red pepper flakes or chili powder. When the bag o' green ones gets too full, I stem them and puree with vinegar, water and salt, boil and put in a big olive oil bottle in the fridge. I have hot sauce and chili powder coming out of my ears. Cost of all this is also negligible.
Herbs - I grow curly and flat leaf parsley, which grows year round here. 4 types of basil (sweet, thai, cinnamon and lemon), chives, mint and catnip. Other than a little pruning here and there, effort free. One or more of these goes into almost everything I cook. I keep them on the concrete walkway next to the back door off the kitchen. Few snips with some kitchen shears, a quick rinse and in the pot. The mint is growing as a hedge around my lemon tree, about knee high and in an area about 8x12'. I'll probably have to rip that out once the baby starts toddling around outside as its a HUGE bee attracter. A lot of the local farms have hives, and clearly one of them is turning out a lot of mint honey this year.
Almost everything else I've tried - large green peppers, large tomatoes, eggplant, etc...either was attacked by bugs, a pain in the butt to grow or ended up yielding way too small an amount.
This may vary wildly in other areas/climates...I live in the middle of where a whole lotta food gets grown and you cant turn around without tripping over a farm stand around here, so veggies, honey and so forth are very inexpensive and high quality.
