I was just thinking that there are probably 5 different things that we all should learn to cook as adults. I am a single guy so if I want to eat something other than prepackaged food or fast food all of which is 10 times more expensive then I needed to learn how to cook. Being a good cook just means practicing. Some things you get lucky at and just get right the first time. Other things take practice but there are probably a handful of things that will get us through life which we can then alter and fancy up or change some to make different meals.
Baking bread can be difficult on the other hand knowing a basic cake recipe can let you make something for desert, snacks, maybe for breakfast.
The basic cake recipe is: 3 cups flour, 2 cups sugar, 3 tablespoons of baking powder, 2/3 cup of oil, 2 cups of water. Bake at 350F for 30-40mins until you can stab it with a thin steak knife and no batter comes out just dry cake.
Once you know a basic cake recipe you can add chocolate, replace the water with orange juice to make orange cake, leave out a cup of water add a couple crushed ripe bananas to make banana cake. Add Cinnamon and chopped apples to make a breakfast cake. The options are there because you found a basic recipe that works for you.
Learning how to cook meat is important because its expensive. How do you cook it in a pan or in the oven. Oven Broiled Burgers in a pan of chopped onions, peppers, with bbq sauce on top can be much better than pan fried. Also cooking something like a ham or full chicken or turkey can give you many meals.. you can put the meat on sandwiches, make chicken, turkey or ham salad with a little mayo, you can put it in soups or stews. And a cheaper piece of meat that is cooked well will be good.
Learning how to cook eggs can make a good meal like an omelette which is just a couple eggs stirred as you would for scrambled eggs.. and then you can add precooked ham, pepper chunks, onions, salt and pepper and you let it sit in the pan then add cheese and flip half of it over and you got a pretty good meal that didn’t take long. serve it with some tater tots and you’re good to go.
Learning how to make a large pot of soup can provide food for a week. Its not too difficult but you have to learn what things you cook first and others you add later. Things like chopped carrots, Onions, Potatoes go in first because they are hard and need to cook longer.. then you can make it easy and add a can of string beans, corn, peas later because they really only need to cook a few minutes. Then you can add a cup of instant rice and it will thicken the soup and also provide the grain /bean complement which creates a full protein or you can add leftover ham, chicken that is already cooked and chopped up to be spoon size.. …………. the more times you try the better you get at it… instead of using canned beans and vegetables you start using fresh vegetables because its cheaper.
Making something to drink instead of Soda is important. Is it worth brewing coffee or making instant.. which is faster in the morning? Saving those 2 liter fruit juice bottles you can fill it with water and nuke it for 5 minutes or set it in the sun with a couple tea bags you get $3 for 100 bags .. add some sugar if you want and you have Iced Tea. I make a few and keep them in the fridge and it keeps me from drinking soda and its something different than water or coffee and it costs next to nothing. But there are all kinds of things you can make cheap.
Final Note
There are probably lots of other basic things but if you start off simple then keep on trying new ways and new recipes it isn’t as difficult as you think.
Main thing is like everything it takes practice.. but lucky for you 3 meals a day for a year is over a thousand meals so you have lots of chances to try.