I just hope I actually put it to use.
I have two ideas:
1. someone should build a website around organizing recipes by simplicity/number of ingredients. Starts with the basic stuff, so that all you have to worry about is keeping onion, garlic, meat, and vegetables in stock. Then, progresses to more complex recipes, at which point you understand how and why to build your spice rack.
2. deleted
There's a ton of websites out there like that (online "learn to cook" websites), so it helps to narrow down what you want to do because there's basically an infinite number of recipes & tools available. Do you want to bake, fry, grill, sous vide, pressure-cook, slow-cook? Do you like American, Thai, Japanese, Brazilian, Egyptian food? Do you prefer cooking or baking? Do you have any allergies or foods that you dislike? Are you Paleo, Vegan, omnivore? And that's just like 1% of the questions...you could literally try a new recipe for every meal until the day you die & still not have tried everything available on the planet, so it helps to limit your scope to start out with.
The best tool I've found is Yummly, which is basically a search engine like Google, but specifically for other recipe websites, with filters built-in. The filters are awesome - add or remove certain ingredients, limit by dietary restrictions, set it for sweet or salty, low carb or high protein, basically just tons of variables. I can't even capture the full spectrum of filters, but here's a quick screenshot to give you an idea:
It also helps to figure out what you like & what you want. For example, for me, I have food allergies, so I can't do stuff like dairy or gluten. I also am into fitness, so I want to eat healthy - but I also love food, so I want it to be tasty. Plus, I like to eat multiple smaller meals throughout the day so that I stay full & don't cave to junk food. So that gives me a foundation to work from. Here's my current meal plan: (guidelines rather than rules)
http://catch42.pbworks.com/w/page/78929159/Meal Plan
I do the planning mostly on a week-by-week basis so I can change things up as needed, plus I have some freezer meals for emergencies. Some weeks are crazier than others so I kind of base what I prep on weekends vs. what I cook during the week. I'm a big fan of family dinners & like to get the family involved in cooking dinner, so I currently don't do 100% of my meals as make-ahead meals. For you, you have to see what your goals are & what you can handle. I have a fast metabolism, so 5 to 7 meals a day works awesome for me, in smaller meal sizes. Like, my 10:30am meal this morning was a simple chicken & broccoli with salt & pepper in a little round plastic Tupperware-like container:
Dirt simple, made it when I was cooking breakfasts, tastes decent enough to eat, and fits within my goals (small, healthy, tasty meal). So if you can kind of narrow your scope down, whether you want to lose weight, or are diabetic, or just want to eat healthier, or whatever, basically just putting it down on paper & getting started is the most important first step. I literally did not know how to boil water when I started cooking, and now I have dozens of kitchen appliances & cook nearly every meal myself. It's doable, but you kind of have to define what exactly it is you want to do first.