I can't tell if this is satirical or not. Is knowing how to shop and prepare a basic meal really such a problem today?
I don't hate cooking meals
I hate all the fuzz around it - getting ingredients - do I buy "organic"? is that expensive? how cheap should I go?; finding the right recipes - how do I compare 20 different ones from the web? Which are more healthy? Dietary recommendations are all over the place - high carb / low carb / high fat / low fat / vegan / paleo / I don't know what all is there.; finding out what I forgot to buy, throwing out the old stuff that are starting to rot in my fridge, then spending another hour cleaning all the mess...
The cooking part is - at least for me - always the easiest - just follow the recipe. I hate the worrying before and after.
> do I buy "organic"?
Don't worry about it yet. Buy conventional - that's what you're eating when you eat out anyway.
> is that expensive? how cheap should I go?
Don't worry about it yet. Grab whatever is on sale to start. If you notice you don't like it, don't buy that brand again.
> finding the right recipes - how do I compare 20 different ones from the web?
Buy three cookbooks to start: Mark Bittman's "How To Cook Everything", an America's Test Kitchen cookbook that appeals to you, and a cookbook of a cuisine you enjoy that's popular on Amazon. Alternate between the three.
> Which are more healthy?
Don't worry about it yet. Whatever you cook from these cookbooks will be better for you than what you get from takeout.
> Dietary recommendations are all over the place
Don't worry about it until later. Get cooking first. Whatever you cook will be better than what you get later.
> finding out what I forgot to buy
This is a matter of making a list before shopping. I suggest buying for two meals max at first.
Nobody worried about most of this for thousands of years -- you don't have to worry about it either.
This 100x. What you're eating out is nearly always heavier in butter/cream/what have you and is higher calorie than you're realizing.
If cooking is something you're interested in picking up, I'd recommend starting simply. Pick a couple of meals (maybe a breakfast and a dinner). Get used to them, then start cooking variations, then move on to other dishes. I'll admit, I can be satisfied eating the same meal on a regular basis. And this doesn't prevent you from going out, either.
I've heard of people having good success with the Ti Ferriss' "The Four-Hour Chef". I'm sure there are other good references, either bound or online.
Meals I haven't done before are usually still easy because not every instruction and technique is new; usually it's a matter of "what do I need in what proportion compared to the other stuff?"
This took a lot of cooking for myself to get comfortable with, and a lot of meals that ended up getting fried up with a pasta of some sort and eaten as a "messed that up" meal.
The part where you start to just know how stuff works is when you know you're getting it, jus like any tech or code. You just make it and go and it's not something you have to think or plan about.
A lot of the prep work you're fretting are decisions you will make eventually automatically. They're not that daunting and pretty soon instead of recipes dictating purchases, it will be the other way around; a kitchen full of the essentials you need and then sales or impulses deciding what you make, and the essentials just being tools you need to make it happen.
> do I buy "organic"?
I don't know. Try it and see if you find it's worth it. It's not like if you buy organic one time you're locked into doing that forever.
> how cheap should I go?
How is somebody else supposed to answer this question for you? Go as cheap as you feel comfortable. If you find the quality is too poor, buy something more expensive next time.
> how do I compare 20 different ones from the web?
You try them and see how they work out.
And so on.
Seriously, you don't need a detailed 50-point plan for every little aspect of doing something. Experiment, Evaluate, Adjust. It's not that hard and the stakes are pretty low. Worst case scenario: you end up making a meal you don't want to eat and you learn something.
Everything is packaged so that you're either finding ways to use up ingredients or you end up throwing them away because they've expired. Some foodstuffs come in smaller servings which is a blessing but the costs add up.
Also, I'm aware that my plans change frequently, so I avoid buying much meat and fish -- enough for two meals, at most.
And you can save a lot more money if you buy a larger pack, break it up into "meals", bag them, and freeze them. I am lazy and just do plastic-wrap -> freezer bag and give it the sniff test before cooking but smarter people use a more rigorous system.
Also, this makes a great analogy for software development and a very good point about Free Software (hands-on), proprietary software (you control at least the information flow into and out of that blackbox) and services (you have lost any control over where your personal and business data is routed through and sent to).
Just like some people aren't into coding, some people aren't that into cooking. One has to eat to survive, but this doesn't automatically make cooking interesting, especially on a daily basis. Many of us (myself included) simply want to get on to the eating part and save the time for something more interesting (be it reading books, playing games, building stuff, spending time with children...).
Personally, while I enjoy cooking sometimes, I generally don't like eating for its own sake—I have three or four simple meals that I could honestly stick with for 90% of my meals and I'd be happy enough. Not altogether healthy, mind you—they're mostly variations on carbs and cheese with not enough veggies nor protein—but thankfully my wife keeps me from regressing to my own devices there. :)