Reddit reviews Betty Crocker's New Cookbook: Everything You Need to Know to Cook (8th Ed.)

My advice - follow a reliable cookbook(like this one, my favourite), not recipes online. Once you get better, you can easily determine if an online recipe will actually work.
When I first started baking, I relied on online recipes and they never worked out. Which, I learned how to bake from my grandmothers so it wasn't like I was diving in without experience.
Then someone gave me an old-school copy of the book I linked above and it was a life-changer. Every baked good from that book has turned out perfectly including a Pumpkin Pie from scratch.


Another thing I learned is that people leave out the salt and other ingredients that seemingly don't have a place in baked goods. Don't skip out on those 'weird ingredients' - they are in the recipe for a reason.

I'm not sure how well this meshes with your expectations but I've always loved my old-school Betty Crocker cookbook, it has calorie counts and macros with each recipe (some recipes have an add on with suggestions on how to create a lighter version), and there are many instructional​ sections for learning new cooking techniques. I've loved it even before I started watching what I ate or meal prepping.

This is the one I have https://www.amazon.com/gp/aw/d/0028603958/ref=mp_s_a_1_22?ie=UTF8&qid=1494110211&sr=8-22&pi=AC_SX236_SY340_QL65&keywords=betty+crocker+cookbook&dpPl=1&dpID=7115Q5VDMDL&ref=plSrch

And this one is the newest one, I think, https://www.amazon.com/gp/aw/d/B01I4FPJDA/ref=mp_s_a_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1494110315&sr=8-1&pi=AC_SX236_SY340_FMwebp_QL65&keywords=betty+crocker+cookbook