(Part 2) Best quick & easy cooking books according to redditors

That's my monthly budget, too! (and as a 200 lb guy I do not have a dainty appetite so you can get plenty of food with that much)

Basically, this limits you from nice steaks and fresh seafood. Everything else is fair game.

My wife and I keep a list of what we've made so if we have trouble thinking of what to cook we can look through a bunch of options. (Note: the $200 monthly budget covers only me, not both me and my wife.)

In a given month, we'll eat:

• Pasta dishes (puttanesca, sauce+meat, sauce+eggplant, aglio e olio, butter/garlic/sage, etc)
  
• Stir fries, either following a recipe or using whatever veggies I have around
  
• Other Asian dishes - bibimbap, mabo dofu, jjajangmyeon (Korean noodles with a thick black bean sauce), kimchi stew, "sushi bowls" (sushi ingredients but usually no fish, and in a bowl of rice instead of wrapped), pad thai, etc
  
• Rice and beans with lots of cumin and garlic, plus celery and carrots and maybe heavy greens to add veggies
  
• Ham and navy bean soup
  
• Pizza (working my way through a recipes from a few different sources, slowly getting closer to actually good pizza, not just "good for homemade" pizza)
  
• Roast chicken! A 4# roast chicken is like $6 at Aldi and seriouseats.com has tasty seasonings
  
• Eggs - mixed with rice and scrambled, fried, poached, in burritos... however. Super cheap, super quick, super easy
  
• Tacos or burritos
  
• Chicken tagine (Moroccan braised chicken that is super flavorful)
  
• Doro wat (Ethiopian onion stew)
  
• "Green soup" served over ravioli (cheese-filled freezer ravioli) - throw a bunch of chopped veggies into chicken stock and boil until cooked, add a bag of spinach to turn it green, and then blend it with an immersion blender when it's done. Top with a drizzle of EVOO and parmesan
  
  A couple caveats: I buy very few prepared foods, very rarely have sandwiches so no lunch meat (it's spendy), and I don't eat breakfast. I do most of my shopping at Aldi and only go elsewhere for things they don't carry like specialty Asian ingredients. We have a couple big Asian groceries nearby that are good for that - we count a few basic sauces as staples that we find it's not too expensive to keep on hand that really open up our options for Asian recipes (soy sauce, sesame oil, rice vinegar, and fish sauce).
  
  Edit: because this has gotten a good bit of attention I'll mention that we do have a good selection of cookbooks to work from. Not a huge number, but a well curated set that is mostly based on recommendations from friends and the internet, were gifts, or ones we knew were good because former housemates had them.
  
  But if you don't have many and don't want to spend the cash don't worry! Your local library should have a bunch, and many resources (that are less hit-or-miss than e.g. allrecipes.com) are available online. Good and Cheap, budgetbytes, and seriouseats (The Food Lab) are in my top 3 (I do have a paper copy from all 3, because I want to support what they do). Other cookbooks that I like, also listed in the "Source" column of the linked google doc:
  
  
• Chinese Takeout Cookbook. Meant to reproduce good American-style Chinese takeout, but often less grease-laden.
  
• Cook's Illustrated Best International Recipes (I think it's this one but I'm not sure - it was a gift and I got rid of the hardcover's sheath). I'm a little ideologically against recipes that use 15+ ingredients of which I only have half on hand, but the moussaka, pad thai, and chicken tagine recipes alone nearly make this book worth it (especially with some judicious substitutions)
  
• Everyday Harumi - I've had great luck with several recipes in here, but I also know that I'm not taking the recipes to their full potential because when my old roommate would cook from his copy it always turned out better.
  
• Maangchi's Kitchen - plenty of tasty, authentic Korean recipes. Like budgetbytes, her cookbook started on the web so all her recipes are available for free via her youtube channel, which is great fun to watch. Korean cooking can be involved so I rarely go beyond the simpler recipes (Korea is the only Asian country I've visited so it's the only one in this list I can speak to the authenticity of)
  
• the bread bible has some very tasty flavored breads (mushroom bread made with duxelle, or a cheddar mustard bread) and decent pizza
  
• Bread Baker's Apprentice has yielded some tasty baguettes and quite good pizza
  
• And I only recently got The Pizza Bible and have only managed to try one recipe from it but it turned out great

> Bachelor-ific! If I had $10 a day extra money I'd eat chinese takeout all the time.

The Chinese Takeout Cookbook
=

Highly recommended. (Most Chinese takeout/takeaway food is really CHEAP to make at home -- like 1/4 the cost of the restaurant meal).

Got the Run Fast. Cook Fast. Eat Slow cookbook for Christmas and have been slowly working my way through the recipes. So far my favorite is the miso butter salmon (I omit the honey). I also put it on mushrooms and cook them with the salmon. My picky 4 year old ate it so quickly I thought she dropped it on the floor. The butter mix is also delicious on toasted sourdough English muffins

If that's what you think of vegan recipe books then you haven't been looking

https://www.amazon.com/Thug-Kitchen-Official-Cookbook-Like/dp/1623363586

https://www.amazon.com/Minimalist-Bakers-Everyday-Cooking-Plant-based/dp/0735210969

https://www.amazon.com/Fuss-Free-Vegan-Everyday-Favorites-Veganized/dp/0147530350

My omnivore friends, who do NOT sugar coat their opinions, unanimously love everything I've made from those cookbooks. It ain't just kind words. Two of them have approached me and asked me to teach them how to cook like that all the time

pasta. frozen vegetables. soups. some frozen chicken and ground beef. you can make about a hundred meals right there.

edit: try this: http://www.amazon.com/Essential-3-4-5-Ingredient-Cookbook-Barbara/dp/1931294992/ref=pd_sim_b_5

http://www.storytellingcenter.net/

http://fasola.org/maps/

http://www.blueridgeheritage.com/traditional-artist-directory

http://www.amazon.com/Gift-Southern-Cooking-Revelations-American/dp/0375400354

Just a few examples there, of many. The traditional arts are alive and well, you just have to look to find them. They're well worth the hunt, btw. :)

I like this one personally - http://www.muscleforlife.com/books/the-shredded-chef/

http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/1938895088/ref=as_li_ss_tl?ie=UTF8&camp=1789&creative=390957&creativeASIN=1938895088&linkCode=as2&tag=mflweb-20

You can see a bunch of sample recipes that he has posted online for free here - http://www.muscleforlife.com/category/food/

No. She makes a living being herself. She's also a cook and has a published cookbook.

Honestly, if she wants to 'objectify' herself, then that's her choice, but I seriously doubt she's doing such. Pretty sure I've heard of her having some beefs with others as well, but that makes it all the more enjoyable.

I agree that "How To Cook Everything" is a good reference guide for complete beginners and those with gaps in cooking knowledge.

It might be a bit over your head at this point, but if you truly want to understand cooking and what's happening when you do it try "On Food And Cooking" by Harold McGee.

For Asian you might like...

"Every Grain Of Rice" by Fuchsia Dunlop (or any of her books)

"Japanese Soul Cooking" by Tadashi Ono

"Ivan Ramen..." by Ivan Orkin (Good for ramen and other japanese-ish food.)

"Momofuku" by David Chang (Really good mix of general Asian flavors)

Other books that might interest you:

"Irish Pantry" by Noel McMeel

"The Lee Bros. Simple Fresh Southern" - Matt Lee and Ted Lee

"Real Cajun" by Donald Link

"Authentic Mexican" by Rick Bayless

"Fabio's Italian Kitchen" by Fabio Viviani

For Vegetarian try anything by Alice Waters or David Tanis.

I don't own it, but my buddy has The Best Simple Recipes from America's Test Kitchen and I love reading through it.

http://www.amazon.com/Simple-Recipes-Editors-Americas-Kitchen/dp/1933615591/

I bought a cook book for this that really helped. Here is the link to it - https://www.amazon.com/gp/aw/d/B01CIYURJE/ref=mp_s_a_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1493335553&sr=8-1&pi=AC_SX236_SY340_QL65&keywords=instant+pot+cookbook. I've used it to also figure out my own recipes by finding one that is similar and then adjusting what I want to put into it. I've also found this site to be incredibly helpful - http://www.pressurecookingtoday.com/recipe-index/. Good luck and have fun exploring new recipes!

Started googling and I found this guy. https://www.amazon.com/dp/1938895339/ref=sspa_dk_detail_1?psc=1&pd_rd_i=1938895339&pd_rd_wg=jq3nG&pd_rd_r=MWVK4215CQY70E292SM6&pd_rd_w=rasbS

Call it a win!

There are plenty of good things you could make that aren't hard. Think of something he would like, find a highly rated recipe that you can read through and understand. If you can understand it, (know what the words are and have the tools listed) you can make it.

Practice the recipe at least once. Maybe it will go well and you won't have a problem. For example, it is really easy to make pasta. You put it in boiling water and set a timer. Crock pot/slow cooker recipes are usually really easy but can be really tasty.

If it doesn't come out well, practice again. If you really can't do it, order something for take out at a nice restaurant.

I would recommend America's Test Kitchen or Cook's Illustrated recipes. They are tested to be fool-proof. If you can find a book of "easy", "quick" or "simple" recipes from either of these, you should be all set.

Other signs of easy, successful recipes or meal plans is to use good, in-season vegetables. For example, you could make fajitas. If you can cook the meat well (maybe in a crock pot) all you need to add is a sauce from the store, and a bunch of good vegetables, cheese, that sort of thing. Not a lot of cooking involved but one of my favorite meals.

Just make it ahead of time (secretly) to make sure it will come out ok. Cooking is not hard.

Edit: Lobster is easy to overcook. That might be something for takeout if you specifically/only want lobster.

http://www.amazon.co.uk/Cant-Cook-Book-Absolutely-Terrified/dp/1451662254/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1418247094&sr=8-1&keywords=cookbook+for+people+who+can%27t+cook

http://www.amazon.co.uk/Dont-Know-How-Cook-Book/dp/159869703X/ref=sr_1_6?ie=UTF8&qid=1418247094&sr=8-6&keywords=cookbook+for+people+who+can%27t+cook

http://www.amazon.co.uk/%2522I-Dont-Know-Cook%2522-Book/dp/1440584753/ref=sr_1_10?ie=UTF8&qid=1418247094&sr=8-10&keywords=cookbook+for+people+who+can%27t+cook

The joy of cooking and america cooks are also must haves

http://www.amazon.com/America-Cooks-General-Federation-Womens/dp/0399100202

I used MyFitnessPal when I was counting. FitBit is also a good one.

Gaining weight is about eating enough calories, not cooking anything specific.

I started with this and this when I first moved out. Again though, you can get free recipes online. Start with learning 3-5 and then slowly increase what you can do. Eventually you will have 10-15 meals you can make from memory and can get a nice diversity of food.

I can highly recommend Chrissy Teigen's cookbook called "Cravings."
I have made several recipes out of it since Christmas and I have loved them all!

Shout-out to the Honey-Chipotle Chicken, Split Pea Soup and Charred Fish Tacos.

I have a few new ones that I just bought

https://www.amazon.com/Super-Easy-Vegan-Cooker-Cookbook/dp/1623158958/ref=sr_1_1_sspa?ie=UTF8&qid=1551194966&sr=8-1-spons&keywords=super+easy+vegan+slow+cooker+cookbook&psc=1

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https://www.amazon.com/30-Minute-Vegan-Dinners-Plant-Based-Meals/dp/1624147216/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1551195023&sr=8-1&keywords=30+minute+vegan+dinners

​

https://www.amazon.com/Vegan-Meal-Prep-Ready-Go/dp/1641522909/ref=sr_1_2?ie=UTF8&qid=1551195023&sr=8-2&keywords=30+minute+vegan+dinners

​

https://www.amazon.com/Fuss-Free-Vegan-Everyday-Favorites-Veganized/dp/0147530350/ref=sr_1_2?ie=UTF8&qid=1551195069&sr=8-2&keywords=fuss+free+vegan+cookbook

​

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America cooks is great too.

Also, sugar cookies!=making meringue and french macaroons.

Most cookies and breads ar easy. There is that small tier of things like really good focaccia and french bread, but if he is just making oatmeal cookies and pizza from scratch, it is pretty simple.
http://www.amazon.com/dp/0399100202

try this 3-4-5 ingredient cookbook.

and there's also this 3-4-5 cookbook

I have the second one lots of easy recipes with the minimal amount of ingredients.

Kurma is my guy

I just use garlic in place of anytime he calls for asafetida.

I would check out some cookbooks written by/for Hare Krishnas for ideas. For religious reasons they eat a vegetarian diet free of onion, garlic and eggs and they've come up with some amazing ways to get around the flavor problem. A lot of the food draws heavily on indian spices, including asofetida. Kurma is one of the better known Hare Krishna cookbook writers. My mother is a Hare Krishna and this and this were our family's go-to cookbooks growing up.

If you're a fan of the "recipes from home cooks" approach, you may like Mark Bittman's The Best Recipes in the World which is available on Amazon for $31. Pretty much the same concept but an enormous volume that covers many of the world's major cuisines and a few more regional ones.

I second the Edna Lewis. Is is good stuff. I have the one with her and Scott Peacock and it is awesome The Gift of Southern Cooking

https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0399582630/ref=ppx_yo_dt_b_search_asin_title?ie=UTF8&psc=1

I think there's one in there for an aloo matter meal which literally takes 20 minutes, which is pretty nice since it usually takes an hour just to bake a potato.

This one seems to have better reviews (came across it on this sub recently):

https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0399582630/ref=ox_sc_saved_title_1?smid=ATVPDKIKX0DER&psc=1

This is our favorite cookbook. All the meals are easy to make, delicious, and take only about 30 minutes.

http://www.amazon.com/Best-Simple-Recipes-Americas-Kitchen/dp/1933615591/ref=sr_1_2?ie=UTF8&qid=1395023440&sr=8-2&keywords=Americas+test+kitchen+30+minute

I also like the recipes on the womens day website. Every month they put out a whole month's worth of recipes.
http://www.womansday.com/food-recipes/month-of-menus/

Shalane Flanagan & Elyse Kopecky's cookbooks have some pretty great race day meal ideas (these and Thug Kitchen are probably some of my favorite cookbooks as far as having interesting recipes you can actually easily cook). Regardless of what you pick, the important thing is to give whatever your race day meal is a couple trial-runs so you know it sits well.

​

Cookbooks:
https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/1635651913/ref=ppx_od_dt_b_asin_title_s00?ie=UTF8&psc=1
https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/162336681X/ref=dbs_a_def_rwt_bibl_vppi_i1

http://www.amazon.com/Gordon-Ramsays-Fast-Food-Ramsay/dp/1554700647

I got started with this book. It explains CICO pretty well and debunks why CICO works over other methods: https://www.amazon.com/gp/aw/d/1938895339/ref=oh_aui_i_d_old_o1_img?ie=UTF8&psc=1

It has nutrition info + recipes. It also has mini guides on how to select the right meats + fish, which I thought was helpful.

Since I'm a college student and recently cooking more for myself, my favourite cookbook current is Starting Out I love it cause it explain what to look for when buying meats and veggies, what to do with left overs and how to change recipes. I found it very inspiring to go out into the kitchen.

As for a staple food, past tossed with bacon and chopped spinach. I just portion off the bacon and frozen chapped spinach when I pick them up. Cook all three and then mix together. I pretty much always have pasta, bacon, and spinach on hand. It might be less of a staple meal and more of a "Oh wasn't I suppose to go to the grocery store on the way home" meal.

The Southern Foodways Alliance Community Cookbook, and The Gift of Southern Cooking are both AMAZING. I am especially fond of The Southern Foodways book.

It really depends on the type of food you like. There are many health books out there - I really like Cooking Light The Essential Dinner Tonight Cookbook.

I also use a relatively new cookbook [Assyrian Cookbook] (http://www.amazon.com/dp/0957589204/). While it doesn't fit the "healthy cooking" driven market (it's middle eastern style cooking), it does have caloric information for every recipe (per serving size), and the recipes use plenty of vegetables, herbs, grains, legumes (and as a bonus, the food is tasty!). Its pretty economical cooking as well.

One of the problems I have with dieting books or health books is that the food is pretty much the same and not something that you can use long term (becomes boring after a while). It's really about eating food you like but keeping the portion size down.

i have a ton of books from the editors of Cooking Light magazine. They're awesome recipes and also include some side dish ideas as well. Once a year they come out with a compilation of all the recipes from the magazine and they have a few special editions. I highly recommend them. I've never been disappointed. My first and still favourite although it doesn't give the calories for the side dishes it recommends. However, the majority of their recipes are available online you can import them to MFP

I also recently picked up a couple of interesting cookbooks:
Betty Crockers' 1500 calories a day - it allows you to mix and match recipes to come up to 1500 calories (more or less depending how you choose) per day including dessert

Calories In Calories Out cookbook - this one not only tells you the calories, but how much walking/jogging it would take to burn off the calories from the meal

I feel you on the STRUGGLE of vegan baking. My first batch of vegan brownies were a bit sad and when my father took his first bite said that they tasted odd. I told him that they were vegan and he spat them out immediately (since then we've made some glowing progress).

Minimalist Baker is a wonderful dive into a diverse array of vegan baked goods and stunning food photography! https://minimalistbaker.com

I have an instant pot and like to do some "baking" in there and highly recommend the cook book, Vegan Under Pressure - https://www.amazon.com/Vegan-Under-Pressure-Jill-Nussinow-ebook/dp/B010KMOPI0

PERSONALLY - I have been able to surprise many of my friends and family members by veganizing popular and well known recipes. For instance, if you look up the ever so original Tollhouse chocolate chip cookie recipe, it is SUPER EASY to make vegan and no one bats an eye!

For the butter, I replace it with Earth Balance (stick form is best, if you can find that for measuring). Earth Balance acts EXACTLY the same as regular butter, make sure it is softened and not melted through when adding it to the sugars. For eggs, I just started using Bob's Red Mill Egg Replacer (https://www.bobsredmill.com/gluten-free-vegan-egg-replacer.html) and it is pretty darn awesome. Just make sure to fully incorporate it to the batter, it has a very "sticky" texture, which is great since that is the role it is fulfilling! Last replacement is using vegan chocolate chips instead of dairy chocolate chips, which there are quite a few brands for. AND BOOM. A super easy vegan spin on a classic recipe!

Some of my best sources are cookbooks that are not exclusively vegetarian, like Fuchsia Dunlop's Every Grain of Rice and Land of Plenty. Both do contain a large number of vegetable and tofu recipes, plus meat recipes that can be easily veganized (e.g., Gong Bao chicken which I replaced with eggplant, and Dan Dan noodles with minced mushroom.)

I love Ottolenghi's Plenty for his vibrant take on vegetarian Middle Eastern cuisine. He also has a long-running series on the Guardian .

Serious Eats has a great compendium of vegan recipes. His vegan baos are to-die-for.

When I was in college I was just starting to come in to my own as a cook and I found this book really helpful. The curry dish in here has become a staple of mine that I love to cook and all my friends love to eat.

Have a look at Mark Bittman's The Best Recipes in the World It's an international cookbook that isn't centered on any one cuisine, so it may be just what you're looking for.

Thank you. :)

I learned how to use mine from a book. This book! (tried to url it but Reddit wasn’t letting me). Good for basic guidelines. 😃 This Old Gal has great recipes too.

1. I got this cookbook as a gift for xmas and I'm obsessed. You don't need fancy ingredients and everything is delicious. You could get him this, or another cookbook if you wish, and the ingredients to whatever recipe catches your eye & have a romantic night in cooking it together!
   
2. I don't have dogs but I've heard this toy is awesome
   
3. cast iron is always a good gift for people that like to cook. He'll have it forever.
   
   Hope this helps, thanks for the contest!
   

This is the cookbook I've been using, with great success... https://www.amazon.ca/Essential-Indian-Instant-Pot-Cookbook/dp/0399582630/ref=mp_s_a_1_3?crid=3OZXTAEIOK20D&keywords=instant+pot+indian+cookbook&qid=1556772976&s=gateway&sprefix=Instant+Pot+Indian+&sr=8-3
The dahl mahkani is awesome and the chicken korma, well, wars have been fought over lesser things.

I love this cookbook - though I think one of his other books, The Best Recipes In The World, is even better.

>We’re definitely guilty of trying a recipe once and ditching it if it doesn’t work out. I’ll work on trying adjustments and sticking with one until it’s perfected.

It can be really hard to do that, because you're basically fighting human nature, lol - but if you do the tweak & experiment approach, then you don't miss or skip over any recipe that might end up being amazing, you know? Granted, there are some recipes that your personal palette will just straight-up reject, so...it's a process, haha!

So I'll throw some recipes & resources out here - keep in mind (1) you may not personally like all of them, and (2) they may come out good, but you may want to tweak them to make them better. For me, trying new recipes is all about:

1. Trying something new
   
2. Seeing if I like it
   
3. Seeing if I love it enough to lock it into my recipes folders
   
4. Seeing if it has potential to be tweaked to be really excellent after some R&D in the kitchen
   
5. Seeing if it's not good & needs to be dumped, lol
   
   If you look at your kitchen as a production environment, then the game changes a little bit: if you only eat 3 meals a day (breakfast, lunch, dinner), then you're on the hook for 21 meals per week. I aim to try at least one new recipe a week, which out of 21 meals required, isn't that bad! That minimum-level effort results in over 50 new recipes tried every year, which makes trying new things much more approachable! So with that said, here's a few links!
   
   Vegetarian:
   
   Jill Nussinow, aka The Veggie Queen, has a couple of great cookbooks: (well - they're vegan, a bit further from vegetarian, but really good!)
   
   

• The New Fast Food
  
• Vegan Under Pressure (TOC)
  
  Many soups are vegetarian! (or vegan)
  
  
• Minestrone soup
  
• Lentil gumbo
  
• White bean soup
  
  Vegetarian (and Vegan) recipes:
  
  
• Vegan chili
  
• Refried beans (if you use the vegetable stock option)
  
• Hummus (you'll need a food processor, and you'll need to experiment a LOT to get the flavoring where you personally want it to be; also be sure remove the skins to make it silky-smooth!)
  
• Buttery garlic mashed potatoes
  
  Chicken recipes:
  
  
• Chicken teriyaki (per the OP...although I recommend using low-sodium soy sauce, as it's a bit on the salty side using regular soy sauce)
  
• Crack chicken (per the previous post, I add a cornstarch slurry at the end...fantastic on buns - especially brioche hamburger buns, quesadillas, etc.)
  
• Chicken parm meatballs (I know it sounds silly, but for doing the noodles separately, plain, I use a microwave pasta cooker most of the time & it has really great results lol)
  
  Indian recipes:
  
  If you're into baking at all, check out this no-knead naan. I use a Baking Steel a lot in my kitchen - not cheap, but it's one of those "buy it for life" things that works for a variety of baking recipes!
  
  I have a huge love for Indian food...here are some of the basics:
  
  
• Butter chicken (read this FAQ)
  
• Chicken tikka masala
  
• Coconut tandoori chicken
  
  Thai recipes:
  
  I'm currently working on my curry game (and failing spectacularly, lol). Thai recipes are very new to me...still learning! Here are some starting points:
  
  
• Yellow curry
  
• Green curry
  
• Red curry
  
• Massaman curry
  
• Peanut tofu pineapple curry
  
• Lemongrass chicken
  
• Peanut noodles
  
  part 1/2

I'm decent - saving money and eating healthy is huge motivation for learning how to cook! But I don't love it and I am proud to be a LAZY CHEF. Here's a quick list of things that helped me get started (several of my jobs were on the line in kitchens so this is all about efficiency):


The Basics:

1. Set some dietary guidelines and goals for yourself. This helps immensely with narrowing down your shopping list and recipe searches. Do you want to make sure you get 3 cups of veg a day? Eat clean? Always have ice cream in the fridge? Make pasta a few times a week? Master Cuban cuisine? Be a Sandwich Lord?
   
   
2. Set up your kitchen. All of these can be easily obtained from kind relatives / friends / goodwill. Ideally, you want your pots and pans to have nice, thick bottoms bc it will be easier to control the heat. If you go nonstick, make sure they don't have any scratches in the teflon:
   
   

• Frying pan (esp one that goes from stove to oven)
  
  
• Pot big enough for pasta / soup
  
  
• A baking / casserole dish - like a pyrex. Esp if you like lasagna.
  
  
• A baking sheet (for pizza and cookies)
  
  
• A cast iron skillet for frying (fried chicken) / baking (frittata, monkey bread). It can go from stove to oven, and is also easy to care for - no soap, just rinse w water, wipe out, and put it on a burner to bake the grease back into the pan.
  
  
• One spatula / turner, one large stirring spoon (I am partial to the standard wooden spoon), a pair of tongs (good for pasta, salad, and grabbing things out of pans), a can opener
  
  
• Spices - this really depends on how you cook. I don't find it necessary to get a fully-stocked spice cabinet in the beginning. Instead, buy as you go and figure out what you like. A roast chicken recipe that calls for thyme can easily be switched to roast chicken with oregano, garlic, and orange peel. You can buy loose spices at most co-ops so you don't have to commit to a whole jar of garam masala if you decide you won't cook Indian that often.
  
  THE SECRET TO COOKING
  
  
• Manage your heat. That's what it's all about. Most of what you're cooking should be done between low-med and med-high. Adjust your temp as you go (you can bring a soup to a boil, then turn it down to a simmer). Cranking the heat doesn't always cook food through faster, but it does burn things faster.
  
  
• If you are new to it, find a good book or blog. There are a lot of great books out there for new cooks.
  
  LAZY CHEF'ING aka How to Maximize Your Time in the Kitchen So Cooking Doesn't Feel Like a Chore
  
  
• Set aside one or two nights a week for prep and cooking and cook a few day's worth of food. Then you can just reheat leftovers or use them to throw together a quick meal. If you bake off a whole tray of chicken, you can have it over rice with lemon and olive oil the first night, make chicken salad the next day, chicken fried rice the third day, chicken alfredo the fourth day, etc. Having ready to eat food in the fridge at all times is the first line of defense against Grubhub!
  
  
• Get down with simmer cooking and cooking sauces. It's the same idea as Hamburger Helper. Get some jars of sauce you can simmer (e.g. pasta sauce, Indian simmer sauce, Coconut milk and curry paste), cook your aromatics, add your protein, add veg, throw in your sauce, simmer for 20 minutes. Stir occasionally. Enjoy with bland food accompaniment (rice, pasta, bread, potato, veg). There are a ton of sauces at your local Asian market.
  
  
• Bake and Roast. This is my favorite way to cook. Take ten minutes to oil and season your protein and throw it in a baking dish. Add oiled and seasoned veg to roast alongside (depending on how long your protein takes to cook, you may have to add veg mid-bake). Or, take ten minutes to assemble a casserole. Set a timer and enjoy 40 minutes of doing WHATEVER YOU WANT TO DO!!!!!
  
  Bonus Round:
  
  
• Freezing food is awesome. If you are a meat eater, keep an eye out for good deals on meat. You can freeze them til you are ready to use them. Frozen turkey after Thanksgiving is a great deal - massive birds for $13 total. Frozen veg has saved me from throwing out fresh veg that I didn't cook off in time. If you have leftovers and you're kind of sick of them, freeze them for a later date. If you have a night of making pizza, make a few extra to freeze for later.
  
  
• Save more money in the long run by eating whole foods. A decent frozen pizza is about 2.5 meals for $7.99 with some nutritional value. You can buy a pound of steaks for $5.99 on sale and a bag of frozen veg to roast off for $1.50. That's at least 3-4 meals. You'll also save on your health care bill in the future.
  
  
• Find the best deals at ethnic grocery stores that actual immigrants go to!!! The produce prices are sick. A fat bunch of cilantro will run you fifty cents vs $1.25 at a regular grocery store. You will also find all sorts of cool veg like japanese eggplant, enoki mushrooms, kobacha squash, baby bok choy, that you can't get at a standard store.

My mother got me the Can't Cook Book a few years ago. Admittedly, I haven't used it much because, well, it felt like an insult gift (as I was already pretty competent in the kitchen) and the recipes are really basic- but if you are starting from square one it seems a good resource. Like I said, it does have some (very easy) recipes but most of the book is chapters about kitchen tools, meal preparation, basic techniques and definitions of kitchen terms. All stuff you'll want to know.

As far as a next step after that (because, of course, practice makes perfect) I can more enthusiastically recommend Cooking Comically which is full of easy recipes, with step by step picture instructions in a comic book format, with a decent number of explanations of how to do new techniques and why you'll want to do things a certain way. Many of those recipes and some others can be found online here to give you an idea whether or not you should purchase that book.

Ha! Well since you asked...

• Run Fast, Eat Slow and Run Fast, Cook Fast, Eat Slow by Shalane Flanagan and Elyse Kopecky
  
• Dining In by Alison Roman; also her column at the NY Times
  
• The First Mess blog and cookbook
  
• 101cookbooks blog and cookbooks
  
• Six Seasons, by Joshua McFadden
  
• Seven Spoons by Tara O'Brady
  
• Any of Nigel Slater's books - especially Tender
  
  Truly truly, I could go on. But those are some good places to start :)

https://www.amazon.com/America-Cooks-General-Federation-Womens/dp/0399100202

Oats with flax, chia, pumpkin, and sunflower seeds, and fresh fruit is probably the best bfast you can have.
Do yourself a solid and buy a vegan cookbook. I just bought Fuss-Free Vegan and it has some amazing recipes. But honestly, in 2018, 'having no idea' isn't really a valid excuse.

>Breakfast and lunch are super important (coffee is a runner up). You don't realize it till you go without. Then it hits you.

Yupper

For lunch...

http://luckypeach.com/recipes/miso-claypot-chicken-no-claypot/

Make a big batch of that and freeze the leftovers.

https://www.amazon.com/Gordon-Ramsays-Fast-Food-Ramsay/dp/1554700647

These are all great too.

Nutritious and most freeze well.

For breakfast, always have spare cooked rice in a baggie in the fridge, eggs, tortillas, condiments, cheese, etc... so you can just throw stuff together. My favorite:

http://www.seriouseats.com/2016/08/how-to-make-omurice-japanese-omelette-fried-rice.html

Coffee in the morning your type of thing?

https://www.amazon.com/AeroPress-80R11-Coffee-Maker/dp/B000GXZ2GS/ref=sr_1_2?s=kitchen&ie=UTF8&qid=1482258230&sr=1-2&keywords=aeropress

Cheap and works great, makes an excellent cup of coffee with hot water quickly.

https://www.amazon.com/Cuisinart-DCG-12BC-Central-Coffee-Grinder/dp/B0000A1ZN7/ref=sr_1_23?s=kitchen&ie=UTF8&qid=1482258296&sr=1-23&keywords=coffee+grinder

This is my grinder.

It's the details that count, decent quality stuff that just gets the job done.

When I moved out, my mother gave me this book. It's a really good place to start. Bonus, they teach you how to do laundry (symbols and all!).

Diet:

Start with calculating your TDEE here. Set exercise days to 0. You'll probably get about 2100'ish depending on height.

Set your diet deficit goal, if you go with a 20% cut (should put you at around 1700 cal/day) you should lose 1 lb a week, hopefully more with exercise.

Calculate a macro breakdown based on your calorie target and activity level. I would suggest roughly 33%/33%/33% for protein, carbohydrates and fats to start. This yields roughly 145g protein, 145g carbs, 60g fat.

Build your food plan around that. I take recipes from a lot of sources, breakfast during the week is usually kept simple, such as cooked oatmeal (not instant) or overnight oats with yogurt and fruit, wheat toast and eggs, smoked salmon etc. The Shredded Chef is also a decent cookbook with recipes that meet various goals, which I use mostly for dinner recipes. Lunch more often than not is left over dinner from the night before.

Exercise plan:

If you are able to get one of those personal training sessions scheduled ASAP they can probably help you write up a pretty decent one, otherwise I'm happy to make suggestions.