If you cook a lot, after a while you'll get a feel for what works well together. So you can just make something arbitrary from whatever you have. But for the mo

If you cook a lot, after a while you'll get a feel for what works well together. So you can just make something arbitrary from whatever you have. But for the most part, you just need to combine some carbs, fat, and protein. So just make sure you have those on hand. I wouldn't follow recipes too much. Maybe to get some inspiration, but then make some adjustments to it - to make it interesting as well. I see cooking as an iterative process. Each time you make a dish, find something to improve: its greatly motivating in trying again with a little variation, and seeing how that worked out. There will be times where the result is a bit disappointing, but it's really difficult to make something inedible - I think it usually happens due to inattention.