Fed up with frozen foods (pizza, fries, fish fingers) and basic stuff i know jacket potato's chips, curry's Indian rice, takeout just to give you a basic ideas I dont know how to make a lot of stuff outside this basic area.
So, bluntly, you know nothing. Don't worry; many of us were there once. And you're cooking for just yourself, which, ironically, makes things more difficult.
I have two recommendations: get Delia Smith's book One Is Fun, and sign yourself up for a basic cookery course.
Oh, and don't follow the directions for carbonara above. You just want the egg yolk, not the white, and a little cream or creme fraiche.
Quartz's quick carbonara:
You need 100g spaghetti or other pasta. 2-3 rashers of bacon. 1 hard cheese like Parmesan. 1 or 2 eggs. Cream or creme fraiche. 1 large saucepan. 1 frying pan. 1 mixing bowl. 2 litres of water. 2 rings on a cooker. 1 wooden spoon. 1 spoon. 1 chopping board. 1 large sharp cooking knife or cleaver. 1 mandolin / grater. 1 sieve. Pepper and other spices to taste.
Time: 20 mins.
Turn the cooker on and turn the rings to max.
Put the water in the saucepan. You want the saucepan to be less than ~2/3 full. Put the saucepan on one of the hot rings.
Cut the rind off the bacon, and chop the bacon into strips with the cooking knife or cleaver. Put the cut bacon into the frying pan. Do NOT put the pan on the heat.
Use the medium grater side of the mandolin to grate some cheese into the mixing bowl. This is to taste, but you don't need much - 2 inches off a triangle of Parmesan. Add the egg yolk(s), and a small spoonful of creme fraiche, mix thoroughly and set aside. If you get a paste when you mix it, add some more creme fraiche (gently does it).
By now the water should be boiling. Put the pasta in and reduce the setting so that the water roils but does not boil. Check the spaghetti packet for the time but it should take between 10 and 15 minutes to cook. Tamp down the spaghetti with the wooden spoon so it gets fully submerged. DO NOT add olive oil. (You want the carbonara mix to stick to the pasta later.)
While the pasta is cooking, put the frying pan on the other ring and fry the bacon. Move the bacon about with the wooden spoon so it doesn't burn.
If the bacon finishes cooking before the spaghetti, set it aside, still in the pan.
Once the spaghetti has finished cooking, fish out a strand with a fork and taste it. If it's not cooked, give it another few minutes and repeat.
Once the spaghetti is ready, pour it through the sieve and give the sieve a shake. Turn off the cooker.
Now combine the cheese mix, the spaghetti, and the bacon in the mixing bowl. Stir thoroughly, but not so much that the egg scrambles. The heat from the spaghetti will cook the egg and melt the cheese.
Turn out onto a warm plate or bowl.
Grind some pepper onto it.
Eat!
You can experiment by adding mushrooms, spices, etc later.
