You may find crock-pot cooking helpful. Search for "slow-cooking" on Amazon. You can get a 4-quart pot fairly cheaply, and cooking is simple - you toss into the pot, forget about it and come home and eat. You might have to prepare a starch or grain on the side to keep things tasty, but that takes all of 20 minutes and very little skill.
But you will ultimately have to improve your cooking skills if you want to get through the first month without putting your head through the wall. If you don't have the following items, I'd recommend you consider buying:
1.) Saucepan (2-3 quart)
2.) Frying pan/saute pan (10-12 inches wide should do the trick)
3.) Stock pot (for soups/spaghetti, 6-8 quart)
4.) WOODEN stirring spoons
5.) Ladle
6.) Strainer
7.) Vegetable steamer
8.) Meat thermometer
9.) Casserole dish (Pyrex glass/clay is best, maybe 12"x18"?)
10.) Baking pan - optional, but useful for some things like baking fish wrapped in wax paper
11.) Spatula
12.) Mixing bowls
13.) Measuring spoons and cups
Buy STAINLESS STEEL for everything if you can, from cooking utensils to pots and pans - the only exception could possibly be the mixing bowl. I am not particularly comfortable cooking with aluminum and plastic, particularly because they can transfer minute trace amounts into the food (for example, aluminum can travel into acidic tomato sauce). It may or may not be harmful, but I am not a fan of having stuff in my food that was not meant to be there in the first place.
Start with something simple, like roasting chicken. In my opinion this is best done in a cast-iron dutch oven, but for something a bit simpler, take your casserole dish and arrange skinless chicken legs (the whole leg) or breasts in it. Season with whatever herbs you like - rosemary is particularly good with chicken, but you can just use a Ms. Dash. Add garlic and arrange chopped root vegetables (onions, carrots, potatoes, etc.) around the meat. Cover it with aluminum foil or wax paper, and bake in an oven at around 325F for 30 minutes or so. Insert your meat thermometer horizontally into the thickest part of a breast so that it isn't touching the container or rubbing against bone, and if it reads at least 165F your chicken is done. Remove and serve. Let it cool to room temperature and you can freeze the rest of it.
You can also use this approach to roast root vegetables. Lay wax paper down on a baking pan and put sliced root vegetables on the pan evenly. You can drizzle them with olive oil and add some herbs, or lightly salt them - put them in a 450F oven, roughly for 30 minutes, stir them occasionally to make sure they roast evenly. That's it.
Preparing rice/grains is pretty simple as well. Just add the grain with equal amounts vegetable stock (not broth, which is high-sodium) or chicken stock and then bring to a boil, then let it simmer. With only a few exceptions like amaranth or oats that tend to stick to the bottom of the pan and burn, don't stir the grains. Whole grains like brown rice take longer to cook, so you can soak the stuff overnight in the refrigerator and then cook them as normal. I prefer grains like millet or quinoa, which are smaller and cook up in less than 15 minutes.
Sauteeing vegetables[b/] is also simple - take a leafy vegetable like bok choy, kale, mustard greens, spinach, or collards, chop it up nicely and toss it in a heated pan coated with some olive oil. Add whatever seasonings you like. The trick with sauteing (French meaning "jump") is to keep the heat relatively high and the contents of the pan moving by stirring with your wooden spoon. The greens generally cook up in less than five minutes - you'll notice when they start to wilt. To steam greens, fill your saucepan with about 1/2 inch of water, chop up the vegetables, and toss them into your steamer, which sits inside the saucepan. Root vegetables go in first since they take longer to cook, then throw in the leafier greens.
One final note: a "meal" in my opinion is not complete unless it has a vegetable, a starch, and some type of protein - in that order. For "healthy" eating, the majority of the plate should be some color other than white, beige, or brown. Fat loss sticky will have many more tips.
Consider talking to (female?) relatives if they cook - most of the stuff I learned comes directly from my mother. Involving your son at all stages of the cooking process - shopping, cooking, eating - is also a terrific way to promote healthy eating and socialize with your son. Kids also tend to eat what they cook, which means he may be less finicky at the table.
Lots of recipes online, if you follow them precisely you usually end up with pretty good results. There are also a lot of rubbish, poorly written recipes online as well, so check reviews before you try - epicurious.com and allrecipes.com are usually pretty good. They usually come with good forums attached so you can ask a lot of questions.
Sorry for the long post - best of luck! If you have any questions PM me.
