We're happy to have you; welcome!
Are you trying to increase or improve your cooking, or just enjoying the chat? Sounds like you might be interested in the cook-and-freeze thing, to get several nights' meals out of one evening of cooking--a good way not to hit the fast-food joints when your DH is away.
If you're afraid of butter, use cream. ~~ Julia Child
As you cook, you enjoy omniscience about food that no amount of label reading can match. Having retaken control of the meal from the food scientists, you know exactly what is in it. (Unless you start w/cream of mushroom soup, in which case all bets are off.) To reclaim control over one's food, to take it back from industry & science, is no small thing; indeed, in our time, cooking from scratch qualifies as subversive. ~~ Michael Pollan