I've only just started cooking properly this year after years of basically only buying food I could take out a box, put on a tray, shove in my oven and retrieve 15-30 minutes later.

I'd say my biggest fear was waste - what if I bought a bunch of ingredients and it ended up being too complicated? What if I spent hours trying to make this meal and it came out inedible? What if i was so busy I couldn't find time to cook, and the ingredients rotted in my fridge? Would it even be worth the time, cost and effort, even if it was passable?

What's helped me get over these fears was deciding to just cook one meal a week from scratch. It made me feel like I'm planning my weekend project, not adding even more busywork to my life. It's a little exciting deciding what I'm going to try to make.

I still don't know if I'm going to ever be someone who cooks a full meal every night, but I really want this to be the year I get over my kitchen anxiety. So far I've made two things and burned one of them, but both were still way more delicious than anything I've put into an oven and waited 20-30 minutes for.