maybe start slow, your food will get better with practice.  what i have been doing to try new recipes:
pick two or three that you want to try that week. 
pick days to make them based on work schedule, make plans to cook with a friend (that way you can't flake)
i usually pick a recipe from a book and a couple from here
write down all the stuff you need and get it so you won't have to work yourself up to go to the store AND cook dinner. 

I just made a commitment to have to cook when I made the change in my diet/life.

I dreaded it, made things that probably tasted horrible to the average person, but I was so proud of myself for trying new things and cooking!  Whenever I find lovely pictures (usually courtesy of baypuppy ;) ) I put the recipe in my "recipe box" and do what others have suggested- make a list for the store, wait until the weekend, then cook away!  Most of the stuff I've made on here lasts me the whole week.  So, I switch it up a bit by either adding hot sauce one night, soy another, braggs, etc.  It's my lazy way of changing entrees.  I find, though, that I really like a certain dish I make for the week, then it's time for a change, and more cooking!  Gives me the week to play with spices and stuff.  I don't know.

Sometimes I don't even eat the dish the day I make it.  I just like having food already prepared for when I need a quick meal. 

Good luck!  I wish I could be more helpful!

Cooking, in my experience, is 10% innate skill and intuition, 40% technique (which can be developed!) and 50% trial and error!  :D Perhaps you've found a few recipes that were a bit bland? You can add some of your own spices bit by bit until it hits a taste you like. I always, always, always make notes on the recipes I try: what spices I added, if I cooked it any differently, etc. That way, when I make the recipe again, I've figured out what's the best way for me personally to make it.

Most people can't cook without any practice. :) I know I was lucky enough to grow up with a family that was always cooking and letting me help out in the kitchen and I learned a lot there. I also got stuck in a whole year of Home Ec, and I learned oodles there, too (like budgeting and meal planning, as well as hemming pants!). Maybe a good learn-to-cook book or a class at your local community college would help get your engine roaring? It really does help to be shown certain techniques and be taught some of the basic science behind it all.

I'd say soups, stews and pastas might not be a bad place to start! You can saute up some of your favorite vegetables and some crushed tomatoes with minced garlic (mine comes from a bottle because I am lazzzzzzy!), some herbs and olive oil and throw it over pasta. I've found soups and stews to be fairly easy to cook (aside from having to chop a billllllion vegetables) and you usually can't wreck them too easily if you've got a decent recipe to start out with.

Good luck! Cooking really, really is fun and rewarding once you get into it. There's just this really awesome feeling of savoring something you made with your own two hands. :)

Oooh, and don't be afraid to try cookie and cake batter! No eggs to give you salmonella!

It seems from what you wrote that you are only usually cooking for yourself. I can relate, and hardly ever feel like cooking for an hour just for myself.  The best meals I make tend to use simple ingredients: garlic, good quality ev olive oil, onions, fresh organic in-season vegetables, pasta, grains, and canned beans.  A full spice rack helps...but you really don't need much more to make some excellent food.  When you keep it simple you can spend more on quality ingredients, too, which always taste better.  If you really are going without good meals often, focus on making a recipe each week in a large batch that will keep well in the fridge and eat it on those days that you don't want to cook, for example lasagna or fried rice.

For baking I'd say to concentrate on one recipe at a time and perfect it.  As of right now, I'm a beginner, but I can make some freaking amazing vegan chocolate chip cookies and brownies (thanks to vegweb and some practice!)

Also, the best thing about this site is that if you get lost or mess up a recipe, just post on the forum or on the recipe's page and you will most likely get some pointers.  Keep cooking and have fun!

Cooking doesn't have to be time consuming or labor intensive. I usually have very easy meals.  It's pretty rare that I use a recipe. A common dish I make is cook a grain like rice, quinoa, couscous or barley & in the last 5 minutes of cooking time throw in some veggies, you can even use the frozen precut kind, maybe stir in some beans if you want & whatever seasonings or sauce.  A common combbo I do is quinoa with frozen corn, peas & carrots, Mrs Dash Table blend & hotsauce on top.

Do you have a grill? last night we had shish kabobs. I made rice & beans on the stove & then my husband cooked veggie kabobs (he had chicken) with a bottle marinade on the grill. It was REALLY good. Pasta & sauce is always easy. Do you have a crockpot? its easy to throw things in the crockpot before goign to work & then just let it cook all day long & its ready when you get home!

so - I told my mom (yes, I'm living at home for the summer) that I was thinking of making sweet potato fries and she said - "you'll have to turn on the oven for that" very negatively. great support mom. that got me quesitoning everything again.

then, I decided that I'll make a batch of couscous (because that's just so darn easy - and I have whole wheat, not plain white). throw in some canned chickpeas, tomatoes (canned, probably) and maybe basil? I have an herb garden that's screaming to be used...

But then I started questioning myself again. would just a few tablespoons of chopped basil be enough flavour? should I use some sort of vinaigrette or vinegar (red wine, rice, white wine, balsamic)?  should I use oil? or should I put in a boullion cube, veg broth, or some sort of juice when making the couscous? should the meal be hot or cold? GAH.

should I use the whole can of chickpeas? or maybe use the rest to make hummus? do more at once - so I have hummus this week? eek.

this is what I always end up doing. sheesh.

wow. ok, now I see the problem.... take a deep breath & relax. couscous is fine by itself, so don't stress what you add to it too much. You are only making it for yourself, so you don't have to worry about impressing anyone. I am assumming you are using a cup of couscous right? What I would do if I were you is just add half the can of chickpeas & save the other half, add a can of diced tomatoes, 5 big basil leaves & some other herbs you might have like parsely or oregano. no oil or broth or juice needed unless you want to add flax or hemp oil for . Splash with a little white wine vinegar if you want after its done cooking. If you are hungry when its done eat it hot. Save the rest for a cold lunch tomorrow.

YEAH!!!!!!!!!!! Good job! See- it wasn't that hard!

I cook things ahead of time if I don't have time or don't want to make it too often, like grains.  I cook them in quantity and use them over a few days. 

Beans, I buy canned.  It is not the best thing to do for a variety of reasons, but if I don't do it that way, we would never eat beans. I have had little success cooking them from scratch and I can't use my pressure cooker on my glass top stove, or I'd probably try again.

I do bake some and with excellent success for the most part.  I do this on weekends mostly because working 2 jobs all week makes me too tired to bake a cake on a Tuesday. 

I keep a variety of fresh things and I do keep canned and frozen things.  I prefer fresh mushrooms, but not in a pasta salad (another good eat for a few days meals) because they turn everything they touch black.  I have some canned veggies too, but these come out when I am exhausted to the point where I can hardly move and it is my turn to cook, or when it is nearly payday and I am not driving the 40 miles each way to buy more fresh food.  I have also been known to make a casserole that is "semi-homemade" using a few canned, a few fresh and perhaps a few leftover things.  It is more important to have a decent meal at the end of a long day, sometimes, than to obsess over every single thing in it.

I second the one dish meal idea someone else gave and I'd add that a crockpot is a wonderful thing.  I have this little vegan slow cooker book that I love and I have 3 crockpots of different sizes.  If I want soup for lunch when kids are at school, I start it at 3 a.m. when I get up to work and it is ready by 11 for a hot lunch.  Leftovers make nice after school snacks too. 

Another trick I borrow from Rachel Ray is to prepare some things ahead of time.  When I get home from the store, I wash and dry all my freshies and put them Evert Fresh bags ready to be used.  It saves time and money because things keep longer and I can just grab them and start in.  I also have a Hamilton Beech Change-A-Bowl food processor that shreds and slices.  If I know I am going to use a lot of something over a few days, I use this and store in the bowls that fit the processor (my one last plastic use).  That way, soups and stir frys are very very fast, just open the bowl, toss in what I need and move along. 

A nap is a very nice thing.  There is a Greek professor teaching at Harvard, I believe it is, who has studied the daily nap and its health implications.  If you are a man and you nap daily, you reduce your risk of dying of a heart attack quite dramatically.  He says that is all he has thoroughly studied, but feels that the health benefits reach far wider than just this one issue.