>>11083 has the exactly right idea. Keep things simple and utilize leftovers. You'll learn most of the stuff you need to know by experience and actually enjoying/caring about cooking. If you have kids, engage them in the cooking too.
Since no one's suggested it yet: America's Test Kitchen is a great resource on PBS or Amazon.
There's a two things in this thread I disagree with in the context of your question.
Slow cookers. They are convenient if you absolutely must use it but everything I've ever had from a slowcooker (whether cooked by myself, wife, mom, SIL, family event, etc) has been relative junk. If you overuse it you'll piss off your husband/children with your "specialty" dish. You can make a much better meal with real cooking. And after my experiences in electric study and restaurant equipment repair I'm paranoid and don't exactly trust something like that to sit on my counter unsupervised all day or night. Especially if it comes from a big box store.
Exact volume measurements. I believe cooking shouldn't be treated like an arts and crafts project. Measurements are a good starting point but don't really matter that much in the day-to-day simple ingredient cooking you're asking about unless you're on a doctor prescribed diet. You just need to eye-measure proportions appropriate to your family.
About time, your main goal is not letting stuff burn or overcook so chronometers are mostly just helpful reminders if you like doing other stuff while you cook (which you should). Cook by temperatures and textures mostly.
To constructively contribute here's example of something I make often.
Chicken & Fake Stuffing - Feeds my family of two adults and two kids for two nights
<Whole chicken carcass
<Supermarket Italian bread loaf
Post too long. Click here to view the full text.