When did you stop seeing fast food as an option?

I can help you with the bland curry powder. “Curry powder” is an Anglicized version of Indian spice mix, which is called Garam Masala - which means literally, spice mix. Garam Masalas range from mediocre to great. Go to an Indian grocery store, and throw yourself on the mercy of the shopkeeper. Ask which Garam Masala they themselves prefer.

If you don’t have an Indian grocery, you can buy Garam Malala from Amazon.

Indian cooking site, will teach you everything you need to know: vahrehvah.com

The main trick to properly seasoning Indian food is that you don’t just chuck spices in with water. Spices need oil or fat to release the flavor. So what you do is make a tadka, a seasoning mix made by heating spices in oil, and then you mix the tadka into your food. Put a little oil in a small pan, put your spices in, and stir over lowish heat for about thirty seconds until it smells fragrant. You don’t want to burn your spices, just cook them slightly. Then mix the oil into your curry.

Because Indian culture has been doing vegetarian cooking for a long time they have many tricks to making vegetarian dishes delicious, such as hing, which adds umami flavor to vegetarian dishes. Other cultures such as Japan and China which have traditions of vegetarian cooking are good to look at for inspiration. Ginger, red pepper, garlic, soy sauce...

As far as messing up when you try to chop and stir at the same time: don’t do this! Chop everything first, lay it out, then start cooking. Walk through the steps in your head, get out all the ingredients and the cookware, and lay it where you need it. This is called Mise en place, and it’s what chefs do. Then when you cook you are much less likely to forget something.

Garam masala doesn't require a specialized grocery, they have it at my mainstream grocery, along with a bunch of interesting curry mixes and other mixes. But, yes, great advice, and especially about the mise en place, which I was going to mention too. Very helpful approach.

OP, since you are insecure about cooking and would likely benefit from feeling more confident in the kitchen, I highly recommend Mark Bittman's books, especially How to Cook Everything Vegetarian. It's a great book for newby cooks, especially in going from needing to follow a recipe to understanding cooking and being able to just wing it with the ingredients you have on hand. You could probably find it at a library (and it's pretty cheap used -- $2 + shipping at amazon).

Some ideas for quick and easy meals in the meantime (based on how I would often cook before I cooked but when not wanting to mess with a recipe):

Buy a rice and beans package mix -- not as cheap as just rice and just beans, but cheaper than McD's and easy and fast. Buy some vegetables you like and sautee them and add them to the rice and beans -- full meal!

Stirfry with various vegetables, sauteed, add to rice, include some tofu or beans. Spices help with this, try different spice mixes (I adore Japanese 7 spice if you are doing this more Asian style with the tofu, but it might be harder to find).

Make rice, take some canned beans (black or pinto or kidney) and add some spice (chili if you like spicy or chipotle or whatever seems worth trying), and also add some sauteed vegetables -- cauliflower, peppers, jalapeno, again whatever seems good. Make and add some pico de gallo (https://cookieandkate.com/classic-pico-de-gallo-recipe/) or just hot sauce (which you can buy and have on hand).

Make pasta (you can try pasta made from lentils or chickpeas for more protein) plus a purchased sauce to which you add vegetables or if you want to try making your own sauce with canned tomatoes do, I promise it's easy. Or forget tomato sauce and sautee some vegetables in olive oil and add extras you might have around (olives, nuts or seeds) and then also some source of protein like chickpeas or white beans.

Hello Fresh or Home Chef is fun. They send you the ingredients and they instruct you how to cook them. Easy enough.