ben is excited about the idea of cooking. — ben is really excited about this idea

Summer break starts today for my kids. I have two boys and a girl, ages 16, 14, and 12. I woke up this morning worrying about what I was going to make for dinner. Then I thought, “Why can’t they make it? All they’re going to do all day is play World of Warcraft.”

To make this work, I’ll have to get a little more organized. That’s where you can help. Share with me your ideas and recipes and help me get my kids cooking. I’m looking for healthy family meals that teenagers can successfully prepare from start to finish.

After we make the meal you submit, I’ll come back and share the results. I’ll even take pictures!

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21 responses

Sarah M

May 20, 2009

Ican–
The easiest meal that popped in my head is eggs, toast, and fruit salad. Quick, easy, very little possibility of burning the house down or getting cut. But there are many easy recipes out there, and probably some good sites for kids’ cooking. The advantage you have is you have older children who you don’t have to worry about with the knives.

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Beth

May 20, 2009

I read somewhere many years ago that all cooking consists of is following a recipe and giving a darn how it turns out.
I’ll look through some things and see what I can come up with for them.
Are they adventurous enough to have fun with it, or are they going to look upon this as a “chore”?

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1. Doug Hagler
  
  May 20, 2009
  
  It will be fun the first time, maybe. After that it will be work. Thanks for giving it some thought, Beth.
  
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Jonathan

May 20, 2009

Pop Tarts….If the toaster is too complicated: for the challenged child, they can even be microwaved at 10 seconds.

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1. Doug Hagler
  
  May 20, 2009
  
  Hahah. The thing is, they’d love making poptarts and eating only poptarts.
  
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mary beth

May 20, 2009

MBs simple and famous spaghetti sauce with pasta.
1 lb lean ground beef/ or ground beef. 1 package italian sausage or mild country sausage. 1 onion. fry this and drain the grease. that means putting it in a container and throwing it away; it doesn’t go down the sink. by fry this, put it in a “dutch oven” the large thing you make soup in. ok; now 2 8 oz cans to tomato sauce; 1 8 oz can of tomato paste; the cheapest will do. on the pasta aisle, find the spaghetti sauce mixes. get one with our without mushrooms. oh you like the musthrooms? good. get a can of stems and pieces from the mushroom section, ususally found near the sauce mixes. pick yourself out some pasta while you are there; be adventurous; get the swirlly things or the penne. back to home: put in the sauce mix, add 2 cans water from the 8 oz cans of tomato sauce. rinse all those aluminum cans. you can use that sprayer thing on the since to rinse them good. put them in the sink drain. you are going to recylce these. back to stove. face the stove. put in the pasta spahetti sauce mix. the whole package. look in your cabinets. do you have garlic powerder? do you have oregeno? add some of each. some. just sprinkle it on top. stop dumping. you will regret this. just sprinkle. add some, ok?now stir up the stuff in your pasta pot well, turn the heat up to almost high and let that stuff start cooking. don’t leave the room. don’t. watch it. when it starts to boil up a bit, you turn that down to low after stirring. this stuff needs to get up high andthen come down, like a roller coaster, ok. do ya’ll have a green pepper in the fridge? ok, slice that up and put it in there. ok; now let that sit. put it on low; let it sit. if you leave the house, (please tell me your have permission), cut it off. yes, it is ok to leave it there a bit. now….come back in a couple of hours. that is right, do this earlier in the day and let it sit. trust me. now get out a pot big enough to fill with water to boil your noodles. fill with water. put on stove; put on hight. sprinkle in some salt; pour in a bit of olive oil. let it start to boil. just look like it is getting hot and bothered. you know, not bubbling up, just starting to react a bit. now put in noodles. leave them on high a few minutes, ok now, turn them down. don’t leave the room during this part. if you are bored, put on music or something and dance. ok, now turn up that pasta on medium. see how it has thickened. isn’t that nice. ok while these are heating, make yourself a little salad. just get yourself some lettuce, rinse, put in a carrot, not the whole thing, cut it up. oh, just leave that out. you are hungrey. put on a little dressing. watch those noodles. are they looking close? take one out. sling it against the fridge. did it stick? ok then it is done. did it not stick because it is too round? get it off the floor and taste it. go on, be brave. ok soft enough? call it! you are going to have to drain these. i should have told you to look for this; it is the container with the holes in it. it is called a colander. take noodles off the steve and drain them into the colander over the sink. not over dirty dishes in the sink. on the side without the dirty or the clean dishes. put some olive oil over this. if you don’t have olive oil, forget the olive oil. do not put vegetable oil over it. get out your bowls. put in your noodles, put on your sauce. were you watching that sauce. don’t let it get up too high and burn it. i told you to stay in the room. now eat this where you have permission to eat it, which is not on white or off white carpet. eat that salad. you are NOT finished. you get back in there and rinse your bowls. find yourself a container to put the leftover sauce in. put it in. put it in the fridge and you can have this for lunch on saturday. you make me so proud. you do.

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1. Doug Hagler
  
  May 20, 2009
  
  WOW. Printing this now! This is great Mary Beth!
  
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2. Sarah M
  
  May 20, 2009
  
  That is one of the funnest recipes I have read. (The other one is not appropriate for Doug’s kids.)
  
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jill

May 20, 2009

Poppy seed chicken casserole

3 lg chicken breast- or you can use canned chicken
2 cans cream of mushroom soup
16 oz sour cream
1/2 stick margarine
ritz crackers
1 T poppy seeds

cook chicken. cut up. mix soup and sour cream.Crush crackers and add melted butter and poppy seed. Combine with soup and sour cream mixture. layer bake 350 for 30 minutes

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1. Doug Hagler
  
  May 20, 2009
  
  Very doable. Why haven’t I had them doing this before??
  
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Sarah M

May 20, 2009

Also, you could let them look through cookbooks or on the internet and let you know what they want to make. They could go to the store with you, to compare prices. Then they could make it.

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1. Doug Hagler
  
  May 20, 2009
  
  That’s what I’m going to do, Sarah. And designate ONE in charge. If they can solicite help from the other two, good. If not, no big deal. I hope to avoid a little conflict that way.
  
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Sam Hagler

May 20, 2009

. . . It’s surprising to see everyone’s reactions. I just assumed everyone would say, “No! Don’t make them cook! They should enjoy every second of their summer since their school starts August 5th!” Oh well. With all these ideas, I wanna try cooking without being afraid of the stove.

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Miriam

May 25, 2009

How about homemade pizza? There are tons of pizza crust recipes online. Most kids love pizza and you can make it as healthy as you want. Each can make their own personal pizza. Have them toss a salad, make homemade salad dressing and a dessert. Get a cookbook out and let them find what sounds good to them. Good luck 🙂

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1. Doug Hagler
  
  May 27, 2009
  
  Wow, Miriam. “Get a cookbook out and let them find what sounds good…” I like that idea. I’m going to have to try and and see what happens. It’s just one meal, right?
  
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LeeGayle

May 30, 2009

Turkey Tacos

1 lb of ground turkey
Get a taco kit from the store. It comes with either soft or hard shells, with all the seasonings.
Graded cheese(monteray, colby or cheddar is good)
Sour cream
Lettuce(shredded or cut)
jalepenos
chopped tomatoes
Salsa or taco sauce

Cook the turkey in skillet stirring until fully cooked.
add season packet with appropriate amount of water as directed.
Let it simmer for 5 to 10 minutes on low heat.
Put all the fixin’s out on the counter, and everybody self serve your tacos!

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1. Doug Hagler
  
  May 30, 2009
  
  YUM!
  
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Meals Kids Can Make, Ctd. « icanhasgrace

June 11, 2009

[…] Tags: Cooking, Family, Kids, Meals, Recipes, Teenagers We finally got around to putting the kids in charge of cooking dinner. Ben planned the menu and decided on spaghetti. He and I went grocery shopping, lucked out, and […]

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Becca

June 11, 2009

I can’t cook, but here is a dish I can’t mess up. I usually serve it with steamed brocolli and french bread.

Creamy Pesto Chicken & Bow Ties

3 cups uncooked bow tie pasta
1 pound boneless, skinless chicken breast, cubed
2 tablespoons butter or margarine
1 can (10 3/4 oz) Condensed Cream of Chicken or 98% Fat Free Cream of Chicken Soup, undiluted
1/2 cup prepared pesto sauce
1/2 cup milk

Cook pasta according to package directions. Drain. Meanwhile, in a large skillet, cook (cubed) chicken in butter until browned, stirring often. Add soup, pesto and milk. Bring to a boil. Cook over low heat 5 minutes. Stir in pasta and heat through.

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1. Doug Hagler
  
  June 11, 2009
  
  That sounds great! It sounds fast, too.
  
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June 19, 2009

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