low-key cooking with kids

[niq]

Every other Friday, we make "homemade" pizza with the kids. It's fun and easy, but the parents are starting to get tired of all the pizza.

What can your kids help (or "help") cook? O is almost 7 and V is 10.

[mrsGreeko]

When my DH was deployed the last time I had my kids each plan and cook one meal a week. They were 5, 7, and 10 at the time. They mainly made pancakes and bacon, hot dogs or versions of pigs in a blanket, cheese fondue and types of sandwiches (grilled cheese, BLTs, finger sandwiches because they thought those were cuter cut into small pieces). They also made things like tacos and California rolls.

My newly 12 year old makes mac and cheese from scratch for breakfast regularly. He’s been making it for a year or so, so a 10 year old could probably make it. He also makes his friends bacon cheese burgers most days after school on our Blackstone. He even bought himself some fancy smoked salt to use to make them. lol.

[mrsGreeko]

If you are just talking about make your own types of food similar to pizza: “fancy” ramen is a good option, rice bowls (teriyaki salmon, Greek chicken, etc) are good. Tacos/nachos. Things where each person is assembling their own of the ingredients. Not sure which exactly you meant. Really I think kids at those ages can make pretty much anything you want to teach them to make.

[quesyrah]

Mine are 10 and 13.

They can make scrambled eggs, pizza, cookies, steak tips, hamburger patties (in the air fryer), spaghetti, chili, pancakes….probably other things I’m not thinking of.

And of course they can heat up anything frozen or pre cooked.

Now we’re working on cleaning up after themselves properly 🤪

[186momx]

DD (12) cooks a lot because she likes to.
Spaghetti
Shrimp pasta
Fettucine and chicken nuggets
Quesadillas
breakfast
She also does a lot of peeling and chopping of veggies, makes a mean fruit salad, and can marinate the meat when she gets home from school.

[gardengal]

My 10yo has been cooking for a few years (after he got his whittling badge in cub scouts, we started w kitchen knife skills) & he’s made/significantly helped with:

Breakfast stuff (eggs, pancakes, etc)

Homemade nuggets (we do tofu but chicken is option) w oven fries & cut up fruit or veg (to keep it easy)

Chili, which can be made into chili cheese fries, chili dogs, etc. or other soups they like

Pasta of all kinds

Nachos or loaded fries of all kinds (we’ve done Korean-inspired, Greek-inspired, Cuban “sandwich “ fries, bbq, etc)

[hbomdiggity]

Tacos. My kid likes to help at the stove and can brown meat, stir sauces, etc.

[Bad Dingo]

This book and their baking one are great for kids:
shop.americastestkitchen.com/young-chefs-cookbook.html (much cheaper on amazon)

[waverly]

The kids are 13 and 11. They cook with us almost every day. DS grills sausages and burgers and does waffles in the waffle maker.

Typically one will help cook and the other does dishes. When they help cook they are typically responsible for 1 part of the meal, for example browning the meat for tacos or spaghetti, and then the adult will do other parts of the meal like vegetables and then they help plate it. They can do whole meals on their own, but prefer to do it with us and it works better for meals that have a lot of sides to have another person there.

When DH travels we always did a bunch of easy meals, spaghetti, tacos, grilled cheese/ tomato soup etc.

[meanie]

DD is 10 and is slowly adding different foods to her repertoire - so far mac and cheese, eggs, sliders, and spinach.

They also like to make stuffed crescent rolls, just roll out the dough and fill with whatever we have on hand for meat and cheese. This helps use up leftovers, too.

[redheadk]

Skillet lasagna could be good. It's very easy and is a go-to vacation meal for us since it doesn't require a lot of ingredients and only needs one big skillet.

Ingredients:
1 lb ground beef or ground Italian sausage, removed from casings (season ground beef with Italian seasoning)
24 oz marinara sauce
1 cup water
9 lasagna noodles, broken up (or, non-tube pasta of your choice. Bow tie is a great option)
1 cup ricotta cheese
1/4 c parmesan
garlic salt
shredded mozzarella

Brown meat and drain. Add marinara sauce and water, stir. Add pasta, stir. Bring to a boil, cover, and reduce heat to a simmer, stirring occasionally, for about 15 minutes until the noodles are done. Take off heat.

Meanwhile, store together ricotta, parmesan, and a sprinkle of garlic salt. When noodles are done, dollop the ricotta mixture around the pan. (my dd doesn't eat the cheese part so we leave a section plain), sprinkle everything with mozzarella, and pop under the broiler for a minute or two until the cheese is bubbly.



If you have anyone who doesn't eat meat, you could easily leave it out.