Dinner ideas a 14 year old can execute?

[Anonymous]

See if her school offers Home Ec (now called Family and Consumer Sciences).

Teach her how to read a recipe. (There is a difference between 1 cup sifted flour and 1 cup flour, sifted) I was a Home Ec teacher before. I was shocked at how many kids didn't know simple things like how to measure dry ingredients or liquid ingredients. So the fundamentals, like knife skills, is really important. Get her a nice, sharp knife that keeps a good edge and a knife sharpener.

Get her some Penzey's FoxPoint Seasoning. She can make really easy Baked Chicken--put a layer of mayo on a chicken breast and put FoxPoint on top. Then stick in an oven (even better if it's a toaster oven, so the whole kitchen doesn't get hot) at 350 for about 20 mins.

Teach her how to make foil packet foods like chicken or fish. Place veggies on the bottom (can be thawed frozen veggies) along with some onions (get her swim goggles so her eyes don't tear up), place fish or chicken on top, add some seasoning like Fox Point and bake.

[Anonymous]

I started cooking in 3rd grade with my dad's supervision (mom worked late Wednesday nights). My first meals were boxed Mac and cheese, grilled cheese & canned soup, spaghetti and breakfast for dinner (scrambled eggs, toast & I microwaved frozen sausage).

You could also buy pretreated chicken breasts that she could top with ham/Swiss for cordon blue or sauce/cheese for chicken parm. She could microwave baked potatoes or sweet potatoes. She should learn how to steam and roast vegetables. How to cut veggies to make a salad. She could shred precooked chicken and make frying pan quesadillas.

I think it's so great you are teaching her. It's such a wonderful skill to have. When I went away to college I cooked family dinners every night and taught a lot of my friends how to cook.

[Anonymous]

I would shop with her for a good beginner cookbook -- like "How to Cook Everything" by Mark Bittman.

Choose some recipes that sound good and try them together. Show her how to follow the recipe, so she can try other recipes when she gets home. Also take her grocery shopping so she feels confident buying ingredients and menu planning.

This is a wonderful gift to give her.

[Anonymous]

Get her a good cookbook, and make sure she has good tools she knows how to use. Excellent hot pads were a must for my daughter, too.

Teach her how to cook eggs. From there, you can teach her how to do an omelet. Teach her how to chop veggies to add in.

Pancakes, waffles.

Teach her how to cook noodles. Show her how to take a ramen package, throw in some veggies and maybe an egg, and it's become something dinner-ish. Once she can cook noodles she also has spaghetti and mac and cheese at her fingertips. You can teach her how to make a cheese sauce for stove top mac and cheese, or you can show her how to just cook up the noodles, put some shredded cheddar on top, and done.

Show her how to brown ground beef. From there, you have the potential for meat sauce for the spaghetti as well as sloppy joes.

Tacos. (Canned) beans and rice for burritos.

Beans and rice are great just on there own.

Grilled cheese.
Bacon - you can either introduce her to microwave bacon or show her how to cook it in the oven. My very comfortable in the kitchen child prefers not to cook bacon in a frying pan.

Lasagna is time consuming but pretty easy, and you can make two at a time to freeze one. Quiche, if her family will eat it.

You can teach her to steam veggies.

If you have extra money, perhaps consider getting her a subscription to one of those services that send you ingredients for a complete meal + instructions?

[Anonymous]

Give her a subscription to cooks illustrated.

[Anonymous]

Spaghetti, lasagna, tacos and burritos, meatloaf, frittata, chili made with canned beans, anything in a slow-cooker, and breakfast for dinner (pancakes or waffles and sausage or bacon).

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I would shop with her for a good beginner cookbook -- like "How to Cook Everything" by Mark Bittman.

Choose some recipes that sound good and try them together. Show her how to follow the recipe, so she can try other recipes when she gets home. Also take her grocery shopping so she feels confident buying ingredients and menu planning.

This is a wonderful gift to give her.

+1

Best wedding gift we registered for.

[Anonymous]

Another vote for Bittman's "How to Cook Everything". I routinely made meals for the family by 14 and was cooking Julia Child recipes by 16. I would see if she has a real interest in cooking or if she just does it because it has to be done and take it from there. Start with basic techniques, of course. Introduce her to the world of spices. I would avoid using prepared products so she gets used to cooking from scratch. I would have loved to have had a mentor like you at her age.

[Anonymous]

Do not get her cooks illustrated. As an adult who can cook I find that magazine too hard and way to fussy.

I'd recommend the better homes and gardens checkered cookbook. The recipes are pretty easy and it has lots of explaination in the front. It also has pretty color photos which make you want to eat the food.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Do not get her cooks illustrated. As an adult who can cook I find that magazine too hard and way to fussy.

I'd recommend the better homes and gardens checkered cookbook. The recipes are pretty easy and it has lots of explaination in the front. It also has pretty color photos which make you want to eat the food.

Foo. Cook's Illustrated is like the Choose Your Own Adventure Cookbook. It's amazing because it teaches food sense and how recipes work and why they work. Ultimately, this is way more valuable than just teaching someone how to cook via a list with no understanding of why or how that list exists in that order.

Of course, cooking is a learning curve and I can't take issue with your Better Homes req. That was one of my first cookbooks and did make me feel like a success when I turned something out.

For the OP, I second the Mark Bittman books as a good solid place to start and would add Deborah Madison's Vegetarian Cooking for Everyone because it is more than recipes; it's like a cookbook of vegetable sense.

[Anonymous]

The BHG cookbook is good for a beginner. They've had the same checkered cover for at least forty years. Brings me back.

Someone suggested earlier using the toaster oven. I would be really cautious of that. I did extensive research when I had to replace our toaster oven and it's amazing what a fire hazard these things are. I finally bought an expensive Breville since it had the least reports of fire, even though I mostly just use it for bagels and toast. One day I decided to toast some cut up bread for croutons. Went to the bathroom and came back one minute later. The toaster oven was shooting flames up to the cabinets. Fortunately, I was able to kill the fire with a nearby extinguisher. I watch that thing like a hawk now and would not allow a kid near it. Just my two cents.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Do not get her cooks illustrated. As an adult who can cook I find that magazine too hard and way to fussy.

I'd recommend the better homes and gardens checkered cookbook. The recipes are pretty easy and it has lots of explaination in the front. It also has pretty color photos which make you want to eat the food.

Foo. Cook's Illustrated is like the Choose Your Own Adventure Cookbook. It's amazing because it teaches food sense and how recipes work and why they work. Ultimately, this is way more valuable than just teaching someone how to cook via a list with no understanding of why or how that list exists in that order.

Of course, cooking is a learning curve and I can't take issue with your Better Homes req. That was one of my first cookbooks and did make me feel like a success when I turned something out.

For the OP, I second the Mark Bittman books as a good solid place to start and would add Deborah Madison's Vegetarian Cooking for Everyone because it is more than recipes; it's like a cookbook of vegetable sense.

I'm the one who recommended cooks illustrated.
This exactly. It tells you why things work... And more importantly why things don't. It's not a bit fussy or hard. It's written very simply and directly.

[Anonymous]

Ditto the The BHG cookbook, I still have my copy from when I was a kid. It would be cool if you could somehow organize for her all of the recipes you guys make together. Maybe buy her a recipe box and cards? That way she can easily access them when she goes back home.

[Anonymous]

I also like the cookbook Don't Panic (more) Dinner's in the Freezer. It shows her how she can double, triple or more a recipe, eat some now and freeze the rest for later.

Also teach her how to make more food than necessary (like spaghetti sauce, taco meat, etc) to freeze or to use for lunch or meals later that week.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Spaghetti, lasagna, tacos and burritos, meatloaf, frittata, chili made with canned beans, anything in a slow-cooker, and breakfast for dinner (pancakes or waffles and sausage or bacon).

+1 these are all good ideas. Meatloaf is super easy and she could make mashed potatoes (from scratch or from a packet) to go with it. Plus whatever veggie she likes.