Healthy easy meals for kids to make on their own

[mommyoffive]

I need some new things for the kids to make on their own, give me some inspiration. 

[mommyoffive]

2 minutes ago, happysmileylady said:

How old are they?  At 10, 8, and 6, most of the things my kids can make completely on their own are non stove related.  The can work with the stove, but need supervision, but if you are talking about no supervision meals, I think age is a factor.  

 12, 10, 8, 6, 3

[HomeAgain]

My 8yo makes himself breakfast most mornings: yogurt w/ honey and a clementine.  But I have found the things I don't have to help with are either going to be quick foods like that or already prepared and ready to microwave.  I keep tamales in the freezer and he knows that two take 3 minutes.  If he needs to use the stove for something then I need to be right there.

[JustEm]

My oldest is 9 and he can make almost anything on his own.  He has made entire dinners without any supervision except for taking things out of the oven because they are often times too heavy for him to handle safely.  He is able to do this because I spent a lot of time with him as a 5 year old learning how to properly use a knife safely.  When he is cutting a lot of veggies he wears a kevlar glove on the hand that holds the veggies so if his hand cramps up and slips because of all the cutting he won't cut himself.  Things he has made are; enchildas, fajitas, omelets, scrambled eggs, hard boiled eggs, chili, soups, sandwiches, guacamole or hummus and veggie trays, roasted veggies and sausage, salad, and I'm sure there is more.  My 8 year old hasn't cooked nearly as much as my oldest but she can still make sandwiches, veggies with hummus, and eggs.  On the unhealthy side she is a fantastic baker.  She has made cakes, cookies, muffins, and mini meringues by herself.

[mmasc]

These are the things that my kids ‘cook’ for themselves.

Bean burritos. Heat up refried beans in microwave; spread on tortilla, add cheese and roll up. 

Cheesy roll-ups. Put shredded cheese on flour tortillas. Heat or just roll up cold. 

Microwave bacon. (The kind that is already cooked). Place on napkin, heat for 30 seconds. 

Toast with mashed avocado.

Individual Microwave cups of Mac n cheese. 

None of them make anything on the stove, mostly because of lack of interest. Oldest can make ramen if he really wants to. 

Edited November 21, 2018 by mmasc

[JustEm]

17 minutes ago, happysmileylady said:

I have never heard of this, where do you find it?  I do try to cook with the kids a lot, but the fear of the knife is something that makes DD10 super anxious.  I have tried to show her own to dice veggies, slice things, etc.  But she's totally freaked out about it.

Fajitas, omelets, hard boiled eggs, chili, soups, hummus....these are all things my kids won't eat.  DS6 now eats scrambled eggs, because he helped me make them, and DD10 will eat them, and can make them...but DD8 won't touch them, let alone make them.  DD10 eats hardboiled eggs and could probably make them with some additional direction, but DD8 and DS6 won't eat them.  

https://www.webstaurantstore.com/guide/607/types-of-cut-resistant-gloves.html There is a link talking about kevlar gloves for food service.   I'm not positive which brand we use, my dad picked them up at The Restaurant Store for me last Christmas.  I modified them a bit to fit ds comfortably.

Some of my kids will not eat the foods I listed but there are a wide range of food those kids will eat and can prepare themselves.  Yogurt and fruit, toast with jam or butter, cheese and crackers, sweet potatoes, white potatoes, beans and rice( I've taught them how to use the rice cooker and instant pot for these things.)  My 5 year old has been known to make homemade bread almost entirely on his own.  He needs someone to read the instructions and transfer to and from the oven but that is it.  I have the added advantage of currently living with my dad who has taken many cooking and food prep classes so he has taught all of us a lot.

[JustEm]

18 minutes ago, happysmileylady said:

I am going to check those out!  I bet I could find a real good deal on those this time of year.  That would totally help her feel the confidence to cut veggies.  All my kids love tacos and if I could have them working as a group to make tacos, mostly unsupervised, they would feel SO great about that.  

 

I know they make kids sized ones, I just don't enough about different brands to know how durable they are.  I would do lots of review reading and research for kids ones because I imagine they are a newer product and maybe not tested so well.  I've read reviews of products that claimed to be cut resistant but clearly aren't high grade enough to protect the way a kid would need from the reviews

[JustEm]

happysmileylady, what kinds of foods do your kids eat that they can't currently make on their own?

[JustEm]

53 minutes ago, mmasc said:

 

None of them make anything on the stove, mostly because of lack of interest. Oldest can make ramen if he really wants to. 

 

This is a big reason why my kids do make things on the stove.  They all have a huge interest in cooking and baking.  It's a good thing too because we generally don't have easily microwavable things unless they are leftovers. I'd be in the kitchen a lot more if they didn't want to be in there.  But I imagine I'd also probably just make them deal with learning to be in the kitchen if they weren't interested.

[SamanthaCarter]

My two older kiddos can cook pasta and warm sauce without supervision. That might be it. Lol. 

[SamanthaCarter]

Oh eggs. They can cook scrambled eggs. 

[JustEm]

14 minutes ago, happysmileylady said:

Pizza...they help me top and brown the sausage, but are not capable of doing any of that unsupervised.  I mark off (with lines in the sauce lol) the section they are supposed to top and that they can do without any other help.  But getting the dough together, we aren't there yet.

They eat lots of proteins, so chicken, pork, turkey, meatballs etc.  There aren't actually many specific recipes that we make with those that they won't eat....so whether it's turkey smoked in DH's pit barrel, or a chicken cooked in the soup pot on the stove they are all over it.  But what they can't do is get the big old soup pot for the whole chicken, fill it, prep the chicken, etc.

 

Tonight's dish is cheese enchiladas, which is something I haven't made.  it's something they are likely to all eat, but being a new recipe, they will all be able to help me, but all would need specific help and direction.  (they all will be helping with parts as they can, they do enjoy helping, but we aren't quite there on unsupervised cooking yet. )

 

Pizza is a tough one.  My dad makes pizza almost every Sunday and while my kids could make the dough, they watch him every time he makes it and he talks out the process every time, they could not roll it out thin enough.  But they could all add sauce, cheese, and any already prepared toppings.  But that is because they've been watching and learning from my dad since they were old enough to sit on a stool.

At one point with my oldest I had to make sure none of his siblings were in the kitchen helping me too so I could give him the actual attention he needed to safely learn to handle the stove and chopping veggies himself.  When everyone is helping, it is too hectic to effectively teach the more advanced things. The next thing I plan on teaching oldest to do is prep and cook a whole chicken because I roast two a week and if he is able to do that it frees up a lot of prep time for me since he'll want to do it, whereas I hate being in the kitchen.

[mommyoffive]

OH wraps and nuggets.  I kind of forgot about those.  I need to bring those into the rotation.  Thanks for the ideas. 

[Rachel]

My 10 year old made white chicken chili (an easy recipe) and cornbread the other day. He also makes scrambled eggs, omelets, cookies, mac and cheese. All my kids enjoy peeling carrots and potatoes.  I let them cut with supervision, well not the 6 year old yet.  The big problem is my 10 year old a messy cook!

I think the key is to have your kids practice cooking with you. Then when they are ready to cook alone, talk through the process. If a  recipe is written in a confusing way rewrite it or make notes. Anytime I let my kids just cook, the results are questionable. When we talk through the process first, you can’t tell a kid made it. 

Yesterday my husband let our 8 year old make no bake cookies. He sent me a picture later of the end result, she used about half the amount of cocoa, put skittles in them, and then sprinkled raw oatmeal on top. In case you are wondering, they taste terrible with skittles but she liked them. 😆

[mumto2]

Pizza.......I or dc’s make quick pizza on flour tortilla’s,  add prepared sauce or pesto and sprinkle with cheese, we put it in the oven for a few minutes.

Electric kettles are great for things that are just add hot water like oatmeal packets.  Ds has made his own oatmeal every morning for years.

[amyx4]

My nine year old will make an egg and cheese sandwich on toast. It's a reasonably healthy snack that he can make without any help.

Grease a bowl with cooking spray. Crack an egg into the bowl. Microwave for 30 sec., add a slice of cheese, microwave for 30 more seconds. The egg will slide right out of the bowl onto the toast.

[Carrie12345]

In my house, it's rarely about "can" and usually about "should" and "will". Other than not wanting my younger ones to deal with raw meat (I don't trust their handling methods) or putting things in the oven themselves (ours is situated weird in the kitchen) they CAN cook anything.  My 11yo frequently won't... and ropes the 7yo (8 next month) into making him something.  The 7yo tends to "forget" to ask permission first. While he can *cook on the stove just fine, he isn't really aware enough to keep things away from the still hot glass top burners, so it IS an issue.  

Standbys are eggs, oatmeal, quesadillas, ramen, and anything that can be nuked or toasted, usually leftovers. Cold, they make smoothies, parfaits, guacamole, cheese and crackers, and random, weird concoctions.  11yo's specialty is pancakes, but he doesn't want to stand there flipping the whole batch @@. Beyond those things, I still want to be present for supervision.  Or have the big kids supervise.

The above 7yo did set a bag of brown sugar ablaze a few years ago so, while I've managed to raise 3 capable cooks already, I worry more now!

[Monica_in_Switzerland]

For hot foods, my two oldest can make:

- most things with a ground beef base- tacos, spaghetti sauce, stroganoff.  They can NOT drain noodles though.

- eggs, such as omelets or for breakfast burritos

- Reheating soup on the stovetop

 

 Cold foods my kids can make:

- Cheese and lunch meat on crackers or bread, other sandwichy things

- Tuna salad

- PBJs

- Egg salad or just hard-boiled eggs with salt, from already cooked eggs

- Veggie sticks of all sorts.  I have a very nice, lightweight chef's knife with a good edge, about 6 inches long that I got specifically for their use.  A sharp knife is always safer than a dull one!!!

 - Fruit.  My littlest loves a cut-up apple with peanut butter to dip it in.  Someone else has to cut up the apple for him though.

- Salad bar, my kids know how to wash and dry lettuce, prep other veggies, and then add things like nuts or seeds, chopped apple or raisins, etc.  

 

 

[Monica_in_Switzerland]

Also, my thought on knife safety:  If they need kevlar gloves, they probably are not ready to handle the knife you're giving them.  I would think gloves would mostly impede a person's ability to learn to use a knife safely.  Look for some good knife safety videos online.  You only need a few simple tips, mostly related to the non-cutting hand to use a knife relatively safely.  The non-knife hand either needs to be totally flat, or the fingers curled under into a claw so that the knuckles are against the flat side of the knife blade, providing a shield to the tips.  For that to work, you need to have a broad chef's style blade to work with.  

[JustEm]

3 hours ago, Monica_in_Switzerland said:

Also, my thought on knife safety:  If they need kevlar gloves, they probably are not ready to handle the knife you're giving them.  I would think gloves would mostly impede a person's ability to learn to use a knife safely.  Look for some good knife safety videos online.  You only need a few simple tips, mostly related to the non-cutting hand to use a knife relatively safely.  The non-knife hand either needs to be totally flat, or the fingers curled under into a claw so that the knuckles are against the flat side of the knife blade, providing a shield to the tips.  For that to work, you need to have a broad chef's style blade to work with.  

 

I only use the kevlar glove when ds is cutting lots of veggies because his hand is prone to cramping spontaneously so it is a matter of him not having control of his hand cramps and it slipping while cutting.  It hasn't actually ever happened but he feels safer that way so we do it. He learned how to properly use a knife at age 5, now at almost 10 his fine motor skills haven't quite caught up with his ability to make more complex meals at larger quantities.  We've actually started doing  PT exercises for his hands to help with the cramping.

Edited November 22, 2018 by hjffkj

[Monica_in_Switzerland]

2 hours ago, hjffkj said:

 

I only use the kevlar glove when ds is cutting lots of veggies because his hand is prone to cramping spontaneously so it is a matter of him not having control of his hand cramps and it slipping while cutting.  It hasn't actually ever happened but he feels safer that way so we do it. He learned how to properly use a knife at age 5, now at almost 10 his fine motor skills haven't quite caught up with his ability to make more complex meals at larger quantities.  We've actually started doing  PT exercises for his hands to help with the cramping.

 

Ouch!  Poor guy, that makes good sense then.  

[Rachel]

On 11/22/2018 at 7:01 AM, Carrie12345 said:

In my house, it's rarely about "can" and usually about "should" and "will". Other than not wanting my younger ones to deal with raw meat (I don't trust their handling methods) or putting things in the oven themselves (ours is situated weird in the kitchen) they CAN cook anything.  My 11yo frequently won't... and ropes the 7yo (8 next month) into making him something.  The 7yo tends to "forget" to ask permission first. While he can *cook on the stove just fine, he isn't really aware enough to keep things away from the still hot glass top burners, so it IS an issue.  

Standbys are eggs, oatmeal, quesadillas, ramen, and anything that can be nuked or toasted, usually leftovers. Cold, they make smoothies, parfaits, guacamole, cheese and crackers, and random, weird concoctions.  11yo's specialty is pancakes, but he doesn't want to stand there flipping the whole batch @@. Beyond those things, I still want to be present for supervision.  Or have the big kids supervise.

The above 7yo did set a bag of brown sugar ablaze a few years ago so, while I've managed to raise 3 capable cooks already, I worry more now!

It never occurred to me brown sugar could catch fire. Or that it would be in a position where it might. Kids are good at keeping us on our toes!

[Tanaqui]

What sort of things are they already capable of making, and how much supervision do you want to provide?

[Carrie12345]

8 hours ago, Rachel said:

It never occurred to me brown sugar could catch fire. Or that it would be in a position where it might. Kids are good at keeping us on our toes!

Indeed!  We have a 4-slice toaster. There was a bag of sugar sitting on the back 2 slots. Ds decided to make toast in the front slot.  Whoosh!