Not to know how to get teens cooking dinner?

Nope. I think this is way way too much.

once a month .
they’re kids.
they’re doing school, then homework which in teens that age will be rampin* soon to GCSEs and a levels and then social stuff
they didn’t ask to come into the world. You’re the parent, and as much as you might hate the faff of cooking it’s not their “job” to take over cooking so you get more nights off.
theirvtikecwill come when they leave home .

yep they need to step up and start to do regularly. But what your suggesting is way , way too much

ifvtheycwere working and had evenings off then yep. I’d expect them to “pull their weight”. But they haven’t weight in this argument. They can’t go off and live somewhere else

I perosnally think, that with school work and studying after school and clubs they might want to go to, thst cooking once per fortnight is a bit much. Maybe doing it once a month each.
i think then they’ll be more likely to offer a little more, maybe on special nights like mum or dad birthday, wedding anniversary etc.
im all for independence, and it’s right they develop their skills in pal,ing and doing a bit of the “chore” of everyday cooking. But you do run a risk that it’ll put them off, and will take the fun out of it till they just do the minimum possible

dojt under estimate how much time they need to put into studying for gas and a levles. Chores shouldn’t get in way of that. So at very least cut them slack over exam revision periods. Also don’t under estimate how much social development they still need to do, it’s vital for the, to be active physically, and in company of their peers either just moping around or doing a productive activity. They’re still children at this age - they’ve got a lot of figuring out to get to being adults. Into well 20s we now know. Don’t burden them with too much adulting at this stage would be my advice. Do it, but in moderation.

My own cooking is never more than 30 minutes hands-on time so I certainly don’t expect DC to slave over a hot stove.
Some variation on vegetarian pasta with fresh sauce that takes the same time to make will see them through a few months, so simple tomato and onions, pesto, fried grated zucchine, mushrooms etc. Make pasta night their night.

Then when it’s summer, salad variations with added rice and bulgur etc. They choose the protein to add, so veggie or cheese, grilled chicken, cold sausages, hard boiled eggs.

Autumn can be pressure cooking skills where they learn curry, chilli, soup and bolognese sauce. Pressure cooked risotto is great.

At that point in winter Sunday roast and veg, which isn’t far from doing Christmas dinner!

Please teach them how to handle knives and utensils safely (I’m still scared of chopper blades), how to use the tare on electric scales and what temperature things usually cook at.

BTW I’ve kept all my Hello Fresh recipe cards in a binder as they’re simple and written for 2 (4) portions including weights. A good resource for students.

We did it together at weekends to start,

So Saturdays was DD and Sundays DS.

I started with easy stuff like pasta bake and burgers and chips. When they felt they'd mastered it we wrote it in the list and they had a go at doing it themselves (at the weekend).

After they had three or four dishes we moved to alternating a meal they could make on their own with one they still needed help on, so I was only cooking with one of them per weekend,

The aim was to get to ten meals they could make independently.

We did eat a LOT of pasta bake.

I have similar age kids as well as an almost 18 year old. I'd definitely say you need to cook with them a fair few times before they'll be able to do it themselves.

Mine will cook but nothing particularly fancy. I always buy the ingredients though because we live nowhere near a shop so I'd have to take them shopping anyway. But my 18yo can cook completely by herself with no input from me and my 14yo can for some basic meals. My 12yo is just in the early stages so can chuck freezer stuff in the oven but can't yet do something like spag bol.

Of course it's cooking. What else is it? Shitting? Walking? I mean wtf

Yes it is cooking. It's more than sticking a Pot Noodle in a microwave (is that how you cook them?)
We cook from scratch every evening, and most of the recipes we use are Hello Fresh or Gousto but we buy all the ingredients now instead of getting them sent to us

Oops...

Once whilst he watched and took notes.

Next time I watched while he cooked and asked questions/refined notes.

Third time was mostly by himself with me called to the kitchen for the odd question.

He then did it himself weekly. After which we did rinse a repeat for other favourite dishes so by the time he went to Uni he had quite a good repertoire of solid (but not fancy) recipes.

I picked DS's favourite food I make (chilli) and told him I'd not be cooking it again, so if he wanted it he'd have to learn how to make it.

I did it once whilst he watched

@DancefloorAcrobatics
I quoted you because I agree with you and wanted to continue with a related suggestion 🙂but the reply was to the OP. Probably that was unclear.

Don’t they do cookery classes in school as part of home economics/food tech? Getting them to make whatever they did in school that week is usually a good place to start. DD also had two formal practical exams per year (no teacher or peer involvement allowed!) so she’d practice those recipes at home too.

I can’t say that I ever really made DD cook, it was just a natural evolution as she got older really. At 15 she started making the occasional lunch for herself (usually eggs or pasta) or would bake cookies/cupcakes/brownies etc for fun. Now she’s 20 and makes dinner for us pretty much every night! She’s a much better cook than me and enjoys it.

Get them to chose a meal. Maybe one of yours they like, or something on tiktok/whatever. But screen tiktok/whatever because there is a lot of spin. Get them to use it as a starting point but then find a solid recipe.

Help them find a recipe, get the ingredients. Be in the background while they attempt it, nudging as necessary, you want it to be a success.

Over time step.back and let them get on with it

@ForestAtTheSea - I don't know why you quoted me.
All I suggested was a simple dinner with (my) store cupboard items and minimal supervision.

I Personally I wouldn't get them planning with budget & shopping at this stage.

A simple what are you gonna cook on X day is sufficient on the main shopping day.
I'd just keep everything very easy & simple. Over complicating things can be very off putting.

Shopping lists and budgets are for when they are confident in cooking some dishes independently...

The whole planning and shopping sounds like there is nothing in the store cupboard for a meal; is that realistic?

The planning would ideally include to check what you have or what needs using up and only then buy the rest that needs to be fresh. I wouldn't send anyone shopping for a random recipe if you then end up with spices or something else that you don't finish.

The learning experience is also to think about how you can exchange ingredients with what you have, or how you will use the rest of the giant jar of new spices you'd just bought.

Otherwise this could produce a lot of food waste.

Just going to the shop for the ingredients for one meal and nothing else, where the amounts per package might not match what you need as family seems a bit mismatched. In that case, the planning should extend to thinking about what you do with leftover amounts of certain ingredients and how you could use them up for another meal.

Perhaps they've covered that at school or with you before, but I'm not seeing it mentioned.

Maybe you can look together with them for some youtubers or tiktokers who cover that kind of topic, or look for a recipe blog with the kind of meals you and they like to eat.

As you said they've helped you cooking, I would start from there, with simpler meals and few ingredients, and they can then become more complex as their skills grow.

How to teach kids to cook???

Hello Fresh!?

Wtf

That's not cooking

Sorry, I haven't read the whole thread.

Teach them!
What's their favourite meal that you cook?
Simply this and help them cook it ...just shadow but let them do it. I would say that they luck confidence, so being present will get things going.

I started both DC off with this simple pasta bake:
All you need is any shape pasta, passata, a splash of oil and cream, dry herbs and seasoning. Greated cheese for topping.

Boil pasta, all other ingredients to the passata. Place in baking dishes, sprinkle with cheese and 20 minutes in oven at 180°C.
The beauty of the above is that once they have masterd the basics they can fry some chicken, bacon, onions mushrooms peppers, hallomi or whatever and add before baking to make it more tasty.

Dts cook each week night, it's just a thing. If they don't like or want to cook get them to do something else, washing, hanging sorting etc

Yup mine loves cooking hello fresh and will do it 2/3 times a week easily

Lots of supermarkets do stir fry kits...or deals where you buy a bag of stir fry veg, noodles and a sauce

Bit much?
It's batshit, imo.
I never enjoyed food or preparing it and fortunately never needed to cook from scratch.
On the other hand, I would clean the apartment for the whole family, including bathroom, toilet, shoes etc without any issues.
Wonder if the OP would trade one contribution for another 😊

Meal kits won't help them when they need to live independently and cook on a budget. They also condition you to not think for yourself. Get them to help you individually and pick up the basic skills like prepping and cooking veg etc.

My DC (13 and 15) cook, but only do full meal planning and shopping in school holidays.

In term time, I plan something easy and text to remind them to do it (eg baked potatoes and tuna mix).

In the school holidays, I ask them to plan ahead, put ingredients on the shipping list, and make a proper meal including vegetables once a week. One loves the slow cooker as she can get it done early and forget about it. The other is more varied. They’re both getting quite good at substituting ingredients or adapting recipes if needed, without texting me.

I’d go for Simply Cook kits before anything like HF. You get the spices and recipe and pick up the ingredients yourself. Few of the kits are sold in supermarkets and the ones I’ve used have been tasty and easy.

Lots of pasta dishes, or things like jerk chicken. You could get them to build up a “bank” of recipes that they rotate.

To get started it's much easier to write put instructions for a family fav/basic. Mine learnt spaghetti bol/shepherd's pie.
Add that to the weekly menu.
Lavish praise "it's better than mind etc etc"

I've been using Simply Cook at the moment for meal inspiration (so it comes with 3 pots of paste/ herbs etc.)

It normally has a recipe with about 3/4 ingredients you buy from the supermarket and each meal takes about 20 minutes and is usually just a one pot meal.

Alternatively I'd teach them a ragu recipe that can be the base of bolognese, chilli, lasagne etc.