What do your 7&9 year olds cook?

[SlavesToTheKitchen]

3 weeks of half term coming up and we're going to be limited to what we can do (my fault, had an accident!). I'm thinking about getting each DC to cook a meal with me once or twice a week as something we could do together.

Which meals do your similar aged DC prepare and cook?

Toast!

With me though, they help with anything

Zero!

Very simple curry. Savoury pancakes. Bread. Watching for more ideas as i would like to get them into this. Fajitas might work. Or pie.

Cannelloni (they don’t have to deal with a heavy pan, which I think is a safety issue at that age). Puff pastry cheese and onion tart. Older one does scrambled eggs on toast.

Happy to share my child-proofed cannelloni recipe, if that would be helpful.

How come three weeks?!

Mine cook nothing with me and same ages! Neither interested and doesn’t bother me as so young.

Are they interested in cooking? Tortillas, fajitas, bolognese - all the usual I suppose

Yes please!

My 8yo can make with limited help
Bolognese
Pizzas (with prepared bases, not the dough)
Burritos
Chilli

Independently
Toast, tea, sandwiches, drinks etc

6yo (with a bit more help)
Scrambled eggs
Sandwiches
Cold drinks

Toast under close supervision

They can also peel and chop veg with a small amount of help and supervision

Child-proof cannelloni

Defrost frozen spinach in microwave. Add to big bowl, and stir in soft cheese, nutmeg, salt and pepper to taste. Ham (chopped with scissors) or leftover roast meat is also nice.

Find shallow rectangular dish. Pour a little herb and garlic passata into dish (just to cover the bottom).

Split spinach and cheese mix into as many portions as you have lasagne sheets (use fresh ones) and roll into tubes. Put in dish on top of passata. If they won’t stay rolled, borrow your sibling’s fingers to keep them in place. When dish is full, pour passata over all the tubes, making sure to cover all the pasta with tomato, then sprinkle hard cheese on top.

Bake until hot through and brown on top (you may need to cover with foil to stop it burning).

Nothing, they can't reach the cooker properly, and I'd never let them loose on hot pyrex etc. from the oven.

Sandwiches, toast, salad, and hot chocolate from the machine.

That's all my nerves will stand.

8 yr old, cake and biscuit with me. Pealing and chopping fruit and veg. Sandwiches. All with an adult.

10 yr old: most if the above with an adult in shouting distance, plus scrambled eggs, omelettes, toast, beans on toast, tea. We made fudge at the weekend, and chocolate coated it.

I'm going to get DS and my dad to have a go at that canneloni ChocolateBread :)

DS loves helping my parents do lasagna layers.

My 5yr old can do scrambled eggs on toast as long as I'm supervising.

She breaks the eggs into a bowl, stirs, adds salt and pepper and a bit of grated cheese from the fridge, then microwave in 30 second bursts stirring each time till they're done.

I do the toaster.

I think for those ages, with your guidence:

Mushroom risotto - buy the frozen pre chopped onions, and easy squeeze garlic. Mushrooms can be chopped into whatever size they fancy.

loaf cakes or tray bakes - the type where everything gets mixed in one bowl, then into dish. They can spend ages weighing everything out.

curry, strogonoff or similar. Again use pre chopped onions, and use microwave rice for ease.

Mine are 7 and 10.

If you're talking completely unsupervised and with no instructions I would say just toast, sandwiches, scrambled eggs, cups of tea/hot chocolate and possibly pancakes.

They help me peeling/chopping veg and baking sometimes so have an idea about those things.

I reckon they could cook an edible meal if I was shouting instructions from a nearby sofa though!

This has to be the most Mumsnet question ever

At 7 and 9 it'd be cornflakes, toast and fruit for dinner in this house

My 7 year old cooks nothing, fussy eater so peanut butter sandwiches are as far as it goes. The (young) 10 year old likes to help and bakes cakes herself (she did the 7yo's birthday cake from a Mary Berry recipe, it was delicious), can do simple pasta dishes, fry a cooked breakfast, beans on toast, etc, etc, pretty much everything that requires fairly basic knife skills she could attempt if she's being watched.

That cannelloni sounds great, ChocolateBread.

Similar aged kids here. They could do toast and cereal. No way are they safe enough to do anything else unsupervised .

My six year old made lasagne with me recently.

My 9yo has been cooking for years and loves it, curries, pasta, chilli and casseroles. Pancakes, tray bakes etc

Have a look at My World Kitchen on cbeebies- the recipes are very geared up for children (no sharp knives, no hot pans etc) and there are some really yum recipes there. You could watch a couple of episodes and see if there’s anything you think they could do.

I would just say that some oversight on how much nutmeg is needed, otherwise it can be a little overpowering...

I’m less bothered about kids using knives (but would chose recipes that don’t require chopping hard veg) but I worry a lot about a big pan full of boiling water for pasta. They just aren’t tall or strong enough to manage that safely. The (low) oven is a lot safer for a child to use, once they’re sensible but still physically small. I also use the oven tray cookbook someone mentioned on here - the recipes in there often work well for kids to do.

My 5, 8 & 10 year olds each had a day in the summer holidays where they did their own restaurant. They cooked respectively: chicken wraps, kebabs (on sticks) & pasta carbonara. The smaller 2 had help from us, Ds1 did it by himself, following a recipe book.

We made a morning/afternoon out of it each time- went to the library & got out recipe books, chose recipe, went shopping for ingredients, wrote menu, set table, cooked meal. They really enjoyed doing it & learned a lot, plus it was an easy way to occupy a large chunk of time.