If your teens are into cooking, what's your rules about using things in the fridge?

[BirthdayCakeFlavour]

I'm not complaining, because I'm eating well out of this but at times there are mishaps and sometimes I am planning to cook myself.

She's only 15 so no chance of a job and I feel using her pocket money is a bit mean, when she is willing to cook for the family.

Mine had full access to anything in the kitchen when they cooked. If they needed anything that we didn’t have they would go and get it. I paid.

Anything I've earmarked for a specific dinner is labelled.
Anything else is fair game.

Fruit, veg, eggs,cheese are fair game. When I shop I ask if they want anything and there's always a list on the fridge for them to add to if they want to plan something but I'd expect them to check before using meat or fish from the fridge.

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Why didn't I think of that?!

Only thing I have is a whiteboard on the fridge, anything that runs out, or they need for a recipe, gets written on there and I add it to the next shop.

If they use something up I send them to the shop for more if we can’t do without, otherwise I just switch meals up.

My kids can help themselves to anything else especially if they're cooking for the family! If there's something I really don't want used I would tell everyone or hide it. We did have a very expensive mess at the beginning of lockdown with some fancy cake recipe they wanted to make for me, full of expensive ingredients including very scarce flour and eggs. It completely flopped and I could have cried but there was lots of love in it so we had a laugh and ate it anyway.

Wow this is great. Really reassuring to read. My dd, aged 14, is insisting on cooking. She loves it, cooks for the family often, or just for her and her sister. It’s lovely as takes a lot off of my shoulders. But I was worried it was some kind of control forming over food!! It’s good to see others are cooking at this age too.
I let my dd be part of planning the weekly shop, planning meals and therefore we all know what items in the fridge are for what meals. We then divvy up who’s going to cook. She asks to most evenings!!

A whiteboard is a great idea as well, thank you.

I'm so pleased to see her enjoying cooking, I really want to encourage her.

He can use anything as long as there is milk left for a coffee.

A whiteboard is a great idea as well, thank you

You can get magnetic ones from amazon, A3 and A4.

I know with DD it is down to Tiktok... which I ranted and raved about initially

thank god the dancing phase is over

Everything in the kitchen is to be shared, they are welcome to anything. The only restriction is taking one thing out of a packet - so don't take one chicken breast or a few sausages, cook them all or don't open it! We've also got a whiteboard to list stuff (or write insults about our siblings...) to keep track of what's missing.

You need some communication- and help her with planning.
If she wants to cook a family meal then I would ask if she need anything, run the recipe past me a little.
OH, me , DD and DS all cook, we keep lines of communication open.
If I had planned to cook and someone else wants to- they are always welcome.
If she is having mishaps the maybe a little tuition or help along side?
If my two are making something complicated then they are usually happy to have me in the background running as sous chef, and ask for help with techniques.

Everyone from pre teens up cooks one main meal a week. Must be a new meal. Must check the ingredients before I do the weekly shop.

Thé other meal is help yourself - we have pate, ham, cheese, noodles, eggs and loads of veg always. Plus left overs.

If you finish something ask Alexa to add it to the shopping list.

they ask if they can cook xyz.
I say 'don't use up all the cheese I need it for abc'.

Tell me if you finish anything, or we're running low.

Definitely getting a whiteboard for ingredients.

Planning may be a little trickier... she tends to live in the moment.

My kids ask before they use/eat anything. It drives me bonkers. Yes of course you can have an apple 😬

I also write a meal plan so everyone knows when they're doing their bit.