What ‘fill em up’ foods should you teach your son to make before he hits his teens?

[timeisnotaline]

Not exactly a taat… I have a growing list of easy and filling foods my currently 6yo ds needs to learn so he doesn’t starve to death as a teen and we don’t have to quit our jobs ti cook every few hours. Since he was 2 he’s regularly eaten more than me, and I distinctly recall baking a cake at about 19 and when I turned around the 16yo brother had eaten half of it. half. Not a few slices. Half. So, my list is:
mac and cheese, bonus if he adds veg
pizza dough
baked potato pizza (slice left over baked potato, spread with tomato paste, maybe ham, and cheese, bake.
toasted sandwiches
fried rice
marcellas Tomato pasta sauce
puttanesca
chili con carne
possibly no knead bread but I’ve not got around to trying it myself

Big pot of soup with any veg, lentils or beans. Filling, cheap as and quite high in protein.

I have two teen boys and they like -

Toasted sandwiches with tuna / cheese / beans
Pasta with a sauce or pesto with cheese grated on top
Baked potatoes (again with cheese / tuna / beans)
Tuna pasta bake
Pizzas made with dough / pizza mix (flour you mix with a little oil and water)
with tuna / mozzarella cheese / tomato purree)
Soups
Porridge / pancakes for breakfast

They also seem to like those cake mixes you can buy and make these with their friends- brownie mix and the like.

Oh also they like making and eating flapjacks..

My 13 DS makes himself noodles, pesto pasta , toasted wraps and omelettes. Egg and toast too. He's a good wee cook but a messy wee bugger.

He wouldn't starve if for some reason no one was there for him.

Mine like egg noodles with some chopped quorn ham and sweetcorn mixed in, with some veggies on the side it's a quick easy meal cheap as well.

Cheap noodles with an egg whisked through at the end plus leftover veg from fridge. Splash of soy or something spicier for flavour is a great cheap quick meal.

Fridge chicken. Buy a roast in the bag chicken. Roast it, cool it and put it in the fridge for snacking on. My teens lived on that between meals. As a sandwich if they are really hungry or just having adrumstick or wing if they want a small but healthy snack. Easy cooking for a teen boy to master as it comes in its own tray and you don't even open the bag until it's cooled.

Do you have a favourite brand of pea protein?

I like the sound of this. Any tips? It does sound like it could easily be revolting, so tips would be good! I mean, any kind of meat? Thai curry, chilli, osso bucco? And what kind of half empty sauces do you usually have floating around? We don’t usually have any tbh although we’d have things like mustard, tomato paste , curry pastes, pesto etc.

Anna Jones veggie chilli. It’s delicious, healthy, cheap and really filling.

Curry and stir fry are good staples for using veg.

my 16 year old will eat like a horse if it’s something he likes and it’s put down to him. Left to his own devices he’d eat biscuits and toast. He has no interest in cooking, he’s rather not eat.

My son started making toasted sandwiches in the frying pan... and now regularly makes
carbonara
Quesadillas filled with cheese and ham
Tomato soup with garlic bread
Noodles with fried egg on top, leftover chicken or bits of ham
Burritos with left over rice, avocado, sour cream
He eats me out house and home!

Freezer staples are
Chicken and bacon pasta
Mac n cheese
Pizza
Steak bakes
Garlic bread

Just to add these are all considered pre evening meal snacks 🤣

He gets a full dinner, and will often have another snack at 9/10pm

He is not even remotely over weight 🤷🏼‍♀️

Get a soup machine. Life changer!! Shove in any stuff, swtch on, add crusty roll (buy frozen).
Toasted sandwich machine, ham, cheese.
Learn to buy in advance and divide portions to freezer.
Split up a loaf into portions of 4 (put in lunch bags).
Porridge, buy frozen fruit add a little yoghurt.
Tuna/sweetcorn pasta.
Remembe, everything can be frozen!

What is with all the teen boy eating threads lately?

You’re planning his teen diet when he is currently only 6 years old? But he has been eating more than their parent since age 2. You must be a real teeny tiny OP. No doubt your son will be a ‘skinny 6 footer’ with ‘hollow legs’, consuming 10000 calories a day.

I think teaching different riffs on the same meal is helpful, and helps him use whats available

• Omlette and various fillings he might like
• Pasta - with a few sauces/topping options
• baked potatoes with different topping ideas. Frozen spuds are also really good to have in for a quick meal, I can't imagine a teen waiting or planning to eat in an hour
• salads and a few salad dressings
• Filling smoothies - not solely fruit based
• How to cook and season meat well. I'm thinking if he wanted to cook a load of chicken breasts and then use them throughout the week for sandwiches/salads etc

Also if he eats out and enjoys something that's relatively simple to recreate at home, that might be a way to make it feel like less of a chore.

I really wouldn't bother with making bread unless he starts to enjoy the process. It's a faff for most adults.

Adding protein powder to pancakes and smoothies; banana on toast; porridge with fruit and nuts on top; overnight oats made from oats, some juice, frozen fruit and topped with yoghurt and noodles with veg and eggs scrambled through at the end. French toast.

Depends on the child, really. My DS1 is 19 and at uni - before he went, we spent a few months doing basic recipes together of the sort of things he will definitely eat - so lentil dhal, soups, simple rice-based dishes, pasta bakes, soda bread, some easy cake recipes. He shops at Lidl once a week and cooks for himself every day. If your child will eat them, lentils and beans are terrific for making nutritious, filling meals very cheaply - we sent DS1 off with a little collection of spices, herbs and stock cubes so he can vary the flavours a bit.

DS2 is nearly 18 and fancies himself as a bit of a chef, but he only eats TikTok food . He lives on chilli, burgers with spicy cheese, spicy rice, burritos, various calorie-laden concoctions involving bacon and chicken and cheese with lots of spices. He's doing a full-time college course and working about 30 hours a week in his spare time, so I tend to leave homemade treats in the fridge/freezer for him to take when he comes home knackered in the small hours - tubs of ice cream, cookies, brownies etc, and things like cheese and onion pasties and bacon and cheese turnovers. We have regular conversations about fruit and veg, but he seems to think the shredded cabbage in a grotty kebab is more than sufficient.

We did a lot of cooking when they were growing up and both of them know their way around a kitchen and food cupboard, but the "staples" in their diets vary wildly because they are so different.

Tuna sweetcorn pasta
Chicken, peppers and rice
Chicken Fahitas
Salmon, Veg, potatoes
Eggs
Porridge
Greek yoghurt, fruits, nuts
Baked potatoes
Stirfry
Spag bol

Add lentils when cooking spag bol, chili concarne, hearty soups etc to make them more filling.
Brown wholemeal bread.
Pasta bake containing lots of veg, leftovers in the fridge, topping of grated cheese and brown bread crumbs.
Omelette with fridge remnants
Home made pancakes with filling
Sweetcorn fritters

Omelette, smoothies

Here's a childproof recipe my son learned in nursery school and made a zillion times

Saucepan cake

In a saucepan put

I cup dried fruit
Icup sugar
2oz marg
I tbsp golden syrup
I tsp cinnamon
2 cups SR flour
half cup milk
i egg

mix together; heat up, tip into a greased 2lb loaf tin and bake at 180 C for 1 hr 20 mins.

Serve cold. sliced, buttered.

My teen and nearly teen boys when left to their own devices, mostly eat eggs in various forms (usually scrambled, sometimes omelette or eggy bread) or pasta with various things added (tuna sweetcorn and mayo, pesto and chicken or bacon, tomato sauce and ham/bacon. Always half a block of cheese grated on top).
Ds16 can also make pancakes and ds12 constructs incredibly complex sandwiches.
I figure they could probably survive on that repertoire, plus toast, for a fair while. Bolognaise is a good call though for a bit more protein. We eat it almost every week but neither of them would know how to make it.

Great thread. Thanks