Super easy cheap recipes for teenager

[hangsangwitch]

My sons friend has been made homeless by his mum. A long history of violence from his stepdad and mums alcoholic behaviour made for a really toxic and unhappy home life. She threw him out last summer and he lived with another friends family for a while and is now in a bed sit flat with limited cooking facilities. He has absolutely no clue how to feed himself or shop for food. He is on a very low wage apprentice wage.

He has his dinner here once or twice a week, and we buy him food. I’m trying to get him more self sufficient and teach him and so need your help to give him ideas that are 1. Cheap but very filling and 2. Super super simple. Simple as in he can’t seem to get the hang of peeling a potato!

For example, this week I’ve shown him how to cook frozen sausages, instant mash and gravy and frozen peas.

God love him he’s clueless, poor and has a teenagers appetite!

Get him into Too Good to Go app. The Toby Carvery, Co-op and Gregg's do great bags that have ready to eat things in... Just ping.b

When he gets more confident a lot of areas have community pantries that he should be able to use if he is on a low income. They have short date cheap / free fresh vege, bread, etc

Also get him to speak to his college... They may offer basic cooking classes. Or if you have time as others have said arm him with basic skills. My kids use Tik Tok and You Tube for inspiration.

I've just made a super easy supper
Chopped red onion
Chopped red pepper
Handful of mushrooms
Can of chickpeas
Can of tomatoes
Chilli, salt and pepper.
Easy, cheap and should be enough for two meals.

Stir-fry with ready to cook noodles are dead easy. Lots of supermarkets have frozen stir fry veg mixes which don't need defrosting first and different sauces. Plus if you have a wok - it's only one pot to wash up!

Teach him how to slice an onion (or use frozen ones). Then fry it, (maybe add some torn up mushrooms or frozen peppers), and a sprinkling of fajita seasoning from a packet. Fry for a few mins, add a tin of tomatoes, a tin of baked beans, a tin of kidney beans and a tin of water using the tomato tin. Bring to a boil, add a couple of handfuls of any pasta. Cook until the pasta is done. He could grate cheese on top or add sausages for a bit of variety.

Most importantly though, thank you for doing this, you're making a real difference to his life

DH and mates lived on jars - they all come with instructions on the back and are very similar once you've mastered a couple. Can do veggie or chicken or mince depending on sauce.

Add wedges, rice, pasta or jacket spuds plus whatever basic frozen / fresh veg he'd eat

One of the things DS14 likes to make is 3 whisked egg into a little bit of hot oil in frying pan turned to medium, with a flat tortilla wrap straight on top. Cook for a few mins then flip over and fill with grated cheese and ham or roasted peppers from a jar, or any leftovers. Then fold over once then again to make it a quarter size. Delicious!

PS it's lovely that you're looking out for him 🤗

I lived with 4 guys in a shared house and they all used loads of tinned fish (when they weren't just getting take-aways!) - so mackrell in tomato on toast/with pasta/on cous cous. You can add peas and cheese. It's a handy staple as lasts for ages in a cupboard and frozen peas/veg go with everything if you need some vitamins. Also recommend frozen onions as a staple.

Baked potatoes with cheesy beans / tuna mayo/ cheese

Make him up a spice rack with home mixed spice blends... That can be added to whatever Vege / meat he happens to have that was cheap. Stirfry, add flavour and a couple of eggs.

Microwave mug cakes - they are great for building cooking confidence, cheap and soooooo good.

Not a recipe, but he needs to have:

• A good set of diff sized containers to keep extra portions or sauces in. If he cooks a recipe meant for 2 (prob not 4, as he has limited storage) he saves himself a job for another day that week and saves money.
• A basic week's shopping list until he becomes confident enough to branch into more complicated cooking. List kept on mobile phone.
• A couple of different coloured chopping boards, so he knows to keep raw meat separate.

PS.
Quick cook pasta costs a bit more than normal, but saves on hob time. Microwave packets of rice is the same, supermarket own brand is good. YouTube, IG and TikTok are great for cheap recipes. I see a lot of "7 family dinners from Aldi for £25" etc.

Does he have a toaster? If not, you can find cheap ones online for less than £10.

Beans on toast
Bacon toastie
Curry and rice
Pasta and sauce
Chilli and rice
Soup with bread rolls
Eggy bread

If he has a small fridge freezer and not a lot of money, tinned veg might be better for him. Some ideas I had-

Spag bol

Tuna pasta

Egg fried rice

Omelette

Sausage, mash, veg, gravy

'Paella' (My cheap version is rice, veg stock, garlic powder, turmeric and paprika) with veg and a protein on the side

Sweet and sour (jar) with rice

Packet of wraps- any leftover veg/proteins can go in

Could you batch cook some things with him at your house and then store some in his freezer and you keep some in your freezer until he has room?

If so, some lovely healthy easy to make cheap recipes I use are

-Cowboy casserole (www.netmums.com/recipes/cowboy-casserole/)

-lentil dhal

-farmers pie (cottage pie but with turkey)

-soups

Get him a slow cooker , he can put in a whole chicken , just as it is . If he puts it in before he leaves for for work , he’ll come home to a lovely smelling flat . Pack of wraps and a bag of salad or tin of beans maybe a bag of chips ?

Full time meals on Instagram.... A collaboration between Tom Kerridge, Marcus Rashford and food charities in Manchester. They have cheap easy recipes with video instructions... Aimed at mid - late teens cooking for the first time.

Frozen veg will be easier to keep and cheaper for him I expect - peppers, onions, peas, sweetcorn, spinach, etc.

Food that is quick to cook - noodles, fresh pasta, sachets of rice.

A set of spices, pastes, black pepper, salt

Meat prepared and frozen eg bags of mince, sliced chicken thighs. Canned fish.

Quick recipes prepared using one pot - cook meat, add veg and flavouring/sauce then cook carb. Variations with mince - spag bol, chilli, nachos, tacos, quesadillas. Variations for noodle/rice dishes - red Thai curry, korma, teriyaki chicken etc.

Fried rice. Rice, frozen veg, protein, fry it up and add an egg.

Pesto pasta. Pasta, spoon full of pesto sauce.

Baked potatoes.

That poor boy. It's a real reminder that not everyone has parents who care about them.

I think based on what you're saying about his current levels of food and food preparation knowledge/skills, a lot of these ideas are probably too advanced still for him.

DH didn't (still doesn't) cook. When I met him, these are things he ate a lot of:

Steamed/microwaved vegetables - from frozen for cheap or in prepped bags.

Boiled eggs. Sometimes fried or scrambled. An omelette would have been WAAAAAAAY beyond him. He had these with other things or as part of a fry up.

Pasta with pesto (and the vegetables and egg) or with a jarred sauce (also, supermarket "fresh" sauces often used to be available on deals and can be nicer).

Fresh pasta packets from the supermarket with just grated cheese (and usually the steamed veg on the side - he was always big on getting veggies in! ate a LOT of corn, broccoli, carrots and cauliflower and peas!)

I'd also suggest jacket potatoes with cheese/beans/tuna etc. When I was skint in my 20s I also did loads of plain rice with refried beans and cheese - I'd splash out on salsa/fresh tomatoes or avo if I had a tiny bit of extra cash.

As he's got an air fryer, frozen fish or chicken pieces or fish cakes in batter/crumbs from the supermarket are pretty reasonably priced and he can have them with jacket potatoes and veg. This is something DH makes for him and DS sometimes when me and DD are out.

I would also recommend Jamies Ministry of Food. DH actually can follow the recipes in that book if he has to.