Teenager air fryer post-school options

[SpaceOP]

DS needs a substantial snack when he gets in from school - adhd meds means no lunch at school - , and/or sometimes on weekends if he's alone. He's 14. Borderline dyspraxia so we've been a bit slow on getting him fully on top of using oven/sharp knives (starting to work on this now as he's getting more and more fine motor skill control). He also has no patience.

So, I need some ideas for quick and easy air fryer ideas. I've tried doing some online searching and it's all either awful or complicated - he's not going to be measuring out ingrediencets for a "quick sticky chicken" or whatever. So more ideas - currently he tends to rely heavily on crumbed chicken/fish from the freezer and chips.

I think I need to get him doing toasties or baked wraps maybe? Any other ideas.

Toasties are good, just make sandwich and chuck in. My teenager really likes omelette at the moment so I make a massive one at the weekend and slice it can be heated in air fryer in five minutes. We started off with tortilla de patatas thinly sliced potato, onion and garlic fried off then add eggs. Then it got more adventurous this weeks is feta, roasted red pepper and spinach. There’s a brand Higgidity that do nice quiches and I steal ideas from them.

I have chickens and it’s great for using up the eggs. I use about 15 per omelette and use a big paella pan that goes in the oven. Possibly he could do it at the weekend with a bit of help?

throw some chicken goujons in the air fryer and he can make a quick wrap if he’s able to chop a bit of cucumber or lettuce even better.

Pitta pizzas, nachos and sausages

HOw do pitta pizzas work? I have some actually but was trying to work out how to put a filling in and then not make it ooze all the way out?

Mine cook chicken (pieces not breaded, although they are also partial to a nugget), sausages, halloumi, bacon, jacket potatoes, mini whole potatoes.
They also do hot basic sandwiches (bread with some cheese on top)

There might be things he could partially prepare in advance (with your help) and then just reheat, precooked chicken wraps, etc.
There's rarely a time when our air fryer is not frying!

For me a "pitta pizza" is using the pitta as the base - so tomato, cheese etc. on top so no oozing out. He could do the same thing with an English muffin - cut it in half then top with pizza style toppings and throw in the air fryer.

Chicken drumsticks/wings are lovely in the air fryer, gorgeous crispy skin. He can just shake a spice mix on it for a bit of extra flavour but not as faffy as making a sticky chicken type thing.

I know it's not the air fryer but fried eggs aren't too difficult to make so he could do eggs on toast/in a roll. Beans in a small pan the microwave for additional filling up - beans on toast with a fried egg on top was a favourite of mine when I was young/a student!

Fish finger sandwich
Chicken pie
Frittata
Cocktail sausages and beans
Pizza/calzone

I use this as a guide https://www.marksandspencer.com/c/food-and-wine/cooking/recipes/213154/air-fryer-pitta-bread-pesto-pizzas/ I only add pesto if we have an open jar that needs using.

Jacket potatoes?
Hashbrowns with various toppings- cheese, fried egg, beans

My kids like the microwaveable Vee Tee rice pots with soy sauce and some cut up veg on the side.

Not airfryer, but i used to make a big pit of soup for mine when they were at the 'starving every five minutes' stage. You could do it with him to start, it should help him with his knife skills. Then portion and fridge/freeze. All he has to do is microwave /heat in pan and have some bread. There's a real trend for adding cottage cheese to soup at the moment for protein too, so it should be filling and healthy.

Jacket potatoes? You could freeze portions of chilli, home made baked beans, curry etc. Potato in the air fryer, topping in the microwave, grated cheese on top.

Could you perhaps marinate chicken thighs in the morning so he can just put them in the air fryer when he returns? I do that pretty often, and stick some broccoli or green beans into the air fryer with it and serve it with rice. If he can’t make rice, maybe get him a microwave rice cooker as they are so simple to use?

And if you don’t have time to marinate the chicken in the mornings, you can marinate and freeze them, and then just take one or two out of the freezer the night before and leave them to defrost in the fridge overnight until he is back from school.

I personally don’t love the air fryer, so we don’t really use it for after school snacks.

But my young teen eats:

Pizza
Bagels with cream cheese
Pizza bagel (tomato paste with cheese)
Noodles - either the vacuum packed fresh ones or the soba noodle brand in the cup, or mug shots

All but the noodles you could make in an air fryer, I guess. Noodles made with the kettle or in microwave for the fresh ones (with soy sauce, sesame oil, bit of honey, could add any toppings).

thanks for suggestions. The sort of pizza style things are a good idea. I'd like him to start eating more fruit and veg during the day - but that might be a bit ambitious but at least with the pizza options he'd probalby happly add some onions or mushrooms or peppers.

He likes soup but for some reason, if I make it for dinner.... eats it fine. If I have it in the fridge and offer him some as a sort of "snack" he won't eat it. I can't work it out. Is it some kind of weird sensory issue linked to leftovers in the fridge maybe? did spinach and pea soup the other week but we had to throw away most of it the other day which annoyed me.

He is a good healthy eater overall but does seem to really crave the sort of takeaway/fried food equivalent when he comes home from school. I think it's probably the result of the meds - they don't actuall ykill his appetite completely (if he has them on a weekend and I produce food, he will eat it) but they do kill any sense that he should make the effort to eat food he doesn't love or that involves queuing at the canteen so I think by the time he gets home, he just wants that quick, salty hit?

I did used to do jacket potatoes for him sometimes and then just stick in the airfryer shorlty before he got home and he'd then heat up some beans to go with it. I maybe need to get back into that habit. He does cook eggs regularly but that's usually breakfast so I discourage him from doing it again after school!

I also sometimes do invidual portions of spanakopita which he likes but frankly, it's a faff and I havent done it for a while. We did have spanakopita recently - but I just made a big one. But perhaps I should look into that sort of thing I can buy pre-made for the airfryer. vegetable spring rolls, gyoza etc?

It’s a bit of effort but cooked and cooled lasagna freezes beautifully in sliced pieces. It also reheats well in the air fryer. You can get all sorts of vegetables into that?

I've currently got jacket potatoes in the slow cooker. Put those on first thing and they'll be perfect for an after-school snack with cheese and/or beans.

I love my airfryer! You could portion up some cooked pasta with a vegetable based sauce (with or without meat) in ceramic or enamel bowls that can go in the airfryer to reheat with some grated cheese on top. Cheese based sandwiches can go in the airfryer to make a toastie. You can cook jacket pots to halve and reheat in the airfryer. Pizza slices reheat well to. Falafel are also easy to cook/ reheat and a bit more veg/ less 'beige' than breaded nuggets. Halloumi or smoked/ flavoured tofu cut into fingers cook well in the airfryer and are great dipped into ketchup as a snack.

5 minute noodles https://theveganlunchbox.co.uk/5-minute-sriracha-noodles-one-pot/

I find Lidl and Aldi fantastic for things like this, they have lots of spring rolls, little pasties, pastries in the frozen section

Not air fryer, but the pouches of daal and grains are good and very easy to microwave. He could then have a precooked chicken breast sliced up / stirred through it. Also portioned frozen chilli and curry go down well here. And air fryer omelettes and toasties are very easy. You can always make up breakfast muffins / egg bites / toasties and freeze them and he can get one or two out and reheat in the air fryer. Itsu chicken skewers are delicious and easy to chuck in the air fryer and serve with micro rice.

Heat up quiche and teach to make mini roasties - chop up potato into cubes, toss in a little oil with herbs bung in air fryer with portion of quiche.

If he’s not really into cooking you could make life really easy with some Iceland frozen pizza subs or chicken burgers that he can bung in. Also bagels that could go in either the air fryer or toaster. A crimpet and some wraps would make it really easy for him to make a pizza wrap type thing.

Hey OP
If your 14 yo DS is anything like my 14 yo DSD they cba much of the time lol.

Some great ideas on here and I would love for my DSD to make some of these in fact she could make extra for me when I get home 😁however, I think the reality of it with teens is much different.

I tend to either once a week stick the SC on for her with a stew in she can dish herself a bowl up and then I tend to put the rest in tubs and keep in the fridge/freezer. If not this then noodles are always a good shout, not my ideal choice and I don't like the kids having them often but the big super noodle cups she likes and she can just boil the kettle. I always make sure we have plenty of fruit in too as she will snack on this and she also likes protein cookies. Scrambled eggs is another one she will make herself. Anything that is easy and done in under 5 minutes as god forbid she is away from her phone for any longer....... 🙄

My teens quick meals are MyProtein frozen ready meals, 3 for a tenner from Iceland but maybe Herons will have them in too.

All good ingredients, 3 mins in microwave, stir, another 1.30 and it's done (the Katsu one atleast, that's my personal favourite!) but my non veg eating son finishes the whole thing off, edamame(?!) peas, random greens, whatever is in them, all goes down the hatch. We've tried a few now and none have been horrible, just some nicer than others. If he'd struggle opening the lid, you could pop it open first, lay the lid back on then wrap it in cling film/foil on the day he's going to have it, to keep the freezer air from the food? You just lightly sit the lid on top while it cooks so no stabbing lids etc.