What can your 12 year olds cook?

[admylin]

My ds's best friend has just lost his mum to a long illness. The dad can't cook and has been feeding him chicken nuggets and cheese sandwiches for months. I've been helping with food, sending meals and having the ds over to us.

Someone on here gave me the idea to give the DS some hints on how to care for himself - like cooking a few basics as if his mum were still around she would be showing him. It's not ideal and the Dad should be the one taking over - but if he's not managed to learn to cook in 6m, he might be either resisting or doesn't think it matters.

What can I try cooking with them? I'm thinking the boy and my ds could learn together in my kitchen. I'm thinking bolognese with pasta would be an easy enough start and maybe teach them some sort of potato or vegetable gratin/bake?

You can buy cookbooks aimed at kids. Maybe get him one of those?
10yr old DC can cook:
Spag Bol
Pasta with pesto
Omlette
Bacon and eggs
Pancakes
Muffins
Sausages
Steam veggies
Mash potato
Corn on the cob
Stir fry
Pasta Bakes (eg leftovers)

Carbonara is really simple, my 8yr old can do it.
Jackets with various toppings, beans/cheese/tuna are the easiest.
Scrambled eggs or omelette.

MY DSs can do these they are 12 and 14.

Pizza Pockets
2 Wholemeal pitta Breads
2 Tablespoons Tomato Puree
1 Tsp Olive Oil
4 Slices Ham cut into small pieces.
75g Grated Cheese
2 Tablespns Sweetcorn

Slit open one side of the pittas. Easier if you heat first for 15 seconds in microwave.
Spread the tomato puree inside them.
Mix everything else up in a bowl.
Stuff the pittas with mixture and place on an oven tray.
Place under a medium grill for 5 minutes or longer until fully heated through and cheese melted.

Home Made Chicken Nugget Wraps
Preparation Time 20 min
Serves 2 Adults and 2 children
Ingredients
3 Chicken Breasts
1 beaten Egg
75g Plain Flour
1 Tablespoon paprika
Pepper to taste *
Oil to cook
4 Flour Tortillas
Cooked Sweetcorn
*Use white pepper as it gives flavour but is not visible.

Method

1. Mix the flour, paprika and pepper together in a bowl.
2. Cut each piece of chicken into about 5 strips.
3. Heat the oil in a pan.
4. Dip each piece of chicken first into the egg then roll in the flour mixture.
5. Warm the tortillas in the oven
6. Fry chicken until golden brown and cooked through (5 to 10 minutes).
7. Put some sweetcorn and chicken into each tortilla and fold into a wrap.
8. Serve.

If you like spicy food you can add some chilli flakes or chilli pepper to the flour mixture.
You can make these extra crispy by repeating stage 4 ? dip into egg, then flour then egg again and flour again before cooking..

Shepherd?s Pie
Preparation Time 30 Minutes
Cooking Time 30 Minutes
Serves 2 Adults and 2 children

Ingredients
500g Minced Lamb or Beef
1 onion
3 large potatoes
250ml water
1 teaspoon stock powder
A little milk
1 tablespoon flour
Tablespoon Oil

Method

1. Peel and chop the onion.
2. Peel the potatoes and the carrot. Cut the potatoes up and put in a pan of water to boil for about 20 minutes until soft.
3. Fry the onion until soft the take out of the pan.
4. Fry the mince in a small amount of oil until brown. Put the onion back in with the meat and stir in the flour.
5. Add 250ml boiling water to a separate jug and stir in the stock powder. Then pour into the mince mixture. Bring to the boil stirring all the time.
6. Turn down the heat to low and leave for 20 minutes.
7. Meanwhile check the potatoes are done.
8. Drain the water off into a jug.
9. Add some milk and mash. If needed add back some cooking water.

10. Pour the mince mixture into a casserole dish and spread the potato on top. 11. Put in the oven for 30 minutes at 180C

Chocolate Cheesecake

250g bourbon biscuits
125g melted butter
300g soft cheese
250ml double cream
1 teaspoon vanilla
60g icing sugar
½ teaspn lemon juice
Approx 50g grated chocolate or choc flakes
Approx 50g chocolate to decorate

8? loose leaf cake tin
Put the biscuits into a bowl and crush with a pestle or rolling pin. Add the melted butter and mix. Press firmly into the baking tin and put in the fridge.
Beat together the cheese, sugar, lemon and vanilla in a bowl.
Lightly whip the cream in another bowl and fold (stir gently) into the cheese mix. Stir in most of the grated choc, saving a little to decorate. * Pour the cheese mix onto the biscuit base and chill.

• You can also decorate with melted chocolate which is more difficult.

Some great ideas, thannks.

Just wondering for this age group how much do you help with things like draining the veg or pasta when cooked? My dc (up to now) help with chopping, peeling and they can do stir fries but I'm abit nervous about the boiling water (like when we do rice etc) although they do make me a cup of tea or coffee. Ds's friend has never done any of this so I will have to stand over every step.

Don't assume any common sense or knowledge in advance , and yes you have to stand over every step at first, but at 12 they are old enough to be taught how to handle hot things safely.

Don't necessarily teach them to do things the same way that you do, there may be a safer way.
For example to drain hot veg or pasta I would make them use a collander. Have it in place at the sink first, then carry the pan in two hands over to the sink.

For rice I never drain, just measure the water on a ratio of 2.5 water to 1 rice and boil until most of the water has gone. Then turn heat right down until all water evaporated.

My children are better in the kitchen than I am.

I agree that he needs some assistance to become more self sufficient but his dad really ought to be play an active role in the process.

Maybe they could learn to cook together? It won't help either of them to recover from this loss if they are not eating healthfully.

There is a Jamie Oliver cookbook (I know, I know) based on the TV series Ministry of Food especially designed for beginners. Our now 13 year old ds loved to make the recipes after shopping for the ingredients. Here is a link to the site: Ministry of Food

A slow cooker might come in handy here - htink Argos have one on offer for a fiver - just bung frozen casserole veg, meat and (not the Mumsnet ideal of home cooked but better than nuggets and sarnies) a jar of chicken tonight - switch on - dinner ready at end of the day.

DS is 11 and can cook soup, pasta bolognese, risotto, sausages and mash, and has baked bread, cakes and biscuits all with minimal supervision.

And OP how lovely that you're still there supporting the family.

We're abroad but they are also a Britsih family so that ministry of food is a good idea, I have heard of it and he (the dad) might be able to get some good tips for starting cooking from the website.

Thanks again - some great ideas. At the weekend dh and I are going to help them tidy their kitchen up and start from there (you can't see the floor for empty bottles and bags of rubbish . Will do a cookery lesson at our house first time though!

can you let your dd cook with him together?
when I was little my mom made me and my siblings cook once a month from scratch. started when I was about 10 and the youngest one about 5. we looked into books what we wanted to cook looked in the larder what still needs shopping. was great fun and a great way to learn the basics.

in the meantime, what about fish or chicken parcels: put a piece of fish (salmon is a good starter fish) or chicken filet on top of a sheet of tin foil, put (frozen) veg and piece of butter on top, fold the edges up and add a few tablespoons of water, close edges as tightly as possible, place on a baking tray and bake in the oven 30 min at 200 (conventional oven).

Start with recipes that only have a few ingredients

eg pasta with bacon and peas

roast chicken, baked potatoes and roast carrots (could not be easier just turn on oven and put them all in in the same dish for one hour)

frozen pizza (I know that's not really cooking but it is to a novice)

sausages, beans and mash

Once basics are mastered then move on to chopping onions and making bolognaise and sauces

One of my DSs used to write his favorites down in a notebook.