Easy snacks for 12yo to make herself

[pauline987]

Hi.

Trying to teach my DD a bit of independence in the kitchen (she wants it, I'm not forcing it on her 😂)

She is 12, and I'm looking for ideas for afternoon snacks/supper that she make by herself.

She will usually make herself something when she gets home from school. Usually cereal/little microwave pizza/noodles or a snack pot that you just add water to.

She will then make herself toast or a sandwich for supper. Or cut up some cheese, some cooked smoked sausage and cucumber in a bowl

She is getting fed up with all these tho.

Any suggestions for other easy snacks she can make herself?

She doesn't like it why I try to intervene and make something. She wants to do it herself

Crumpets
Toasties
Wraps

Small baked potatoes can be done in the microwave

Omelette, scrambled or poached eggs on toast, beans on toast, bacon sandwich, tin of soup. Great that she wants to - can you use this as an opportunity to get her skills expanded to cooking an evening meal - jacket potato or pasta or rice with a sauce to start say?

Make large quantities of pasta sauces together so she can learn to do it herself. Pack portions for the freezer and she can make pasta dishes for ge4self.
Stir fries are easy and only take minutes. Can be eaten with rice or noodles.
Pancakes are easy and can be filled with anything you like.

I was cooking the family meals when I was 12. It is a great skill to have. I taught all my dc to cook and budget from around the same age.

My DD can do scrambled eggs.

get her a cookbook? there are plenty of ones in the studenty line that aren't expensive or complicated to prepare. Then she can choose a week's menu and you can help shop ahead? good on her for being self sufficient but those snack pots aren't great nutritionally.

Thanks so much for the suggestions!

Toasties/crumpets/pancakes I will definitely get

Should have mentioned, she will not entertain eggs in any form 😂😂

She had been this way since she was weaned at 4 months old.

We already cook dinner together, she loves helping 😃 It's more snacky things she can have for supper I'm struggling with

I like the bulk pasta sauce, you could use it for so many different things. What about homemade soups, pea and ham, chicken and sweetcorn. Could she make some soda bread and use it for the rest of the week.

She can make anything at all at 12 if she's roughly small adult height and strength (to reach and safely lift kettles/ pans/ grill pan etc).

Get her a simple recipe book - one aimed at students or children depending on her (probably students one unless she needs things broken right down into very simple small steps).

Let her pick a few recipes and give her money to go to the shop for the ingredients if it's near by, or go together if it's a drive away. Planning and shopping for ingredients and ensuring that they are within budget (noticing how two similar things can cost very different amounts, thinking about quantity) is more of a missing skill than actually cooking for many.

My kids had those wipe clean spiral bound children's recipe books (usbourne does some) - my youngest is starting to use them at 8, with help, but by 12 they're probably too babyish and a simple, quick students recipe book would be more appropriate.

Mini pizzas (can be homemade with pitta breads ect),nachos with melted cheese and dips, fruit salad and yoghurt, wraps with different fillings, cereal, quiche, crumpets, beans or spaghetti on toast, jacket potato with different fillings, cheese and crackers, porridge, homemade flapjack, paninis, hot sandwiches like bacon or sausage, toasted pitta bread with salad or falafel and dips

Why would you get pancakes?? My 11 year old has been making pancakes regularly for at least the last 18 months - milk, flour, egg - nothing to get!

@anothernotherone I'm looking for quick snacks she can make for supper at night.

As is, can throw some butter on and eat.

I don't want her using making pancakes from scratch as another excuse to stall bedtime!

Oh sorry, I read afternoon snack. If it's so close to bedtime that she's stalling bedtime preparing then tbh I wouldn't be worrying about her being bored of the options - Boeing is better if it's a last minute plea of hunger actually at bedtime - porridge or buttered toast or a banana, if those are too "boring" for a non mealtime snack immediately before bed you aren't actually hungry!

Unless she's medically underweight and any opportunities to get food into her need to be made the most of obviously.

You can make homemade pancakes and freeze them.

Pre bedtime snacks are not a good idea I've heard. Normally when you eat your blood sugar spikes up fairly quickly as you digest food then goes down again as you are moving around, using up the energy. If you eat before bedtime the blood sugar stays high for much longer which is not a good thing as excess is then stored in your liver (I think, bit hazy on that) . Try to encourage her to eat a bit more for her evening meal , eg having a piece of cheese to end the meal, then to stop eating for the day.

It's very easy to get into the "have a little snack before bed " mode, but it's largely calories and sugars that your body doesn't need since unless you are marathon sleep walking you are not going to use the energy.

My dd is 12 and has been cooking since she was a lot younger.

She will cook halumi and make herself a wrap, my other dd is 11 and will fry eggs, cook bacon for lunch.

They cook spaghetti bol, lasagne, pasta baked, chicken fajitas, curry alsorts

When do you eat dinner? For us an afternoon snack is when DD comes from school and is mainly cereals, yoghurt with granola, porridge, sandwich, slice of cake and fruit. This is all done by her unless I am at home and want to eat something as well.

We then have dinner together at 7pm, no bedtime snacks at all.

Don't you eat diner together?

DS is 11yo and loves to cook. Likes cleaning up less, mind you.

He will do basic putting stuff together things like granola and honey and yoghurt, or fruit salad, or banana on toast and stuff. Is that the kind of thing you want, rather than more of a meal?

If its something more substantial that you're after, he will make a carbonara (I know you said no eggs), fry up some prawns with chopped chorizo and put them in a pitta, marinade some chicken and then put it in the oven and use it to stuff wraps with salad and some mixed plain yoghurt and mint (raita) etc.

With supervision, he will make anything.

Do you have a sandwich / panini toaster?

Toasted pita / folded wraps / panini and toasted sandwiches...variety of cheeses, Ham, pesto, onion marmalade etc. Yum!

Apple chips. Using a mandolin safely setting the oven.
It takes time though, very little clean up.

Have gotten some wraps, pancakes, some different cereals, and some different flavoured cheeses (didn't even know Tesco did them!)

She has recently discovered she actually likes beans on toast (after years of declaring beans/spaghetti/anything in a sauce was yuk!) and we also got some microwave popcorn.

We do have a griddle thing that you can make toasties and paninis in, she had a toasted ham and cheese baguette last night

Thanks so much for all the suggestions 😃

Have you tried them bags you put in the toaster. Can put bread and cheese in between and toast it. Nice and easy.

Also Poundland do them microwave bacon trays. Nice and easy