Cooking With Teens

Once your child becomes a teen, they spend more time away from home with friends, teammates, etc. Hopefully, you’ve had a chance to lay some groundwork on making healthful food choices so that they can make good decisions when eating with their peers. Cooking with your teen can reinforce healthful habits, but more importantly, as your teen is becoming more independent, both in their thinking and in their actions, cooking together can give you some common ground.

Try building an interest in food together. Watch cooking shows, and read through magazines and let your teen pick out recipes. Encourage him or her to try new cuisines from new areas of the world. Perhaps even relate your cuisine choices to countries prominent in the news or in their Social Studies books.

As much as many parents hate to acknowledge it, your teen is also getting ready to leave home and start life on their own – now is the time to give them freedom in the kitchen. Doing so will give them the confidence to prepare their own meals down the road and not rely so much on packaged food or take-out. Work with them to create a menu for a meal, a shopping list and a budget for the meal and take them food shopping so they can learn how to shop and stay in that budget.

Teens are probably ready to handle all the preparation and cooking, so why not ask them to take on one dinner a week? Teach them how to make some basic family staples and then let them add new flavors and new twists of their own. Teach them to create balanced meals by combining food groups – you can always remind them of the food pyramid and also of the right serving sizes for each. Let them be the boss in the kitchen and happily take on the tasks of sous chef – they will get a kick out of bossing you around!

Keep some easy to prepare fresh food around for when their friends are visiting. Encourage your teen to cook with their friends at home instead of going out for fast food or pizza. You’ll be starting a healthy habit for entertaining as your teen grows older.