Side Dishes for Teens to Prepare for Dinners

I steam most of my veggies in the microwave and that is pretty fool proof! You could easily leave a veggie and a spice mix to put on it after it's cooked to add some flavor. You could also probably do some sort of spices on peeled and cooked potatoes. I like to add just some salt, pepper, and oregano to my baked (cut up in little pieces) potatoes and they taste great (oh and I do use butter, but you don't have to)!

Why can't they make the entire dinner? My youngest is 15, and she's been making complete meals for 2 years.

Mix up a meatloaf, they can put it in the oven.

Teach them to season a roast, put the roast in and scrub some potatoes, to make baked pototes. Make a salad. Dinner's ready..

Tacos - they can brown the meat and add the seasoning. Chop up the veggies, use a grater to shread the cheese.

They can wash, peel and steam veggies.

One of our favorites, roasted potatoes. Scrub potatoes, cut into cubes, drizzle with olive oil, sprinkle with seasoning, place on cookie sheet and bake.

Oven-friend potatoes are easy - just have them cut washed but unpeeled potatoes into more or less equal sized wedges. Red potatoes are usually rounder vs. oval, so those can be cut into halves or quarters. Put them on a baking sheet and drizzle some olive oil on them & toss to coat lightly. (They can use their hands and just use dish soap to get the oil off their hands - that keeps them from using a spatula and potentially launching potatoes all over the counter as they toss!) The oil also keeps them from discoloring even if you don't bake them right away. If the kids are willing to peel some sweet potatoes, add those in or just make them by themselves. They can add some dill or Italian seasoning if they like it, or just some salt & pepper. Bake at 350 for about 20-25 minutes.

Quinoa is an easy side dish and breaks the brown-rice-boredom you mention. It's also loaded with protein. It comes in various colors - let the kids pick out what they want. Couscous is super easy and fast, and you can use the whole grain version. You can always use water, or you can use broth (chicken, vegetable, etc.) for all or part of the liquid. If you use chicken broth, use low sodium/low fat and no MSG added.

Falafel is a little more involved but my son loves it. We used a mix but cut the sodium by adding some wheat germ, ground flax seeds (meal), sesame seeds, and additional water or broth to reduce the sodium content (one mix but twice the number of falafel patties). Have them make the mix first to see the consistency, then add more of the other ingredients to stretch it/dilute the salt but still keep the same consistency. You don't have to be all that exact. We make little patties (round like meatballs, then flatten as you would a burger) and they are about 1.5 inches across and 1/2 or 3/4 inches thick. We quick fry in some olive or canola oil until they are crispy on both sides, then finish in the oven as you would potatoes. You might want to do this with them the first time, but falafel is delicious and has protein in it from the chickpeas. They can be eaten as a side dish or put in pita bread, or put on top of a salad. Tahini makes a nice dressing but it's not necessary. I used falafel to hide all kinds of nutrition from my picky son - I put drained, thawed frozen spinach in there (he thought it was parsley), pureed broccoli, and as I said flax seed and wheat germ.

If they like Mexican food, have them open, rinse and drain some canned beans (any color), chop some green peppers, onions, etc., open some grated cheese (cheddar or taco/Mexican blend), defrost a handful of frozen corn or peas or both, whatever they like. If you have some leftover hamburger (cooked) or some cooked cubed chicken, use that up too. Open a can of refried beans. Use a package of whole wheat tortillas, spread a stripe of refried beans down the center, top with a few of all the chopped veggies, a tablespoon or two of the beans (any variety or combination) and some cheese. Fold the 2 sides of the tortilla over the pile of fillings and fasten with a toothpick. Put on a baking sheet spritzed with baking spray, top with some enchilada sauce or some tomato sauce (just plain, not spaghetti sauce - they can add some cumin or coriander powder, or cilantro flakes if desired) and maybe a little more cheese. Bake for 20 minutes to heat through. If they make their signature rice with half tomato sauce/puree and half water, they'll have a Mexican side dish! I use regular brown rice (not instant) and get it started, then make the enchiladas in about 20 minutes, let them bake for 20 minutes, and everything is done at one time. (If you've noticed, the kids have just made the whole meal!) They can do this assembly-line fashion if they can cooperate with each other!

If you like to grill, they can do potatoes or various veggies on skewers. They can cut peppers and onions into big chunks, do potato chunks or small fingerling potatoes whole, mushrooms, zucchini rounds, and so on. I don't alternate so much on one skewer even though it looks pretty - I don't think the cooking times are the same. I do potatoes on one, peppers (any color) and onions on another, and mushrooms separately. Zucchini can go with mushrooms or peppers. This puts the kids in charge of starchy and "green" sides. (And the adventurous kids can also thread chicken chunks onto skewers too as you "promote" them to main course!

Once they get good at cutting veggies, they can do stir fry as MommaL said - sautéing is easy and everything goes in one pan except the rice.

Finally, I want to compliment you! You are doing your kids a HUGE favor by giving them these skills! My son learned how to do this sort of thing as well as do his own laundry, and it helped enormously when he went to college and had to fend for himself. A lot of his friends still thought, even at age 18, that the garbage and recycling takes itself out, the dishes wash themselves, the clothes fold themselves and jump into the dresser drawer, and so on. He felt so competent compared to some of them! These are life skills they will need!

You'll find that kids eat a more varied diet if they make it themselves. If you can take them to the grocery store with you, to let them pick stuff out, you will do even better. If they're invested, they'll work at it more and actually eat it too. There will be less waste as they see the frustration of working at a dinner that no one eats.

Good luck!

I forgot to say that they won't use all of the canned/rinsed beans in one meal, so those can be frozen (together or separately) and just popped out/defrosted the next time around. I do that for the whole beans as well as the refried beans, using appropriately-sized plastic containers (for everything) or ziploc bags (for the whole beans).

Teach them to cook with chicken and beef broths. At my old age, I've recently learned how much stuff you can cook with broth. It is so versatile, useful and add flavor to food. For instance, mashed potatoes are much healthier with broth than with butter and milk. You can boil noodles with broth--tastes better also. Another useful cooking tip I recently learned is how to make a good gravy. You can wisk together broth, flour, and water. (Make sure they learn to "wisk" in a bowl or measuring cup, so they don't get flour clumps). Use this to make a Shepherd's Pie or a good chicken and dumpling recipe. Also, another great gravy tip: you can also use those gravy packets that you buy in the gravy section. Just add broth, water, milk and flour---makes a good, quick gravy, just season to taste. These methods have really improved my cooking skills. To think, it took about 25 years to figure this stuff out!:)

Mashed or baked potatoes are easy. Sauteing is super easy, just cut up the veggie (like asparagus), add some olive oil or garlic, salt and pepper and that's about it. Sweet potatoes or sweet potato fries are good.

Premake butter- herb veggie steamer bags or sealable glass or plastic containers. Put all of the ingredients in a freezer proof, microwaveable ziplock, vent the bag, microwave for 2-3 minutes, shake the contents to get the flavors mingled and voila! Just like the over-priced versions found in the store. careful with the steam!

Pasta salads and lettuce salads are easy sides as well as main dishes.

Mashed potatoes are easy as can be. Boil sliced potatoes until soft, drain, add butter, sour cream, chives, mash...done.

Potato mashers are a favorite here. Take small finger potatoes or small reds, boil them til soft, place them on a foil lined cookie sheet, smash them (skins and all) until they're about an inch high and flat, drizzle with olive oil, season with course ground sea salt, course ground pepper, rosemary, or whatever you like, then broil on medium for 5 -10 minutes or until crisppend. Considering you are dealing with oil and an open flame, there is a fire risk with this recipe. So try it out with them first before sending them off to do this solo.

potato gnocci is easy as can be. Boil according to directions and add fresh basil and red sauce, pre-made pesto from a jar, or serve buttered with italian seasoned bread crumbs.

Pureed squash heated on the stove top is nice. It can be doctored up with cinnamon, salt and pepper for a twist.

Roasted squash, yams, or sweet potatoes are also a delicious side. Slice squash in half, fill cleaned out cavity with butter, nutmeg, cardamon, salt and pepper for a nice flavor and bake until soft if yellow variety. If orange variety, season with butter pats, nutmeg, cinnamon, and brown sugar and bake until soft and the seasonings are melted for a sweet treat.

You can also do the orange squash method with yams and sweet potato or just roast them unseasoned and serve with melted butter. MMM MMM.

Steamed asparagus with lemon pepper are nice. If you have a George Foreman grill you can season them the same way you would if you were to cook them on an outside grill, and flash grill them.

Melted cheese pour over steamed broccoli and cauliflower is always a hit.

Seasoned risotto, cous cous, or pasta is always a nice side too.

At 14 I could easily make baked macaroni and cheese. What you could do for that is already have the cheeses proportioned and directions left for how to assemble and then bake. It isn't hard a dish to make and makes a wonderful side dish.

I was already cooking at your kids' age. Teach them some basics like boiling water and how to warm up leftovers and such. Teach them how to follow directions in a cookbook for simple recipes. Teach them how to measure liquids and dry ingredients.

Most importantly? Give them more credit than you're giving them. Recipes don't need to be idiot proof. I've been teaching my girls to cook since they were old enough to stand next to me on a chair in the kitchen. My eldest is only 11 years old and can cook simple things and follow recipes with minimal to moderate supervision if she's using the stove. If she's not using the stove then no supervision needed. She was one of the more advanced kids in her cooking class this year in 6th grade when it came to knowing terminology and basic recipe knowledge and why you do certain things in certain recipes (like proofing yeast, what it is and why you do it; what sweating an onion is).

My middle daughter, who has Autism, is still in the "helper" stage but she's an amazing recipe creator. She's very, very picky and self-restricting and also has a limited diet due to food intolerances so when she has ideas for food combinations I let her help and I use her ideas.

My youngest daughter, who is 7 years old, can do some basics including cutting soft fruits and veggies with a butter knife. She knows how to measure things. She knows how to mix by hand. She heats simple foods on the stove like veggies, beans, hot dogs, and whatever else I ask her to do with supervision. When we're baking she helps measure and separate ingredients while reading and following a recipe.

So for instance, the girls know that when you cook white rice no matter what you're cooking, you take one part rice and two parts water or milk. Add salt and pepper to the liquid when it starts to boil before adding the rice. Cook until fluffy, checking at 15 minutes, and never lift the lid after the rice begins to boil after the first stir. After the rice is cooked you can do whatever you want by adding veggies or meat to it in a large mixing bowl.

My youngest knows my marinara sauce recipe already too. She knows to put the oil in the pan first, then some crushed garlic, salt, pepper, basil and bring up the heat. When the garlic sizzles add the cans of sauce and bring to a bubble to simmer for half an hour. Ready to go, keep stirring. The recipe is always the same, so the measurements are easy to memorize but I still have them jotted down in an easy place to find so I've let the girls make the sauce the last couple of times while I watch from the hallway. They even know how to boil water and salt it for pasta.

I have a special pot with an insert to steam veggies, so I've taught the girls how to set the pot up to steam fresh or frozen veggies AND how to tell when they're done.

My eldest knows how to make a roux. :-) We use roux for soups, macaroni and cheese, casseroles, chowder, as a gravy... and let me tell ya, she loves to show this skill off. Butter, flour, salt, pepper, milk, then if it's something cheesy you add shredded cheese to turn it into sauce.

It's a great way to spend time together and get things done at the same time, as well as teach the kids some valuable life skills. The most important thing is laying down kitchen ground rules for safety. Post the safety rules so that they're always visible and easy to refer to.

Couscous is a quick alternative to rice and other starch sides. It's simple and often quite delicious. Given we are headed into summer, I dice up cucumbers and tomatos and add those into it as well (usually the parmesan flavor) - you could really add most anything.

anything microwavable.. when were doing dinner that needs to be done quickyl we're big fans of the rice pilof in the microwave bags.. and also the veggies that steam in the bags.. im a big fan of the broccoli in cheese sauce.. all u have to do it microwave it put it in a bowl and its done.. shouldnt be a problem

I think being 14, your kids can prep everything start to finish.
My daughter is 9, and she can.
Of course I assist her on the more complicated recipes. But she can read and follow a recipe and do the measuring and prepping and getting the ingredients from the fridge or cupboards, and even do the cooking of it. She knows where everything is in the kitchen.
Or course I am in the kitchen at the same time, doing my cooking of the main meal etc. So when she asks me questions, I am there.
And she can handle a stove and skillet and microwave etc.
Last night, she made Crepes all by herself from start to finish, cooked it, and even put away everything and washed all her dishes that she used to cook. I didn't do not a thing. She did it all.

I've been teaching my kids to cook, in age appropriate ways, since they were Toddlers. Just exposing them to the kitchen and how to use things and make things.
My daughter will even help me make the grocery list, per recipes she wants to try. And will look in the cupboards for the ingredients and will write it down on our list, if we need it.

One suggestion would be: to get an easy kids type recipe book. Barnes & Noble often has "bargain" books for example.
From that, they can choose and make the side dishes from it.

Or, Martha Stewart, has "Everyday Food" recipes that are REAL easy and good. It is in magazine form (which you can get from the bookstore or grocery store) or subscribe to it. I got this subscription as a gift once, and really loved it. Easy recipes. Even a kid could do.
www.marthastewart.com