The Lunch Tray is devoted to all topics relating to “kids and food” but I sometimes overlook kids at the older end of the spectrum, i.e., teenagers and college students. That’s why I’m so glad to be able to share this guest post from Amy Stone, blogger at Health Twisty.
Amy has over 25 years of experience as an award-winning scientific and medical communicator, and she’s deeply interested in the connections between food and health. (You can read her bio here.) Today Amy tells us how she’s using this summer break as an opportunity to teach her 16-year-old son the shopping, meal-planning and cooking skills he’ll need when he’s living on his own in just two short years. They’re great lessons to share with any older child; I plan to discuss many of these topics with my own 10- and 12-year old.
Teaching the Kids to Fish (metaphorically)
By Amy Stone
Don’t you just love summer? I know I do. Summer for our family is a time to slow down and reconnect, and, as my kids have grown older, a time to focus on the life skills they will need as they prepare to move on to college.
Because my oldest son is 16, my husband and I only have two more years with him before he’s out in the world, doing his own laundry, arranging his own schedule, and feeding himself! That’s a wake-up call for any parent, but especially for us because in addition to needing to know about nutrition and being smart with money, our kids cannot eat gluten. So we feel a sense of urgency in teaching them how to shop for food on a budget and how to cook so that they can stay healthy.
Fortunately, by now both of our kids (the other one is 13) can follow recipes and know the basics of baking, and cooking. The oldest one can cook for survival – he has mastered breakfast foods, such as eggs, bacon, pancakes, and smoothies. He can put together an interesting salad or sandwich for lunch, make toppings for bruchetta and pizzas, and create piles of nachos with beans and lots of vegetables. He’s not going to starve or need to fall back on packaged foods if left to his own devices.
However, in the midst of patting myself on the back for being such a good parent, I took this kid grocery shopping with me. It was then I realized that my son pretty much failed the planning and shopping part of food preparation. Here’s how we have worked to improve those skills:
Planning ahead: Impulse buys are budget busters. One way to steer away from them is to plan meals, make a list of what you’ll need for them, and go shopping with the list (and when you’re not hungry). Additionally, planning ahead allows you to make wise use of the ingredients you purchase, such as cooking a large steak for Sunday dinner and setting aside half of it to use for fajitas later in the week. This type of planning is one my kids don’t fully get yet. And because I anticipate our son will move from our house to a college dorm with limited ability to shop and prepare food, I’m afraid this one is still a work in progress.
Marketing and advertising are not your friends: When we first began shopping with our sons, we would send them off with their lists only to see that they grabbed the first item they saw, without regard to what may be on sale or the price per unit. Ketchup, pickles, yogurt, you name it, most things that are packaged are heavily pushed by advertising and the brands with the most advertising are placed prominently at eye-level on shelves. Helping them understand the manipulation behind advertising and marketing already has made them more savvy consumers as well as curbed the impulse buys.
Read labels: If it has more than 5 or so ingredients, it’s probably not healthy and not a priority for us to purchase. This helps with the marketing issue because most clean foods are not heavily marketing, unlike junk foods. (Our kids know what to look for regarding gluten: wheat products, gluten, barley, and so on.)
Quality versus quantity: It seems counterintuitive when budgeting for food to take quality into consideration. After all, aren’t we trying to get the most food for the least amount of money? Well, yes, and no. Yes, we like to maximize our food dollars, but no because we don’t want to eat the chemicals, drugs, or fillers that usually come with cheaper foods, including meats and dairy products. We try to shop to maximize the nutrient value we are getting, as well as the dollar value.
Cooking: As I mentioned, the kids can fend for themselves, but we’d like them to move on to the next level. We are embarking on incorporating the kids more into meal planning, and then having them work with us to cook certain meals. Already, the kids clean the kitchen after meals two or three times per week and they are almost to the point of doing it right the first time (i.e., as thorough as their father or I would be). Win!
Safety: After seeing the old “knife in the toaster” trick and driving one son to the ER to have a badly cut finger stitched up, I have incorporated safety knowledge into the process of cooking. Teaching kids to cook means dealing with sharp knives, whirring blades, and open flames, which means they have to learn little things, like how to cut vegetables and unplugging an appliance when they are finished with it, and big things, like fire safety (no water on grease fires!). A lot of this is age-dependent: I’m comfortable with the older son using a knife, blender, toaster, stand mixer, Panini press, oven, and the gas cook top (the latter only when we are home). Our younger son is not quite ready for some of those tools without supervision. And yes, we have a fire extinguisher.
My goals for the end of summer are modest:
- To make the kids part of our food-budgeting and menu-planning decisions so they will understand how much more economical and healthful it is to plan meals and to re-purpose leftovers.
- To be able to go food shopping with them, hand them part of the list, and be confident they will bring back healthy foods that are the most economical they could find.
- To advance their knowledge of food marketing, especially for “foods” with no nutritive value.
- To have each kid be able to make a few meals, with protein, fruits, and vegetables.
I think we can do it! What are you teaching your kids with regard to nutrition and cooking? Any tips to share?
###
Interested in reading more about these topics ? Here are some resources:
An editorial in The Journal of the American Medical Association on the importance of home economics education in addressing obesity.
This HealthTwisty post on my lack of home economics skills and why I wish I had more.
A basic primer in teaching young kids the basics of cooking.
This HealthTwisty post on the real value of clean foods.
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Copyright secured by Digiprove © 2012 Bettina Elias Siegel
mommm!!! says
I thought these were a given??? My child has been raised with these survival skills his whole life. And he started cooking at around 6. I never really thought about other women NOT raising children armed with food skills because I was raised the same way so I never really dissected it, other than to point them out as life skills in your pouch goo post.
He has learned to look at price differences AND ounce/pound differences in contents. And he’s learned to dissect ingredient labels in that he knows which ingredients we choose not to support and/or ingest. He shops with me often….always has. He knows the PLU code differences on produce like what codes are on conventional, organic, and GMO produce. He can identify a dizzying array of meat cuts, both beef and pork, and tell you where on the animal the cut came from and he can butcher uncut roasts, etc. He knows all the sale prices of many different kinds of fowl and watches them like a hawk, mostly so he can nag me to make duck. Or turkey. Or game hens. Or quail (which I’m not fond off….too small!). But you get the idea.
He knows how to budget food. When he was 10 if he wanted something, like ice cream for example, I’d give him in cash only what I would be willing to pay and he would have to find something within that price range. He’s gotten really good at it! That was prompted by the ice cream truck. I didn’t want to spend 3 dollars on a single ice cream. I told my son he could have an entire box for 3 bucks and that was his first foray into a grocery store with money to spend without me there. Now I can send my son across the street for just about anything and be confident that he shopped the best deal 2 years later.
My child is actually in charge of the grocery list. I keep a word document on my desktop that he can add things to or delete or whatever. He knows that if it’s not on the list it won’t come home with us. He also preempts leftovers. “That’s a lot of ground beef you’re making, Mom. Can we put some aside for tacos tomorrow night?”
“Of course, honey.”
He knows how to make stocks, and large batch sauces and soups that we freeze. He knows how many different dishes I can spin a giant pot of marinara into and will head me off as soon as I start to load the freezer. “You’re not going to make that cabbage thing I hate with some of that sauce, are you?”
“Of course not, honey.” 🙂
He also knows how to grow lots of herbs, vegetables, and fruits and knows many heirloom varieties of various veggies and fruits and can even tell you what the differences are among them. He can fish like a mofo. Meanwhile, my pole will see maybe one fish in the entire day while he catches fish every 20 minutes. He will be learning to hunt at 13. I learned at 9. My goal is to teach him the art of wild foraging. It’s a skill I’ve lost as well. But we live in the PNW where the foraging is spectacular and has even developed into a sort of subculture here so I really want to do more of it.
He has recently learned How To Do Dishes. Or rather, How To Wash Dishes At Mom’s Expectation Of Cleanliness Level. 😉 It’s actually been rather nice not having to do them with as much cooking and baking as we do. But he has always had to clear the table. That’s been his duty since he was old enough to carry a plate.
Amy says
Wow! Sounds like you’re raising a great kid. Hopefully, all that “home schooling” will stick with him when he flies the nest.
Amy
mommm!!! says
Thanks! I’m trying! My friends fear that I’m making it impossible for him to find a wife by having impossible standards. (say whuut?!)
I think it’s brilliant that you’re bringing this discussion to people. I would have never thought of it because it’s just how we live. I just always thought that if you had a passion for food, those skills would just come, no? Apparently not lol! I guess it really is a lifestyle. With so many scapegoats posing as food choices in our grocery isles I can imagine it being hard for lots of people to practice what you’ve discussed. Even I am sometimes tempted by the frozen lasagnas….it’s fleeting…but sometimes…. 🙂
Amy says
Mommm!!!, I see a lot of super busy families who may economize their time by having the kids start their homework while a parent starts dinner. Or, one parents does food shopping and prep on a Sunday afternoon while the kids are playing sports. There are many examples, but you get the idea – family life is so busy, especially during the school year, that one way we economize is for everyone to focus on their separate to-do’s. Kids do homework, practice their instruments, etc. Parents shop, and cook. We’re trying to bring back more intentional life lessons into our kids’ lives and I hope others will find some tips that might work for them.
mommm!!! says
Here’s some tips from me:
There are days when I don’t have time to prep AND cook, so what I do is take one day to make ahead. I make a huge pot of veggie soup (I do about 6 different soups actually) that I freeze in single and double serving batches because those can be microwaved if my son needs to fend for himself for whatever reason. So when I buy a big bag of potatoes at the store, my son doesn’t see a big bag of potatoes. He sees potato leek soup. “Mom, are you gonna make potato leek soup? Can we have ham and scalloped potatoes, too?” (he knows I got a leftover ham bone stashed in the freezer)
But this can also be done with entrees. Usually, on the nights I have the time to prep and cook, I’ll make more than what we can eat in one dinner, and then I’ll portion and freeze the rest. THEN…on the nights that I’m strapped for time, I can take a frozen already cooked entree, wrap it in a tinfoil tent, and warm it up in the oven (no pots and pans to wash later). I can also add a couple handfuls of frozen green beans into the foil tent and voila! I also make large amounts of salad at a time minus the dressing. That way I have a side always ready. There is always a giant salad loaded with fresh veggies in my fridge. The only thing this method doesn’t really work for is fresh fish. Leftover fish, for me, either goes into a quiche or the fish carcass bag in the freezer.
But whenever I prep anything, I think, what else could I use this for? For example, I made coleslaw the other night which involved grating carrots (annoying and tedious) so I grated an extra 3 cups carrot and put it in the fridge to make a carrot cake this weekend. I also save chicken bones. (I know kinda gross) I have a chicken carcass bag I keep in the freezer because I make my own chicken stock with the bones and whole chicken carcasses. I also save meat scraps for soups or stews. The same with fish….I save heads, bones, shrimp peels etc. for fish stock later. I rarely buy fillets because they are more expensive, I know how to fillet my own fish, and plus I feel robbed if I don’t have fish heads, tails, and bones to save for stock. I’m paying more for less and I don’t like that.
I also make ahead a large pot of marinara sauce and freeze it in portions. From that sauce I can make a fast spaghetti dinner, and as a base for various OTHER sauces and soups, and homemade pizza (I use my own dough that I freeze but Trader Joes makes a good one for less than 2 bucks in a pinch), and a vast array of other things some of which aren’t so fast. But the point is that taking a little time to make a lot of extra that you can freeze for later for when you don’t really have any time has been absolutely key for me as a single parent.
I have some make ahead staples I keep in my fridge also. I keep a head of elephant garlic that I’ve roasted at all times. I use the elephant garlic because it’s much larger than regular garlic so it’s more user friendly. I just slice off the tip, pour some olive oil over it in my fancy shmancy tinfoil tent and roast it in the oven. It will keep in the fridge for days and days and it makes lots of things taste incredible and I can use it over and over because it’s a big huge garlic. I make ahead bbq sauce because I can use it for several different dishes as well as a base for various other dishes. I make ahead boiled eggs. My son likes to grab one for breakfast if he got up late and I’ll make some deviled eggs with the rest over the weekend sometimes. They’re also a great addition to spinach bacon salads, which brings me to saving bacon grease and leftover bacon. The bacon, which I’ll use as a salad topping, stays longer than the grease. But I’ll only save the grease for a max of two days. I’ll leave it in the pan and I cover it with foil and use it for a salad dressing I make sometimes…one of my grammas recipes….wilted lettuce salad. It’s very humble, but it’s one of our faves. I also keep fresh pasta in the freezer. Of course, making pasta requires some level of commitment and a few key pieces of equipment, but they are pretty inexpensive….a pasta roller (35 bucks), a pasta drying rack (20 bucks) and I have one ravioli stamp (8 bucks). I take one day and make pasta, about once a month. I make all different kinds, some infused with herbs, and freeze it in portions in both lunch and dinner sizes. I also make gravies that I put in the freezer. I’ve found that trying to make gravy last minute while putting dinner on the table is a tremendous pain in the rear when I can just grab a mason jar of it out of my freezer and heat it up while dinner is cooking. I’ll take the pan drippings from the current dinner, label it, and stick it in the freezer to make a big batch of gravy….later. 🙂 (can you tell I hate to throw anything away?) Make ahead, make ahead, make ahead. It’s really been my saviour.
I have finally found a use for my crockpot. I’m not a crockpot user, but I own a modest one. I have, my whole life, soaked dry beans overnight. However, I recently learned that one pound of dry beans will be perfectly cooked in 7 0r 8 cups of water on high for about 6 hours in this crockpot. So, on the weekends, I now cook beans. 🙂 I toss them together in the morning, and they are ready for me to use by the time I’m ready to make dinner. Because beans and I have not been friends in the past. I usually end up with mush. But this way, I don’t. I’m so excited I almost don’t know what to do with myself.
I hear a lot of people say things like…I don’t/can’t/won’t cook for just one or two. I agree….why would you? Cook for 4 or 8 and freeze the rest for later 🙂
EdT. says
While these may be a given to you, I can assure you that isn’t the case with many people (including my own family, and yes we are having to “train” our son, as well as re-train ourselves.) It is good to see how people are approaching this: when home-ec was one of the standard course offerings in high school, maybe students were learning this stuff – but now, I suspect that what food education there is, takes place at home (and not all of us were real diligent in that department as parents.)
~EdT.
mommm!!! says
I’m learning this Ed, I’m learning. I had always just assumed it was a preference. Like people prefer to not cook or prefer to not drag annoying kids to the store. (I was kicked out of home ec for burning my popovers and sewing my apron onto the pants of the girl next to me…I haven’t attempted popovers since and I still can’t sew)
Do you think it was really a lack of diligence or was it that you just simply trusted the food system at face value? I’ve had this discussion with friends who feel like they’ve been duped into buying into the whole processed foods scam, including my own mother. My mother and I have had knock down drag out fights over what she would feed my son to the point where I threatened to not let him go to her house anymore. She claimed I was batsh** crazy until she was diagnosed with type 2 over a year ago. It’s been amazing watching her wake up to the all the food issues I’ve been ranting about since my child was born and now she drives me batsh** crazy with her endless questions and discussions about food. (btw…she has cleared up her type 2 just by changing her diet and is completely off her meds for it….it’s so cool!)
EdT. says
“Do you think it was really a lack of diligence or was it that you just simply trusted the food system at face value?”
I’m sure the answers to that question are as varied as are the people involved. I suspect, however, that for many of us, it had something to do with how we were educated. My parents grew up during the Great Depression, and became parents during the 1950s. There was a whole campaign about “adding convenience to life” going on, in part to drive economic activity so that the world didn’t slip back into a global depression after the end of WWII. I remember eating food made both from scratch, as well as from boxes/cans. As time went on, we experienced the “wonder” of year-round produce: again, my mother remembered having to preserve fruits & veg as a girl, and appreciated not having to do this any longer. And I also remember all the food which was advertised as being “fortified” and “enriched”, and never asking (until I became an adult) just why this was – I always presumed it was a real increase in the level of nutrients, not a replacement for nutrients stripped from the food during processing.
Even after I was diagnosed w/Type II, I continued eating processed foods. The reason was simple: these were the foods where the nutritional information (calorie, carb, fat grams) was documented. Besides, by that time my palate had become accustomed to this type of food, and combining that with the general lack of any flavor in the “year-round produce” available in the stores, what’s the difference? Now, of course, I am learning different. I am also eating different (not entirely voluntary: a medical condition I was recently diagnosed with has changed both the type, and amount, of what I can consume rather radically.)
What is interesting is that, as I was growing up, we were thinking of the futuristic types of food we would have – from hydroponics, to freeze-dried, to “a meal in a pill”, to the replicators of Star Trek. The hope was for an end to hunger in the world: with abundant, secure food supplies, people would be liberated from the threat of hunger and starvation, and freed to pursue higher goals. A “final solution”, as it were, to the old hunter-gatherer society vs. agricultural society tension that has been our lot for our entire existence. Hubris? Maybe, but the intentions were good.
~EdT.
mommm!!! says
OMG….I remember when my gramma brought home a microwave. That thing was huge, but it made us feel very….fancy. lol! It was so large it needed it’s own cart, which she stole (borrowed) from the courthouse. I even remember astronaut food. In fact, it was astronaut food that convinced me that going into outer space might not be such a great idea after all because it was not like Star Trek AT ALL. I remember tv dinners that came on a metal tray covered in foil. My gramma would let us have one once in a while. She didn’t like the idea of it only being one meal when she could squeeze 4 fantastic dinners out of one chicken. I also don’t remember them being very tasty, I just liked to marvel at all the courses being on one tray.
Growing up, “dessert” was a slice of bread with butter. My mom didn’t cook vegetables that didn’t come out of a can. It was my grandmother that taught me how “to can” and she was very suspicious of already canned goods. My grandfather (the last cowboy in Vegas and my gramma’s 9th husband) was the gardener. My mother was born in the early 40s, so she grew up in dawn of the convenience food era. She was the first in my family tree to get a college education and her career as a school teacher was the priority above all else, including me. So my food experience was boxes, cans, and fast food until my gramma moved in with us when I was about 5.
About your diabetes…..have you read Dr.Grundy’s Diet Evolution? It changed my mother’s life and reversed her type 2. It has even reversed her high blood pressure. She’s now off a LOT of meds and she has/had quite a few health issues. Her doc is nothing short of amazed. Over the past year I’ve had to field questions from her on how to cook and basic knowledge of what foods are what….like “What the heck IS Quinoa?” “Where does it come from?” “Do you have a better recipe for blahblahblah?” “Did I use too much Stevia?” She keeps me really busy. But she’s also learning a lot about food ethics and politics. Being an old hippie she now has a new cause to rail against and we have endless emails back and forth signing various food petitions. Suddenly, she is just as concerned about what I feed my child as I have always been and gone are the fights to the death over whether or not she can give him lunchables and poptarts.
Bettina Elias Siegel says
Mommm!!! I think Ed’s right, that your household is not the norm. A lot of kids really have no idea how to shop and cook, in some cases because it’s not modelled at home at all, and in other cases because the parents(s) doing the shopping/cooking don’t think to transmit those skills. Even I, who cook dinner almost every night, could do a better job actively involving my kids on a regular basis. So good for you and your son – he’s clearly well prepared to care for himself when he’s on his own!
mommm!!! says
I have my gramma to thank, really. I can’t take any of that credit. She was the food guru in our house when I was growing up.
EdT. says
I’m just curious: which generation does your grandmother belong to? I am guessing she is pre-Boomer, from what you have said. But, either way, you (and your son) are very fortunately to have had her in your life.
~EdT.
mommm!!! says
She was a teen through the depression and was on her own at 16. Yes, I was very lucky and I miss her very much. She could cook like Julia on half the budget, chain smoked, dated gangsters, and cursed like a sailor. Best of all she drove my mother nuts, which was always entertaining. 🙂
Grace @eatdinner says
Great tips, Amy! I’m in the throes of guiding my older kids in these survival skills as well. I sometimes fear that I’ve raised a bit of a food snob in my 17 yr old. He appreciates good food, thankfully, but to the point that he is reluctant to take on the trial and error that comes with cooking on his own. So far, we’ve had the most success with him shadowing us (or vice versa) and going through the steps of his favorite meals.
Thinking back to my college days, I know having the basic skills was the most important thing to my cooking independently. Budgeting and planning definitely came later, and from necessity. I like the idea of shopping together, though. We often think of taking tots to the market, but it’s a whole different experience talking through food choices with teens and tweens!
Amy says
Grace,
I was shocked when my compliant elementary school kids morphed into adolescents who would sneak sodas, binge on chips, and overall seek out foods that we never had in the house. It was amazing how far the pendulum swung when they had a, er, taste of freedom (fortunately, it has swung back in the general direction of where we started, but not completely there yet).
Plus, with teens you have to deal with the “I don’t want to go food shopping with you” scenario. You can’t just pick them up and put them in the car anymore…
Thanks for your nice words,
Amy
mommm!!! says
I just tell my tween that if he wants to continue to eat ANY food in my house then he has to push the cart, unload the groceries, and put the food away. That shuts him right up. He likes eating too much! 🙂
Julieane Hernandez says
I totally agree with you! By teaching your kids about nutrition and food preparation, they’ll be able to make smarter food choices in the future. I’ll be following your tips as I teach my 13 year old nephew about food. 🙂