Check out the Kids a Cookin' web site linked below, which is a Kansas State University Research and Extension Family Nutrition Program. They have recipes designed for kids at 2 levels - Easy (Fun and Simple) and Medium (Skill Builders) in all the normal categories for food preparation - Breads, Desserts, Drinks, Main Dishes, Rice/Pasta, Salads, Snacks, Veggies & Potatoes.

I work with our local Food Bank and we are finding more and more young children are doing the food preparation in homes these days. We offer cooking classes at the Food Bank and the Public Library and I use a lot of the recipes from this web site. Be sure to check out the Tips and Techniques. The nutritional skills we teach children, as well as simple things like how to use a cutting board, may be some of the only cooking and nutrition education these children ever get. Teach them early - teach them well.

-Grainlady

Here is a link that might be useful: Kids a Cookin'

Both of our daughters used to make this when they had friends coming to the house. They'd chop the onions in one of those mini-choppers.

SLOPPY JOES

1 lb. lean ground beef
2 medium or 1 large onion, finely minced
1/2 cup ketchup
1/2 cup water
1 Tbs. sugar
1 Tbs. cider vinegar
1 Tbs. prepared mustard
1 Tbs. Worcestershire sauce

Brown ground beef and onion together, breaking up beef into smaller pieces. Meanwhile, mix remaining ingredients together. When beef is no longer pink, drain off any excess fat. Add ketchup mixture and stir. Cook, uncovered, over low heat until sauce is reduced and onion is soft.

Notes: 1 Tbs. sweet pickle relish can be added at the end or some finely minced red or green pepper added along with the onion. Salt & pepper is really not needed.

I also love that site from KSU. The Registered Dietitian that runs that program is a very talented woman. They have a great summer camp program for kids that I'm trying to get my school to emulate.

Here's my list of what my (not so mature) 12 year old is able to cook, well and safely:

roast chicken (thanks to the kind forum members)
MYO tacos
quesadillas
any kind of coffee cake, muffin, quick bread
baked chicken nuggets (dipped in corn flake crumbs)
turkey breast
baked salmon
marinara sauce for pasta
baked ziti/lasagne
basic soups (adding ingredients to premade stocks)
steamed or roasted vegetables
rice, quinoa, couscous

One thing I found really useful for him was a quick herb and spice tutorial. We went to Penzey's and walked around smelling, talking about what might be good on what kids of foods, and what went well together. Now that he knows what he likes, he can make his own decisions on how to season.

Good luck, this sounds like a great idea.

AM

How about oven fries and panko-crusted baked chicken legs, chili, soup, fried rice, or pizza? (You could teach them the artisan bread in 5 dough technique! They could go far with that.)

AM pretty well has it....
I would gives erious thought to things like "ways to cook potatoes"...and go through baked, peeled and browned in the oven, boiled or leftovers, cut up and fried in a pan.
then walk her through the basics on what to do with veggies she may like (!!!!) and how to peel and cut up and cook a carrot and broccoli and green beans....and teacher the magic about bags of frozen veggies.
Then we have the meats...chicken pieces rolled in milk and then cornflake crumbs, hot dogs and canned beans, porkchops in a pan with onions....and dare I say....a can of cream of celery soup.
Show her how easy it is to put a chuck roast,s ome peeled potatoes, carrots and dry onions with a cuop of water and cook it in the oven for 1 1/2 hours.
Make sure she knows what chicken looks like when it's NOT done and needs more cooking. How to tell when pasta is done...etc.
for "recipes" she can rely on Paul newman and a few other friends.
I'm sorry she has to grow up so quickly....but if she makes this one....she'll be a very strong and self reliant little gal.
Linda C

Crock pot cook books abound. And cooking in a crock pot is great for a family where everybody is going either to work or to school. Most of the recipes tend to be quite simple, and crock pots are fairly safe for a young, inexperienced person to deal with.

A few pointers about turning leftovers into soups might come in handy too. Soups are easy, and if hearty enough, can be another dinner with some bread and a salad. Leftover meat, stock, some frozen veggies and even whatever leftover sauce from the meat added in is easy and fast. Add a can of beans or some pasta (or both) and a hearty meal is the result. Easy, fast, one pot.

The ''Kids Cooking'' site is great, thanks! I think I can just cut-paste stuff from there.

Arabella's kid cooks more than SWMBO or I did when we were married! Impressive.

We have a crock pot, which I've hardly ever used, so I guess it is time to break it out.

Thanks, everyone, for these ideas.

I just want to say that at 12 I was cooking all our family meals - for a hefty allowance, my motivation- including frying chicken in an electric skillet. I did have my mother near by if I wanted help but I don't recall involving her much. This was my time to cook and I made the same things we had eaten for years so nothing was unfamiliar.
I was also baking all kinds of dessert too.

At 14 when I got my drivers license, I took over all the grocery shopping. All this stopped at 16 when I got a real after school job.

But over the years, the housekeeping education has stood me well and I think it will her too even in the midst of a terrible tragedy.

Posted by bumblebeez "---I just want to say that at 12 I was cooking all our family meals ------"

I agree. Don't under estimate what A 12 year old can cook.

dcarch

Like bumblebeez, I was doing a lot of cooking for the family by the time I was 12, but I'd spent my whole life cooking with Grandma, so I was familiar with foods, preparation and techniques. If this 12 year old has spent no time in the kitchen, she'll be starting from scratch, but is plenty old enough to be very competent in the kitchen. Poor kid, I do hope she likes to cook, or learns to like it and feels that it's a help.

OK, so meals. I agree with the meatloaf, that's a good start and the same mixture can be used for meatballs, which can be baked in the oven.

A crockpot is a really good idea too, so things can be prepared ahead and can cook all day while the kids are at school and Dad is at work. Pulled pork in the crockpot is easy, and I've used that recipe that calls for root beer, a kid might like to try that. Add BBQ sauce or not, depending on the family's tastes. Other good crockpot recipes are Ginger's french dip sandwiches and Amanda uses hers for pork roast and makes an enchilada type casserole with layers of beans and tortillas with cheese and sauce.

I also use those ziplock microwave bags for vegetables sometimes, they are good for asparagus with a little sesame oil and Mother always uses them for broccoli, fast and simple.

A roast chicken is pretty basic and there's a "no peek stew" recipe hanging around here somewhere. My girls liked to make "coke chicken", a recipe from the Girl Scouts. Scrub and quarter red potatoes, add some baby carrots and layer chicken pieces on top. Mix half and half cola and catsup, pour over top, cover and bake for an hour and a half at 350. The coke and catsup makes a sweet BBQ type sauce that the kids just loved and they'd fight over the last potatoes in that sauce.

There are some very simple macaroni and cheese recipes available and most kids like that, or spaghetti with a canned sauce and some of those meatballs. The dreaded tuna noodle casserole is another thing that many kids like and it's relatively simple.

Teaching her to make soup from leftovers is a good idea, or any kind of leftover usage. She could bake a ham, then make scalloped potatoes with ham or a ham loaf, then use the bone in a pot of beans. The roast chicken could later become chicken pot pie or chicken noodle soup.

Pizza goes without saying, and even Makayla makes "pizza" from English muffins, pizza sauce, pepperoni and cheese.

Poor baby, I feel so badly for her. You're a good uncle to take this on and she'll appreciate the help. You'll be creating a good memory for this child and she'll love you for it.

Annie

What a sad situation! I agree with Annie, you are a good uncle and she is a lucky little girl to have an uncle like you.

What comes to my mind is chili, hamburgers, taco soup,simple meatloaf, nothing easier than that. There is always spaghetti with canned sauce that she has added browned ground beef to, with salad and bread it's a meal and filling.

Wishing you all a good week!

You and SWMBO are indeed good for taking such care of this family. There are a lot of good ideas here. I grew up cooking and could definitely prepare full meals by the time I was 11, Do you know what experience she, and her siblings, have so far in the kitchen? Annie's grandkids have grown up in the kitchen with her, as have many others. Are the younger ones old enough to help? Kids like to choose; I think you should ask what she would like to cook and eat, and if her choices are reasonable, go for it.

But I really think, in this time of great loss, the time spent together will be more important than the food that is prepared.

I hope you'll have some fun times in the kitchen to share with us.

Lee, adding more good wishes for all of you.

I ran a wilderness outpost for kids 11-12. They can cook LOTS of things and a lot of them do like to cook. My kids actually taught me how to make french salad dressing by mixing ketchup and mayo. Add pickle relish and you've got thousand island! They cooked all the meals, no problems. Also made lots of baked goods like coffee cake. Granola bars are fun too, or something called "magic bar cookies" or something like that, with condensed milk.
I would ask your neice what she likes and go from there. Really the sky's the limit with a kid that age if they have the interest. I found that kids that age have a lot of interest in EATING, so they don't mind cooking.
I started learning to make homeade noodles at that age, and chicken soup from scratch. Also real maccaroni and cheese and scalloped potatoes. I had already learned how to make peanut butter cookies and chocolate chip ones by the time I was 9 or 10. Priorities you know!

Tasty options to real home made stuff. Just call it semi-home-made.

1. Scrambled drained ground meat with Manwich on buns. Drain meat on newspaper stacks which then go into plastic trash bags. Keep drains unclogged. Easy Sloppy Joes

2. Scrambled drained ground meat with jarred spaghetti sauce with pasta or with elbow pasta baked with cheese on top. If baked, spray baker for easy release and cleanup.

3. Scrambled drained ground meat, taco seasoning packet, simmered and added to taco shells, with shredded lettuce, shredded cheese.

4. Annie's chicken with coke sounds great. Also make ahead?

5. Beef stew meat, onion in eighths, can tomatoes of any kind, prepared carrots, eighth-ed potatoes, covered and cooked. s+p Will they eat this?

Popcorn and hot dogs can be dangerous for very young kids. Unofficially banned in our schools, actually officially banned by the principal.

7. Pasta Salad. Boiled pasta, Steamers brand veggies(frozen and micro cook in bag) and cheese crumbles or cheese cubes and bottled salad dressing. DD and pals loved this with broccoli and mozz cheese crumbles and Italian or whatever dressing the kids like. Add chicken, tuna if liked, or hard boiled eggs for add'l complete proteins.

Toasted cheese sands, melted in nuker.

Personally, I find nothing unhealthy about sandwiches with decent ingreds(nitrate watching). Cereal and fruit, too. Apple +peanut butter.

So much depends on what they are used to eating, but they can learn new stuff from Uncle John and Aunt Swmbo.

I think that teaching them HOW to do the basics is the first step, this child likely doesn't even know how to boil water...Ya know?!

I can always remember a TRUE story of a friend's teenaged daughter, probably 14 years old, went to cook a frozen pizza and did NOT even know to take it out of the box, almost burned the house down! REALLY!

I just happened to run across this thread.

How did it go?

It went pretty well. SWMBO showed her how to make meatloaf, spaghetti bolognaise, and a couple other dinners that I don't recall. The kids had a good time here - went ice skating, roller skating, to OMSI (our hands-on science museum), to the art museum, Powells, explored the neighborhood, played Wii, had a cookout, hung out in the treehouse, etc. Their father is trying to revamp his schedule to take only local routes. For the first couple months the church will provide meals. The kids have lunch at school. They are doing well, as much as I can tell.

I'm sorry I forgot to come back and update. We'll been dealing with another troubled friend/kid. It is a tricky situation. Tomorrow I have to contact Child Welfare.

Oh dear, John, you do have your hands full, don't you?

I wish you, and the kids involved in both situations, nothing but the best.

Annie