What seems obvious is mac and cheese from a box...but maybe they already know how to do that.
Can they do those eggs in the muffin cups?...butter the cup, place in it a crustless slice of white bread....beat up eggs with a bit of milk and perhaps something tasty like pizza seasonings.
Put the egg in the cup, topw ith a slice of cheese and bake 18 to 20 minutes at 350 untyil done?
Hot dogs with strips of refrigerated biscuitsw rapped around and baked....
Bananas spread with peanut butter and rolled in chopped nuts.
Banana candles...a half a banana standing up in a pineapple ringw ith a cherry "flame" on top?
Foil wrapped sandwiches...something like chicken salad, tuna salad, ham...in a but with cheese, wrapped in foil and baked...works in a toaster oven.
Just off the top of my head....
Linda C

What kind of equipment do you have? Do you have an oven (or two) available? Is there enough time to do bake things or do you need to have make and eat kind of dishes?

A few really easy things that come to mind:

Fruit Pizza
Gazpacho
Twice Baked potatoes
Oven Fries
Sharon's Peppermint Bark
Granita or Sorbet
Quesadillas
Chicken Nuggets
BLT's
Any kind of dip for veggies or crackers

I can post recipes for most if you need them...

Linda

A colleague has an autistic child who became quite engaged when making oreo truffles. I had brought them into work and she loved them, so she made them with her children. She was quite pleased to see him get into it.

They love rolling the mixture into balls and dipping them. Of course, the final product is quite tasty.

I used the chocolate they sell in Michaels and melt it in the microwave.
Sue

Oreo "Truffles"
8 oz. cream cheese
1 pound Oreos
1 pound milk or dark chocolate
1/2 pound white chocolate

Grind Oreos to find powder in food processor.
With a mixer, blend cookie powder and cream cheese until thoroughly mixed (there should be no white traces of cream cheese).
Roll into small or large balls and place on wax-lined cookie sheet. Chill 45 minutes.

Line two cookie sheets with wax paper.
In double-boiler, melt milk or dark chocolate.
Dip balls and coat thoroughly.
With slotted spoon or fork, lift balls out of chocolate and let excess chocolate drip off.
Place on wax-paper-lined cookie sheet.
In separate double boiler, melt white chocolate.
Using a fork, drizzle white chocolate over balls. Let cool.
Store in airtight container, in refrigerator.

I have 10 year old twins that love to cook and bake.

Easy dishes we have loved making together:

Spaghetti and meatballs

Bread rolls (I'll post a recipe at the end of the post for Uncle Stan's Golden Crescent Rolls. Uncle Stan is a BIL of a poster on another forum, is 65 but has mental disabilities, and his rolls are super easy and super delicious)

Fruit kebabs

Carmel corn

and these:

{{!gwi}}

Pretzels, rolos or hershey kisses, pecans or m&m's. UNWRAP the candy (yes I do have to say that LOL), place one candy on each pretzel on a cookie sheet, place in a 300 degree oven for 3 minutes. When they come out, place a nut or an M&M on the candy and press down.

Sushi - my kids LOVE making this and you can used smoked salmon or cooked crab meat if you don't want to worry about raw fish.

SUPERB GOLDEN CRESCENTS aka Uncle Stan's Rolls

Mix:
1/2 cup of warm water (closer to room temp) and 2 pkgs of dry yeast. Let it sit for about 10 minutes until it's bubbly on top.

Mix together:
1/2 cup of sugar
1/4 cup of milk
1ts. salt
2 eggs
1 stick of margarine (melted)

Add to the above mixture. Mix all together then add 3 1/2 - 4 cups of flour. When mixed, leave in mixing bowl and put a dampened dishtowel (CLEAN) over the bowl. Put it in a draft free and warm area and let the dough rise until double.

Turn dough out, cut in half. Roll/flatten out into 2 circles; cut into 8 triangle pieces. Roll up into a crescent and lay out on a cookie sheet covered with parchment paper. Cover with the dampened dish towel. Let rise until double. Bake at 375 degrees for 10-15 minutes.
Yield: approx 16 rolls

Oreo Truffles are a definite. My kids LOVE to make them too

My 7-year-old loves to cook. He's made things from grilled cheese sandwich to baked chicken fingers.

Little man makes breakfast for his dad using the baking mix I prepared ahead. He can make muffins, pancakes, scones, and biscuits (all under my supervision of course). Things like that are pretty simple to do. He also likes to shape bread dough (after final proof) for baking his version of bread, and he loves the GT Xpress.

Grainlady sent me a link to "Kids a Cooking" where you can find some pretty decent recipes to cook with kids, from the very young to teens. That's a pretty good site for resources.

Al

Here is a link that might be useful: Kids a Cooking

Thanks for all the great suggestions everyone. I'm looking for things that are more project-like, then meals. I have an oven and burners in the kitchen, but the kids can't use them. That's why we'll make things on tables in the social hall and then I'll cook them. Sometimes they watch me cook, sometimes they don't. They like to do things with their hands, but attention spans are short.

Linda, can you explain the fruit pizzas and how to make a granita or sorbet? I'm also thinking pizza pockets or pocket fruit pies might work since the kids really like to work with dough.

Those oreo truffles sound awesome and seem perfect. Maybe I'll try those on a day that we also do fruit kabobs to balance it out a little.

Thanks for the link, Al. I'll check it out for sure.

AM

What about foil packet cooking? Here is a portion of the Alton Brown show that I did with my sons Scout troop. You do the cooking, but they do the assembly! It is about 3/4 way down the page.
*********************************************************

Here is a link that might be useful: Alton Brown foil pack cooking

AM, fruit pizza is really easy, granita and sorbet are as well, but you need to allow time for freezing.

{{gwi:1492248}}

Fruit Pizza

Crust:
1-1/2c flour
1/4c sugar
1/4c butter
1/4c cooking oil
3T cold water

Mix and press into 11 inch circle on pizza pan. Bake 12-14 minutes at 375F

Sauce:
6oz cream cheese
1/4c sugar
1/2tsp vanilla

Beat until smooth and spread on crust

Strawberries, Kiwi, Grapes, Peaches, Pineapple, Blueberries, Raspberries, etc.
Arrange your choice of fruits on top of sauce.

Glaze:
1T cornstarch
1T water
1/4c fruit juice (any)
3T powdered sugar

Whisk all ingredients together in small saucepan, bring to boil stirring constantly. Spread over fruit, chill well. Cut in wedges or squares to serve.

{{!gwi}} Honey Grapefruit Granita Source Cooking Light June 1994 4 c fresh pink grapefruit juice (about 10 large fruits) 1\-1/3 c basic sugar syrup (recipe follows) 1/3 c honey ( I like a little less) Combine juice and basic sugar syrup in a lrge bowl, stir well and set aside. Place honey in small bowl, microwave on high 30 seconds or until warm. Add to juice mixture and stir well. Pour mixture into 9 x 13 baking dish, cover and freeze 8 hours or until firm. Remove mixture from freezer and scrape with tines of a fork until fluffy. Spoon into container, cover and freeze for up to one month. Yield: 6 one\-cup servings Basic Sugar Syrup 4\-1/2 c sugar 4 c water Combine sugar and water in large saucepan, stir well. Bring to boil and cook 1 minute or until sugar dissolves, stirring constantly. Cool before using. ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Mango Sorbet posted by Sol 2 mangos, peeled and roughly cut into chunks ½ cup granulated sugar 1 cup water 2 tablespoons honey 1 tablespoon fresh lemon juice pinch of salt Make a simple syrup by combining 1 cup water with the ½ cup of sugar in a pan. Bring to a boil, and cook until sugar completely dissolves. Cool slightly. Place all ingredients in a food processor and process until smooth. Chill mixture thoroughly. Then, freeze in ice cream maker, according to manufacturer's instructions. My note: I don't have an ice cream maker, so I used the same method of freezing as in the above recipe. You could also freeze, break into chunks and run through the food processor, and then re\-freeze. Linda

Bless your heart, AM. My son works with special needs kids through a program at school and finds it tremendously rewarding. I'm sure it gives you great joy.

You've gotten some great ideas. Some other ideas are using cookies cutters with bread and cheese to make mini-appetizers or using tortillas to layer fillings, roll and slice. I'm not sure how a fondue would work, but I made a cheese fondue with various dippers with my Brownie group that worked well. We also pulled taffy that was messy but fun.

Good luck and keep up great work.

Cathy in SWPA

Am,
We used to make these all the time when I was a kid. Somethings never get old.
Jo

Here is a link that might be useful: pear bunnies

How about making a tossed salad using a variety of vegetables and a basic salad dressing, egg or tuna salad sandwiches Biscuits would be easy, too.

Bless you!

Hershey Kisses mice are so cute but I don't know if they would be too small detail oriented.

Loves2cook4six, I love that pretzel caramel project for it's simplicity and will try it.

Here is a link that might be useful: Chocolate Christmas Mice

You all have given me so many great ideas - Thank you!!

The ones I don't use with the cooking class I'm going to use with my own kids. This thread is a keeper for sure.

AM