We will have three high schoolers next year. Along with the elation that there is a light at the end of the child-rearing tunnel (and a bit of sadness that we soon will have a weirdly quiet house), I have set the challenge to teach my boys how to cook more than ramen noodles, toast, and eggs before they leave for college. (I am however, fully aware that they will probably subsist on ramen for most of college – cheap and easy when you have no money and need to party….. I mean study.
So we set out on an exciting journey… planning, shopping, cooking, and eating. All on a budget and within some Mom-imposed food selection guidelines.
The “Rules:”
-$40/week (coupon/sales, encouraged- we let them use our shopping card)
-2 pieces of fruit/day (and “a” grape does not count as a piece of fruit)
-2 vegetables/day (salad counts)
-=< 1 sweet treat /day
-no boxed cereal
-no sugary drinks
-no candy
-cannot buy a “huge steak” or sushi and then eat ramen the rest of the week.. (this was brought up several times by them)
-condiments and spices are provided by mom/dad (this includes cooking oil, butter, etc.)
-They cook/prepare their meals
Interesting to note, both bought items to make basic spaghetti, and one bought additional items for (turkey) tacos.
The shopping trip was itself a learning experience. My husband, who *hates* shopping was stuck in the grocery store for almost 2 hours while the kids went up and down the aisles and then back again. How many games of Clash of Clans did he get in hunched over our grocery cart waiting?
Both kids had to put items back (bag of dumplings for one, two doughnuts for the other), but overall stayed within budget pretty easily. I was able to help them out by showing them some discounted items ($1 bag of apples, Italian sausage for 1/2 off). But all in all they did a great job shopping on their own. Here a look at one haul:
Food for a week for a teenage boy…
Day 1: Making taco meat (kid 2)
Day 2: Making brownies (kid2…kid1 has yet to cook anything…)
Day 3: Brownies (kid2) are gone, cake (kid 1) is 3/4 gone…fruit and veggies is still mostly there ..they are going to have a lot of fruit to eat at the end of the week. This is, of course, not a surprise.
Day 4: Popcorn is gone… kid2 made spaghetti for both himself and his brother. So it was spaghetti and salad for dinner.
Day 5: Bread and sandwich stuff are gone. Leftover spaghetti and salad for dinner.
Day 6: Finished off the tacos and oatmeal.
Day 7: Mom stepped in and fruit and veggies were on the menu today…
End result? Still the makings for another pot of spaghetti, but other than that, they finished everything off “on time.” Being kids, the “fun food” was gone first, and if mom hadn’t stepped it, the fruit and veggies may have still been sitting in the fridge. But overall, they did great 🙂
Kid 1 didn’t cook during the Summer Challenge week, but he did make the other spaghetti dinner on “Day 8.” We’ll have to see how he does on the next summer challenge…and we’ll have to change the rules a bit. Each person must cook at least one dinner for them both during the week.
At least I know they won’t starve…or have to eat ramen noodles every meal.
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