This summer, both of my teenagers are home most of the day (T — 16 years old and Q — 14 years old).

School ended a few days ago, and I informed both of them that they would be a) making their own summer lunches and b) summer lunches could not be things like “make chicken nuggets in the oven every day.” They’d actually need to plan and cook.

T will be a junior in high school in the fall and realizes that college/being on their own is right around the corner. I left for college barely knowing how to boil water. Cooking was hard for me for years. I want a different experience for my kids.

Both took Family and Consumer Science (FACS), which is similar to home ec, in middle school. So they have some very basic cooking skills. But at home, to date, Dad and I do most of the cooking. They know how to do things like “make pasta” and “put frozen Trader Joe’s food in the oven” but haven’t done much beyond that. Time to learn!

I made a deal with them: I’d give them a budget of $40 per week, which is roughly the equivalent of what I spend on school lunches (rounded up, to make it easy). They needed to work together to plan meals, shop, and prepare food.

Getting started

Yesterday, I made a pile of cookbooks that I thought would have easy(ish) recipes and told them to do some research. I also bought a college cookbook that includes a QR code to video demonstrations.

About an hour later, they’d come up with a plan for the first two weeks of cooking!

I told them that they’d need to compare the recipes to the staples we always have in our fridge/pantry and come up with a list of food they’d need to buy.

I grocery shop every week, so I told them that one of them can come with me with their list. Most of our food comes from Trader Joe’s.

Documenting the process

I happen to be a writer, so as this project began to take shape, my mind started swimming with possibilities.

My kids don’t seem all that interested in documenting their process, but I am. It’s partly my nature as a writer, and partly because I think it would be fun someday to look back at their efforts this summer. I wrote a post on Threads, and it blew up with reactions and comments from people who want me to share updates. So I guess this is now my summer project!

I’ll post updates on Threads, but if you’d like more detailed (and, dare I say, humorous) versions, you can subscribe here to get updates in your inbox.

Thanks for reading!

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