Kids need lots of skills under their belts so they can launch into adulthood armed and ready to live independently. The ability to prepare healthy food is one of those essentials that tends to get overlooked.

It’s a mistake because being unable to cook can lead to an over-reliance on expensive packaged ready meals laden with fat and sugar. So what are the best recipes everyone should have up their sleeves? Read on for the lowdown.

Spaghetti Bolognese, Chilli Con Carne, Shepherd’s Pie and Tamale Pie

These are all simple dishes you can adjust to taste or make more complex. We’ve lumped them all together because they all start out in the same way.

Get the kids to finely chop an onion. Put a spoonful of oil in a large frying pan and sweat the onion for around 8 minutes under a low to medium heat. If you fancy adding a chopped clove of garlic or 2, throw that in a minute or so before you finish cooking the onion: garlic cooks more quickly and burns easily.

Next, add in your main ingredient. That’ll be a kilo of ground beef for a meat-based spag bol, chilli and tamale pie or 500g of minced lamb for the shepherd’s pie. If you’re cooking veggie, substitute the meat for lentils or a ground meat alternative.

Break up the meat or substitute and cook until browned through. That should take around 5 minutes.

Spag Bol

Now you have your onion/garlic/meat or alternative base, add a can of tomatoes. Go for whole tomatoes that you can mash down yourself in the pan rather than chopped. Some brands of chopped tomatoes don’t include the best parts of the fruit.

Add salt and pepper and cook gently for 10-15 minutes.

That’s spag bol in its simplest form but there are endless adaptations. Here are a few ingredients you could add when cooking the onion:

• A few rashers of chopped-up streaky bacon
• 2 sticks of chopped-up celery and a chopped carrot

You could also use a 50/50 mix of ground pork and beef. You could add a tablespoon of tomato purée, 125 ml of milk or red wine to the pan when you add the tomatoes. Other popular additions to the sauce are:

• A handful of chopped basil (just before serving)
• A tablespoon of dried oregano
• A beef stock cube
• A handful of fresh cherry tomatoes 

Use good quality dried spaghetti. Show the kids what a rough quantity per person is and add it to a simmering pan of boiling salted water as per the instructions. Wholewheat spaghetti is best as it contains more heart-healthy fibre.

• Although popular outside Italy, this dish is not part of traditional Bolognese or even Italian cuisine.

Chilli

Mix in 1 tsp of hot chilli powder, 1 tsp of paprika and 1 tsp of ground cumin with the onion and garlic. Add salt and pepper, a can of tomatoes and a can of red kidney beans to the onion and ground meat/meat alternative. Cook gently for 10 minutes.

Again, there are an infinite number of variations. You could add:

• A chopped red pepper to the onion mixture
• A piece of dark chocolate with the tomatoes
• Half a tsp of dried marjoram

Here’s a fail-safe way to cook long-grain rice:

• Put sufficient rice in a pan for the number of people eating
• Add salt and fill the pan with enough boiling water so that it just covers the rice
• Bring back to the boil and then gently simmer until all the water gets absorbed

At this point, you’ll see indentations like small craters begin to form on the surface. That’s your signal that the rice is ready. Do not stir the rice while cooking and do not cover the pan!

• Chilli often tastes better the next day once all the flavours have become infused

Shepherd’s Pie

Add in 2-3 chopped carrots with the onion. Add 500 ml of beef stock, 2 tbsps of tomato purée, a tbsp of Worcestershire sauce, salt and pepper once you’ve browned the ground lamb. Cook for 10 minutes and then put the mixture in a casserole dish. Cover with mashed potato and bake in the oven for 10-15 mins.

• The secret to great mashed potato is adding salt, 100g butter and 3-4 tbsps of full-cream milk (or non-dairy alternatives) per kg of potatoes

Tamale Pie

Follow the same recipe as chilli but add a can of sweetcorn instead of red kidney beans as well as a cupful of grated cheese. You could also add chopped green pepper, a handful of raisins and a handful of pitted olives.

Pour the mixture into a casserole dish. Traditionally, this recipe has a topping of cornbread batter.

For the batter, mix 280g fine semolina or polenta and 85g of flour and 2 tsp of bicarbonate of soda. In a jug, mix an egg, 150ml of milk, 425 ml plain yoghurt and 2 chopped-up chillies.

Pour the contents into the bowl of dried ingredients and stir very lightly until everything gets combined. Do not over-stir. Pour over the top of the casserole mixture and bake in a medium oven for 35-40 minutes until golden brown.

• You could substitute the cornbread with mashed potatoes

Quick and Easy Trifle

Despite its simplicity, this recipe is a firm favourite. Line a large bowl with sponge fingers. Mix a tbsp of sugar with 500g of defrosted frozen strawberries in a pan. Heat gently until the sugar dissolves and you end up with strawberries and syrup. Be careful not to cook the strawberries. They just need to begin to bleed into the sugar.

Pour over the sponges, then add further layers of the sponges followed by more of the strawberry mixture poured on top. Cover the mixture with ready-made custard and leave to cool in the fridge. After an hour, cover with whipped cream and some grated chocolate.

That’s Dinner Sorted!

Once the kids get the basics, they can adapt these recipes to suit their own tastes.

At Pay the Nanny, we’re always searching for ways to make life easier for busy parents. Getting the dinner made under the supervision of your nanny or au pair will help, but so will getting your nanny payroll sorted.

Get in touch today to find out how Pay the Nanny will ensure you’re always compliant and paying your nanny correctly.