Something wonderful happened recently: My teenage son stole some of my food.

He is ravenous, but also considerate.

And thus he began to prep (some of) his own meals.

I usually make myself a bunch of lunches over the weekend to eat throughout the week.

So when he wanted a bowl of my chili and rice, I taught him to make his own.

Meal prepping is great for the hungry teen.

Instead of finding half-empty cereal bowls around the house, I started finding nearly-licked-clean containers of homemade chili.

(Cleaning up after himself is a skill were still working on.)

Pasta plus a jar of sauce is a whole meal, and the sauce is even made of vegetables.

Teach them how to reheat store-bought frozen meatballsor better yet, make a big batch of homemade ones together.

Teach them about chili from cans

This is where my sons first real meal prep began.

Its my laziest and simplest meal prep, and its shockingly nutritionally complete.

I pack aone-pint soup containerhalf full of rice and fill the rest with chili.

Its such a simple recipe, even a literal child can make it.

Start a batch of rice in the rice cooker, enough to make 4 cups cooked.

Brown a pound of ground beef or ground turkey in a skillet.

Add an appropriate amount of store-bought chili seasoning (or a homemade equivalent, if youre fancy).

Dump in a 14-ounce can of drained black beans.

Dump in a 14-ounce can of (not drained) diced tomatoes.

Divide the rice and then the chili into four containers.

So teach them the easiest, tastiest way to make vegetables:

Preheat the oven to 425 or so.

Pile them on a baking tray.

Douse them generously in oil, salt, and the seasonings of your choice, then toss to distribute.

These veggies can be combined with any of the meals above, or eaten on their own.

These pre-cooked birds are hot and tasty.

Give them awholerotisserie chicken.

Then help them package the leftoversassuming there are anyinto containers.

Chunks of chicken are great additions to a rice-and-veggie bowl or a pasta dish.

But why stop there?

Roasting a whole chickenisnt hard at all.

Bake a cake from a box

After all those savory, healthy meals, what about dessert?

Kids often learn to bake before they learn to properly cook, just because its more fun.

Teach your teen how to bake something if they dont already.

Where the mixer is stored, for example, or how to grease a pan.

And verify they share some with you.

You taught them, after all.