Teenagers can have awful diets.  Even ones raised vegetarian and organic can succumb to candy, chocolate, and sodas (even meat), especially when out with friends.

The teen years are a time of of transition.  Teenagers are searching for their adult identity, gaining more independence from parents, and feeling the pressure of their peer group.  It is a critical time in human development, as patterns are developed that may last their whole adult life.  Patterns of exercise and eating are one such example.

How to teach Teens to cook green and eat healthy

Teens don’t like to be preached to. They want to learn from their own experiences.  We can take advantage of that experiential learning in the kitchen!

If you want your teen to eat healthy, encourage them to cook!

My daughter loves to find recipes on the internet. She loves to experiment. She loves to add healthier ingredients, such as different flours and grains to baked goods, and wow us with the results.  We have tried to implement a one dinner a week responsibility for her, but she tends to just want to cook when she feels inspired.  This happens often enough that we don’t feel the need to stick to a schedule.

Cookbooks can also inspire children.  When my daughter was little, we used Mollie Katzen’s [amazon_link id=”1582463050″ target=”_blank” ]Honest Pretzels[/amazon_link] to learn to cook. I do believe these early experiences and helping in the kitchen has led my daughter to feel confident to now cook on her own.

Although there are a lot of cookbooks written for children, the teen years are oft neglected.

We were sent and cookbook written by teens for teens!  [amazon_link id=”1936976587″ target=”_blank” ]The Green Teen Cookbook[/amazon_link]

Going green is hard to do—especially when it comes to food. There are acronyms to learn, labels to decipher, seasons to accommodate, and grocery stores to navigate—and that’s before you even turn on the stove! The Green Teen Cookbook cuts through the chaos and shows teens how to shop smarter, cook more consciously, and eat a healthier diet. And in addition to the 70+ incredible recipes (created by teens, for teens), the book also includes:

✳ Illuminating essays about freeganism, flexitarians, vegetarianism, and more
✳ Tips about how to shop on a budget and get the most out of what you already have in your pantry
✳ A seasonal key that ensures the freshness of the recipes (and a minimal carbon footprint)
✳ Photos for each of the 70+ recipes

Eating locally grown, organic, and cruelty-free food is a laudable goal, but it’s hard to achieve without some help. The Green Teen Cookbook provides that essential assistance. It’s more than just a cookbook: It’s an all-in-one guide for going green and eating well.

There is a lot of information in this cookbook I think teens will find interesting. I also love how there is a picture of each teenager that contributed the recipe.

This is not a vegetarian cookbook. Some of the ingredients are not green either.  For example, the Oreo cupcakes call for Oreo cookies.  These can easily be replaced with organic ones like those from [amazon_link id=”B0052BRXXO” target=”_blank” ]Newman’s[/amazon_link].  With all of the information about eating healthy and sustainably in the book, I am surprised to see Oreos as an ingredient.

I think my daughter should write a teen cookbook!  Maybe this cookbook will inspire her.

[amazon_enhanced asin=”1936976587″ /]