Jacket potatoes.... cheap and warming and goes with lots of things... ideal student food. Roast chicken dinner.... done well it impresses and the leftovers can keep you going for a few meals. Fry up possibly too .... all from scratch and all fresh .. no tins (except tinned tomatoes). How to lay a table as well and how to use a knife and fork properly.
MallyJ one would hope that buy the time they are teenagers they should know how to use a fork and knife properly - isn't that what parents teach them as children?
a roast chicken, which also takes you on to learn decent stock, soup and sauces
a lasagna, so you do your own pasta, meat and bechamel sauces - see above
either an omelette or a stir fry, can't decide
Going on my own experience I could cook most things by the time I was 18 this was taught through Brownies, Guides and my mother and grandmother, the one thing I was not taught and to this day cannot do a decent is a curry! I don't think I have the patience to balance the flavours etc!
I am so sorry eccles, my comments were not aimed at you personally or at your family life. Although you are asking total strangers how to educate your own children!!
Eve
I had a friend who asked me to teach them to make an omelette. Turns out they were using milk in them like making scrambled eggs and it was all going wrong!
Milk in scrambled eggs?
I would teach them how to cook veg, it still amazes me how many people boil them to death.
Islay ... no they don't all teach children how to eat properly... many children never eat at the table and often only use fingers and/or a fork. It was a shock to me to realise that at least half the children in the school I taught in did not have the simplest of table manners and these were secondary school children. It may be up to parents but if they don't know how themselves how will they pass on those basic social skills?
I am intrigued that so many of you are playing down the dishes.
A roast has lots of elements and skills involved, as does a from scratch lasagne or curry.
I accept that teenagers maybe be on a cash and time budget but some of these suggestions do seem to assume an extraordinarily low level of cooking skills.
Eccles, besides mine, you have had some great responses. What exactly are you asking for? It souns to me like you already have something in mind and are just seeing if someone comes up with it so you feel self gratified. I never got taught how to cook, I can cook (rather well I might add) so just let your teenager be a teenager