Hello fellow foodlovers. It has been awhile since I've been on here - was back in the land of the working mother and chaos reigned supreme! Having finished work again I can finally get back to being more creative in the kitchen as I have time to do so (I have so missed spare time to cook)!

Looking for some new and interesting things to feed my ever-hungry teenager. Every time I turn around she is scrummaging through the pantry or the fridge looking for something to eat. I have started making several new things for lunches and snacking but need some more ideas please.

Latest favourites are marmite and cheese scrolls, bliss balls (made with weetbix of all things), muffins. Fruit muffin splits and bagels seems to hit the spot as well. She will also eat plenty of fresh fruit, yoghurt etc. Savoury scones were not a big hit. Cheese rolls were also not met with great enthusiasm.

No issues with weight as she seems to have an amazing metabolism, plus she is quite active with sports. So pretty much anything goes, but I prefer to keep the sugar content down.

So if have any great recipes which your teenagers always come back for, please share.

I think leftovers of good combo meat/veg meals are really good as snacks, so when preparing dinner, try to have plenty left over for heat&eat the next day. They don't affect the blood sugar as much as carbs do and thereby help prevent the vicious cycle of eat-starving-eat-starving... Tasty salads regularly kept in the fridge can also be go-to-grabs, and you can eat huge platefuls of them if you wish, such as this one which is delicious hot or cold:

Pumpkin, Broccoli, Capsicum stir-fry/warm salad
Serves 2

2 tbspns sesame oil
Buttercup, about ¼ of a good-sized one, cut into small cubes (about sugar cube size)
Carrot, cut small (optional)
Capsicum, preferably multi-coloured, equal to 1½-2 capsicums
Broccoli, approx. half a head
1 clove garlic, crushed
2 tbspns soy sauce
1 tbspn (or one “gloop”) of sweet chilli sauce
1 tspn freshly grated root ginger
1 tspn sesame seeds

In ½ cup of water in a non-stick pan (lid on probably- don't want to completely run out of water), cook cubed buttercup and carrot for approx. 15 minutes. Add sesame oil, capsicum and broccoli and stir fry 5 minutes. Add remaining ingredients and stir fry a couple of minutes.

Things like meatloaf can even be made specifically for use as snacks (we're brainwashed into thinking baking muffins is a good snack, but why not bake a meatloaf in that time instead?).

Some of the Asian curries can be super delicious snacks eaten cold or reheated, e.g.

Chicken Pad Thai (serves 3)
500g chicken thigh meat, cubed
1 onion, chopped
1 tbspn oil
3 tbspns Thai green curry paste
400g stir-fry vegetables, e.g. any or all of carrot, broccoli, cauliflower, mushrooms, capsicums, green beans, zucchini, corn kernelsm etc
200g pkt of wide rice noodles (not the thin vermicelli)
2 tbspns fish sauce
1 cup coconut cream plus up to 1 cup of water as needed

In a large pot, heat water for cooking the noodles. In frypan, stirfry chicken and onion for 2-3 minutes in oil. Add vegs and curry paste and stirfy until vegs are almost cooked and simultaneously cook the noodles for 6 minutes (in the pot of water). Then add the cooked noodles, fish sauce and coconut cream to the frypan and heat through (about 2 minutes).

Teenagers seem to like to graze on food that is easily portable. Quiche, wraps, large savouries...... Not all that original I know but could include plenty of vegetables.

Does she do any cooking herself? She could whip herself up an omelette with fillings and it might lead to more cooking and food adventures if she's taken a back seat so far....

Thanks J1 and JJ. I'm going to try the vege stirfry for lunch myself one day this week. We don't usually have a lot of leftovers and I usually have those for lunch the next day (its harder for her to heat things at school).

Frittata/quiche is something else I had not thought of and we have our own chooks so that could be a good option.

Just made a big batch of vege soup and she has said she would love to take that for school lunch. We can heat that in the morning and put it in a thermos for her.

High school subjects this year do include cooking so she is showing slightly more enthusiasm (but nothing beats being able to just grab and go in the teenage world).

Bake and freeze savoury muffins, defrost in microwave as required.

My daughter always has boiled eggs in fridge for boys to snack on.

A wide necked thermos is great for Meatballs in sauce, roast vege salad ( add cheese just before eating ) vegetable stews.

When I had three teenagers at home not so long ago my weekly shop would always include a hot chicken, when I got home I would take all the meat off the bones and store in a plastic container ready to eat, shaved ham, beer sticks and a large block of edam cheese, Signature R Garlic crackers, Sour Cream & Chives Rice Crackers, chutney (for the cheese), garlic filled pita breads (I would freeze) to toast and fill with chicken and salad, naughty but those chocolate and caramel Yoplait yogurt pots, banana's, frozen raspberries, (frozen bananas, plenty of milk, they loved homemade smoothies), and of course vegemite and peanut butter to go with anything you like. On the weekend hummus and sometimes other dips (my son loves green onion sour cream dip) and soda water in the fridge to make homemade sparkling iced tea with the supermarket teabags which work in cold water. When they're gone it's a shock, we can't get through a whole cold chicken so I don't buy them anymore and I don't come into the kitchen in the morning to find the termites have come through and eaten all the leftovers! I do miss them........annoying as it was

For the cooler months a pot of soup ready to reheat. Cooked drumsticks, eggs are always a good stand by, salmon (small packets avail) and cream cheese on rice cakes. Grilled cheese on toast, add tomatoes. Hummus and carrot sticks.yogurt topped with museli, you can always add chopped fruit too.

It's a struggle when you know the good and nutritious things they should be eating, but it is prohibitively expensive to provide them with enough of these items to be filling. I have 14.5 and 12yo boys, and they eat like no tomorrow.

Crackers, cheese, pickles, yoghurt, as much in season fruit as can fit in the fridge, weetbix, cream cheese and ham rolled up, quesadillas with cheese and sour cream (and chicken if there is any left over), scrambled egg wraps, a firm fav is quick nachos - plain corn chips with grated cheese over, melt cheese, heat and add half a can of chilli beans, borlotti bean dip, cottage cheese on vogels, tortilla chips and salsa, cucumbers from the garden (3 plants produced about 100 cucumbers this summer, and still going), toasted sandwiches, omelets, boiled eggs.

We have a bunch of chickens and from August - March they lay about 14 eggs a day, so eggs are a big part of our diet in those months. The rest of the year when the girls are moulting and we have to buy eggs, it dials right back.. and everyone wants a break from them too ;-)

My boys make their own breakfast, lunch and morning/afternoon tea on the weekends and have got quite good at making decent, quick things. Sure, it's not the diet high in nuts, meat, high fibre breads etc that I'd ideally like, but I've had to get a grip on myself and believe that they'll still be ok ;-) We don't have much in the way of chips, biscuits, no soft drink, juice rarely, no packet meals etc, so on balance, I think a bit too much of white flour based carbs isn't going to do too much harm.

I was lucky when my "hollow legged" son was a teenager, he craved for carbs so would eat bowls and bowls of white rice or pasta with nothing else. I felt like the most horrible mother but it was obviously what his body needed. It"s not what I would have chosen to eat but it didn't take much time to prepare.
Nothing wrong with big hearty sandwiches but frittata is a good idea as anything can be added.