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In today's fast food society, encouraging teens to practice and develop their culinary skills can be a challenge. Convenience foods coupled with extremely busy schedules make it difficult for even many adults to spend time in the kitchen, much less teens. Cooking shows like Rachel Ray's "30 Minute Meals," however, demonstrate that enormous amount of time need not be spent in the kitchen in order to produce delicious, healthy, home-cooked meals. Likewise, encouraging teens to cook, although challenging, is not unreasonable, nor will it necessarily take a great deal of time. The following five suggestions could help with facing the challenge.

GIVE THEM A TASTE FOR HOME-COOKING
The first step in the encouragement process is to give them a taste for home-cooking. Put on your apron, pull out the old cookbook, and create some meals that your family will enjoy. You will not just be doing a service for your family, but you will also be laying the foundation for encouraging family members,including teens, to get into the kitchen as well.

MAKE IT A FAMILY ACTIVITY
Cooking is one of those activities that the entire family can participate in and enjoy. Get your teens involved by making it a family activity. This could be a way of fostering interest in the otherwise indifferent teenager. Special holidays are a great time to get the family involved, but it can be as often as everyday. In my household, almost every Friday when we are preparing for Shabbat, my thirteen year old son helps with the meal preparation by making the cake. It is a good idea to start them out young, so his seven year old brother helps out as well by setting the table.

ENCOURAGE HEALTH CONSCIOUSNESS
Teenagers are becoming more health conscious. Some of them are even becoming vegetarians. As a former vegan, I understand the challenges that vegetarians and people with special dietary needs face when they try to find foods that they can eat in restaurants. Health-conscious teens, facing the lack within the fast food industry, can benefit greatly by preparing meals of their own. By encouraging health consciousness and proper nutrition, we can also encourage teens to begin cooking.

GIVE YOUR TEEN A COOKBOOK
A cookbook could make an excellent gift for stirring up interest and getting teens started. I have actually met a person who started jogging because someone gave her a pair of running shoes for her birthday. It is therefore, far from impossible that your teen could develop an interest in cooking after receiving

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